So You Want to Write a Romance

You have an idea floating around in your head. Scenes that you think would make for a good story. Voices have started talking to you or maybe they’ve been talking for some time, but now they’re becoming more insistent. You don’t know where they came from, but they want their story told, and not just any story…They want you to write their ROMANCE.

You want to comply, but you’re wondering if you can write a romance. It seems easy enough, but can YOU do it? Well, I can assure you that, yes, you can write a romance if you have passion and perseverance. The real question is can you write a romance that agents will want to represent, that publishers will want to print and that readers will want to read. That’s a little more difficult to answer, but with a lot of hard work and dedication to the craft, there’s no reason why the answer that question can’t be a yes also.

I think just about every writer will tell you that one of the most important things to do is READ. I bet you thought I was going to say write, didn’t you? Well, sorry, in order to write a good romance you have to be familiar with romance novels and the various genres, and the only way to do that is to read them. It is imperative that you know what kind of romance is your favorite. Why? Because if you hate reading contemporaries but decide to write one, chances are you’ll be setting yourself up to fail and the same is true for every other genre. You can’t write what you don’t like.

So you’ve been reading lots of books, you’ve figured out what kind you like, and you know what you want to write. You’re ready to start. Hold the phone! Do you know who your characters are, where they live, and what they do for a living? Do you know why they’re going to fall in love, what’s going to keep them apart and how they’ll get back together for their happily ever after? To some extent, you should figure out all these things first whether you write by the seat of your pants or plot everything out in detail, because they’re an intricate part of getting to the part where you type THE END.

Now you are ready to start writing. And here is my piece of advice. Write from the heart. Until you feel comfortable expressing your ideas on paper or up on the screen, don’t worry about all the rules and guidelines. We’ll be getting to those soon enough.

Just take peace in knowing you aren’t alone and have FUN writing.