Top 7 Writing Tips for Newbie Romance Novel Authors
What are the top ingredients inside every best-selling romance novel? As an aspiring novelist, you might have sat down and thought about this question many times, and lucky for you – we have all the answers you need.
This writing advice is specifically for newbie novelists who have it all inside of them but don’t know how to bring it to their screens. Here are the steps that will help you write a romance novel that your readers will love to read.
1. Choose a Subgenre
Once you choose the romance genre, you will be able to focus on a certain genre category. For instance, if you want to write a novel that connects with contemporary times, you will be referring to the subgenre of contemporary romance.
Also, if you choose to write a romance novel that mainly speaks about the physical intimacy of the characters involved – in this case, your novel falls into the subgenre of erotic romance.
Other subgenres of the romance genre include fantasy romance, historical romance, new adult romance, paranormal romance, romantic comedy, and young adult romance.
2. Choose a Romance Trope
When we talk about the romance trope, we are mainly referring to how the two characters get together or perhaps what exactly will help them cross paths or become something that they need to overcome.
You don’t necessarily need a romance trope – however, the primary reason it is recommended to have one is that it gets so much easier to describe your book through its trope. More importantly. Having a romance trope makes it easier to attract your target audience to your book.
While choosing the romance subgenre and trope, you will have it easier to choose the best romance book editors for your novel. Hiring editors is a crucial part of the book-writing process, and it is through the editors you can move forward and perhaps even become a best-selling author.
3. Cast Your Characters
Another important tip on how to write a good romance novel is that you will have to cast your characters, mainly your heroine and hero, with all their physical appearance and characteristics.
However, at this stage, you should also have determined everyone else who will be part of the plot.
Make a list of all characters along with how they look, their characteristics, and their relationship with each other.
4. Pick a Location & Setting
Just like the movies, you will need a setting where your characters will hang out. The location and setting include things such as the office building they are at, where they live, what part of society they are in, and what time of the year it is.
At this point, you should also determine the time period your characters are moving into, which is specifically important if you are thinking about writing a historical romance.
5. Integrate Meet-Cute
If you have never heard about this aspect before, you should know that meet-cute is simply the point when your characters – the hero and the heroine- will meet for the first time. The adjacent element that you might as well work on at this time is the aspect that keeps them physically together.
While this mustn’t necessarily relate to the romantic trope you chose before, you might still want to look at other romance novels that fall in the same subgenre and trope – but there needs to be a reason that they are always physically together.
They need to be physically together all the time; how will they ever fall in love. So, integrating the meet- cute is a crucial element of your novel that you shouldn’t ignore at all costs.
Many newbie romance writers make the mistake of not thinking through when it comes to the plot.
Sometimes, this happens because they didn’t pick out a trope, or they didn’t really think it through. They think of a simple plot as asking the other on a date is enough.
While things like these work out in real life, the thing is that a romance novel needs so much more to it.
In a romance novel, there should be other reasons for getting together – reasons other than just romance.
Maybe, you want to ensure that the hero and heroine have competing goals – perhaps they work at the same place while vying for the same promotion or competing in a contest.
You get the point – in a romance novel, the hero and heroine need reasons – other than romance – to stay together as their key storyline.
6. Integrate the Conflict
While you are working on the plot of your romance novel, you must also think about the conflicts that keep the hero and the heroine apart. Typically, this mustn’t necessarily be a physical thing as much as it is an emotional reason that prevents them from getting together.
Depending on your location and setting, they might need to form a business partnership together for financial reasons, and the hero probably conned her out of her life savings, and she cannot really love him back the way he loves her due to trust issues.
Such personal and emotional issues are an ideal cause for the conflict between the hero and the heroine.
An ideal romance plot starts with strangers, and the readers are hooked when the hero and the heroine start their liking stage before they can move on to the love stage and eventually tell each other that they are the one they have been looking for their entire life.
So, while writing a romance novel, you will want to keep in mind these important milestones within the book, and you will want to think about certain situations that can prompt thoughts and conversations in such relationships.
7. Select a Heat Level
No romance novel or fiction is complete without a certain heat level, and it is up to the author to decide what kind of heat level they want in their novel. You will also have to decide when these things will happen, such as when the characters will hold hands and when they will reach the first, second, and third stages.
Eventually, you will have to make a home run – but in the end, it also comes down to the subgenre and trope that you are writing. For instance, if you are writing a sweet novel, then the main characters might get to kiss only at the very end.
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