Writing Romance - Five Tips

Many people think Romance writing is a bit like knitting.

There’s a pattern to follow and, even if you’re a bit clumsy at first, you can knock off a finished product in a few afternoons while the kids are out playing.

If you have approached Romance writing with a swagger and a shrug, with the idea that “everyone knows” it’s easy as pie, you’ll have discovered the error of your ways.

And if so, you may have been left with the dejected feeling of having failed at something you thought would be a cinch. Being published seems the most remote dream.

Neither attitude is realistic.

Writing Romance is hard work. Genre fiction isn’t easier than other forms of story-telling. But it’s not a mysterious process.

Here are my five most important tips to make you a successful Romance writer. If you can make each of these work for you, you’ll have a humdinger of a Romance. 

Tip One: Believe in love - If you write romance, you need to believe in your story – and that true love is possible.

You can’t write romance with your tongue in your cheek. It’s too obvious that you don’t mean it. Lovers of romance read with their hearts. They become emotionally involved, immersed in the story you’re telling them. If you don’t believe it yourself, neither will they.

Tip Two: Believe in your readers. They’re not stupid. Most romance readers have some college education and many are educated professionals. Most work outside the home part or full-time.

They read for escapism – and for the emotional intensity. Don’t talk down to them.

Tip Three: Create strong characters. Romantic stories are character-based. We need to identify with them if we are to care what happens to them.

Let them have depth, and some quirks and contradictions. People aren’t one-dimensional, nor are they stereotypes. Neither should your characters be.

Tip Four: Create conflict. Something must keep your characters apart, while they are irresistably drawn to each other. You can’t just throw in a few arguments and misunderstandings. We must wonder how they’ll ever be together.

Conflict can’t be intractible. They can’t be so unpleasant that we worry about them being together in the end.

But neither can you construct a Romance based on two people meeting, having a few happy times together – walking on the beach, going out with his friends (who all like her), meeting his mother (who approves) and finally tying the knot. What’s there to keep us reading?

Tip Five: Write in strong scenes. We want the story told in a series of tangible scenes that show us what’s happening to them. Each should have a dramatic proposition that carries the story forward and develops your characters.

Don’t tell us what happened between them. Place us right inside the scene, so that we can see and hear it for ourselves.

Jo-Anne Richards is an internationally published writer, who has just brought out her fourth novel, My Brother’s Book. She teaches writing skills at post-graduate level and supervises Masters students in Creative Writing. She also runs online romance writing courses and face to face writers’ circle courses.

To find out more about writing romance, see our online writing courses.