Victorine E. Lieske - How to Write a Swoon-Worthy Sweet Romance Novel (Swoon-Worthy Romance Series Book 1)

How to Write a Swoon-Worthy Sweet Romance Novel

By Victorine E. Lieske

Copyright 2018 by Victorine E. Lieske

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.

Victorine E. Lieske

PO Box 493

Scottsbluff, NE 69363

www.victorinelieske.com

Publishers Note: Included in this non-fiction book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the authors imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

H ow to Write a Swoon-Worthy Sweet Romance Novel/ Victorine E. Lieske .1st ed.

An Intro to Romance

S o, you want to write a romance novel. Thats fantastic! I adore the romance genre and Im going to do my best to share with you everything Ive learned about writing it.

In my years of helping writers, Ive found that romance is often a misunderstood genre. Probably because romance readers are looking for certain things as they read, and if your book is missing one of them, it can make a huge difference. It can even throw your book out of the romance genre.

In this book, Im going to go over all the essentials of writing romance. Then, Im going to take one of my books and let you read how I write romance, commenting on things as you go so you know why I did what I did. But before I get into all that, Im going to try to define what the romance genre is.

Imagine your character goes on a blind date with a handsome man. When he picks her up, he hands her a single long-stemmed rose. He opens the car door for her and treats her like a queen. He takes her to a fine restaurant, then they go dancing. Her skin tingles every time they touch. The evening is magical. He is everything she wants in a man and they share an amazing kiss at the end of the date. She thinks shes in love.

Now take that date and tell yourself this is not what romance readers want.

Shocking, I know. Sorry to disappoint you. In fact, when I first started to write, I wrote a few scenes like this. The two characters went on a few dates. He was handsome and romantic. She was a little shy but flirty as well. They had a great time. And that was so boring I wanted to poke my eye out with a fork.

Whats my point? Romance books are not about two people dating and falling in love. Why not? Falling in love is romantic! Dating and kissing are a part of many romance novels. Whats so wrong with what I described above? Ill tell you whats wrong. Theres no tension. No conflict. And the one thing every book needs is conflict . This is writing 101. Make sure every chapter has conflict.

You might be thinking that you can introduce conflict by something happening to one of the characters. Maybe hes about to lose his farm or shes lost her dream job. Those are good things, but I would advise you not to make that the main source of conflict. A swoon-worthy romance novel is about the conflict between two people who are falling in love, but who think there is no way a relationship can work.

This can be a tricky dance, because you do have sub-plots in a romance novel. There are other things going on besides the relationship. Go ahead and make him about to lose his farm. Yes, she can lose her dream job. However, use these sub-plots to push the romance forward. Dont make them the main source of conflict and tension.

I will say that in some sub-genres, like romantic suspense, the suspense plots can sometimes take the center stage while the romance plot can take a back seat. Ive seen a sliding scale with romantic suspense: some books have more romance and the suspense is more of a sub-plot while others have the romance as the sub-plot and the suspense is the main focus. For the purposes of this book, Im going to focus on the romance aspect of all the sub-genres.

As you are writing or planning your book, just remember your sub-plots can try to take over the book. A good way to tell if your sub-plots are hogging up too much space is to do a quick check to see how much of the book has your two main characters together, interacting with each other. If youre at eighty percent to ninety percent you should be fine. If your two main characters arent together for more than fifty percent of the book, you might have some issues. Go ahead and make a copy of your manuscript. Delete all scenes where they are not together. How much is left? This can help you assess if your sub-plots are taking over the story.

Another thing to be careful of is your character growth. Yes, your characters do need growth. But if that character growth becomes more important than your romance, you could be writing yourself out of the romance genre and into womens fiction or chick lit. Youll know you have an issue if your story starts to focus on the growth of your one character instead of the growth of the relationship. I like to look at what youre giving screen time. Are you showing a lot of scenes with one character only? How many chapters are focusing on character growth instead of relationship growth? Is the character growth there to push the romance story forward?

Romance novels are all about the feels. And we feel more when the characters have inner conflict over the relationship. If a character struggles throughout the book and it ends with them finally admitting they love the other character, youre going to feel more than if your character takes one look at the other and instantly knows they are in love.

The romance genre has tropes, just like all the other genres. Ill include my trope list at the end of this book. Its not all inclusive; its mostly my favorite tropes that Ive found while reading and while researching tropes. For those of you who dont know what a trope is, its a common plot device. There are many romances having to do with a fake relationship. Thats a trope. Another popular trope is having your two characters stranded together. If you look at your favorite romance books and list out the things that push two characters together and the things that repel the two characters, youll probably end up with a nice list of tropes.

Using tropes in your writing can help you write a book that will have an instant audience when you publish. There are many romance readers who adore certain tropes and your book can hit the market really well if you use some common and well-loved tropes. I often use popular tropes in my books to ensure sales and find readers who are wanting to read books with those tropes.

Tropes are sometimes misunderstood. Some people feel they are clich and tired, and something to avoid. I would argue that tropes are used and well-loved because they are great for bringing in the needed tension and conflict that romance readers love. And if you feel like a trope is tiresome, find a way to turn it around, like I did with Blissfully Married . Instead of her fake fianc being the one she falls in love with, she falls for someone else. The fake fianc then becomes one of the things repelling the relationship because he thinks shes engaged.

One last thing before I start on the essentials of writing romance. This book is pretty much full of what I do when I write romance. I do have some street cred. Im a NYTs and USA Today bestselling author. Ive earned over a quarter of a million dollars selling my books. But I realize there are more ways to do things than just my way. And Im not infallible. I get one-star reviews just like everyone. Some people dislike the way I write romance. If I say something you dont agree with, thats fine; take it as just my advice, which youre free to ignore if youve found a better way to do something. There are many ways to accomplish the same thing. In the end, the reader is just looking for a good story. One that will suck them in and not let go.