Adrienne deWolfe - How to Write Wildly Popular Romances

How to Write

Wildly Popular Romances

Featuring Descriptions of

the Genres 14 Bestselling Storylines

(and 8 Plot Taboos)

Book I in the E-Series:

The Secrets to Getting Your Romance Novel Published

By Adrienne deWolfe

Winner of the Best Historical Romance of the Year Award

WritingNovelsThatSell.com

Meet Adrienne deWolfe

A career journalist and publicist with more than 45 awards to her credit, Adriennes fiction debut occurred with Texas Outlaw , which broke industry records when it was nominated for two Rita Awards by the published authors of Romance Writers of America (RWA).

Since that time, each of Adriennes five Romance novels has earned distinctions from reviewers and readers. For instance, three of her heroes won Knight in Shining Silver (K.I.S.S.) Awards from Romantic Times Magazine, and a fourth hero won the Avon Romance Readers Poll for Favorite Romance Hero.

Not to be outdone, Adriennes heroines have also rated high among readers, who have recognized her with the Honey of a Heroine Award (West Houston Chapter, RWA) and the Cameo Award for Strong Woman Characters (Calico Trails Magazine). The readers of Calico Trails also named Adriennes third book, Texas Wildcat , the Best Historical Romance of the Year.

Adrienne is a popular speaker , who has lead creativity and novel writing workshops at conferences around the country. She created the curriculum for, and taught, How to Write a Novel That Sells for three years as an adjunct professor for a community college.

In her hometown, she has held the office of Vice President of Mentoring for the non-profit organization, Women of Visionary Influence, and she was appointed two serve for two consecutive years as a New Business Ambassador by her local Chamber of Commerce. She is certified as a Habitat Steward through the National Wildlife Federation, and she has trained as a Texas Master Naturalist through the Texas Department of Parks & Wildlife.

Adrienne continues to balance her time between her speaking, marketing, and publishing careers. She was a contributing writer for the non-fiction release, A Preeminently Healthy Place, The History of Medicine in Travis County, Texas, edited by Marilyn Baker.

Adrienne is a firm believer that what you believe, you achieve. When she mentors aspiring authors as a book writing coach , she draws upon her 20 years of training in Attitudinal Healing, which teaches that individuals can change their circumstances by choosing to look at their situation, and the world around them, from a new perspective. She is certified as a Peer Counselor and Group Facilitator of Attitudinal Healing, a program developed by psychiatrist Gerald Jampolsky, M.D., in Tiburon, California.

Visit Adriennes website, WritingNovelsThatSell.com , for writing resources, advice about novel writing, and publishing tips. You can also follow her on Twitter , Facebook , and Google+ .

Table of Contents

The Heart of a Romance Novel

What Exactly is a Romance Novel ?

Category Romance Novels

Single Title Romance Novels

Romance Sub-Genres

How Does Romance Differ from Mainstream Fiction?

How Does Literary Fiction Differ from Romance Novels?

How Does Characterization Make a Difference?

Empress of the World Market

Romance is Easier to Sell

Great! But Where Do I Start?

Your Target Audience: Female, Well-Educated and Happily Married

Why Do Romance Novels Appeal to Women?

What Keeps Romance Readers Turning Pages?

Give Your Readers Lovable Characters

But My Lusty Robots are Lovable!

The Hollywood Daze

Movie Plots as Classic Romance

Romantic Movies with a Twist

Plot is Relationship

14 Classic Storylines from Romance Novels & the Silver Screen

Creating Plot from Character & Setting

Plotting Pitfalls:

6 Reasons why Romance Manuscripts are Rejected

10 Questions to Consider When Plotting Your Romance

Need More Writing Help?

The Secrets to Getting Your Romance Novel Published (eBook Series)

Private Coaching Services for Romance writers

Manuscript Critiquing Services for Romance writers

How to Write a Novel that Sells (Online Course)

So Close But No Sale (Online Workshops)

Looking for More Good Reads?

Relationship:

The Heart of a Romance Novel

Romance novels are laser-focused: one couples love affair is the books raison detre.

If the Romance reader wanted to be entertained by characters who solve murders, route terrorists, or discover alien worlds, those readers would be reading a different type of novel. In the world of Romance, mystery, espionage, and space exploration (for example) are of interest only to the degree in which those themes tear the lovers apart or reunite them.

In a Romance novel, relationship equals plot. Or to put it another way, your plot is dependent upon the course of the love story. Stray too far from the love story, and you will lose the interest of your reader.

This e-book is designed to be an introduction to the genre. To that end, this e-book will cover four main themes:

This e-book is not intended to be an instruction manual for structuring a novel, developing characterization, or plotting a scene. If you are a Romance writer who is looking for this type of training, then I invite you to take my Internet course, How to Write a Novel That Sells .

To learn more about my novel writing workshops and my manuscript critiques and coaching program , visit WritingNovelsThatSell.com . You might also benefit from my characterization worksheets, Create Colorful Characters for Your Romance (four individual worksheets, each one designed for a Hero, Heroine, Sidekick, and Villain) .

What Exactly is a Romance Novel?

Romance is defined as genre fiction.

Genre fiction appeals to a clearly defined target audience that has specific reading tastes. Publishing houses define these categories, not book sellers. The best way to identify a novels category is to read its spine. Regardless of where that book is shelved in your local store, the spine reveals its true genre and / or sub-genre.

As defined by publishing houses, adult genre fiction includes Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Western, Thriller, and Horror.

As a category of genre fiction, Romance novels can be further classified as Category or Single Title books. These books are then divided into subgenres by publishers, who package the books to appeal to their target audience.

Category Romance Novels

The term, category romance, refers to books whose length is approximately 200 pages (55,000 words). Harlequin / Mills & Boon is the largest publisher of category romance in the world; youll probably recognize Harlequin books in grocery stores, drug stores, airports and bookstores, because category books published by Harlequin are often showcased on their own special revolving rack, or in a clearly defined area within the Romance section.

Category books are designed around specific themes, or lines, (examples: Harlequin Presents, Silhouette Candlelight Romance, Harlequin Desire), and a specific number of books is released, per line, by the publisher each month. These books may be sequentially numbered within their line. They tend to remain on bookstores for two to three weeks (at which time, the next months titles are released to take their place.)

Single Title Romance Novels

Averaging 350 to 400 pages in length, Single Title Romance novels are much longer than Category Romance. Single Titles are not released as part of a publisher's category. Single Titles typically stand alone. Some Single Title novels evolve into author-generated spin-offs, including full-blown serials (example, my own Texas Trilogy, including 2-time Rita Finalist, Texas Outlaw ). In these series, authors may revisit characters or the worlds in which these characters live and love.