I began my writing career by producing photographs and non-fiction articles for national magazines such as The Lady, and the Royal Horticultural Society’s The Garden. Then I was seduced by romance, and started working in the genre. Twenty-one novels later I’ve sold nearly three million books, which have been translated into lots of different languages. On the right you can see the cover of the recently-released Manga version of my Harlequin Modern Romance, Weight of the Crown.
For the past few years I’ve been acting as a reader for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Scheme. Members of the Romantic Novelists’ Association who are unpublished submit their work to be assessed by professional authors like me. Graduates of the scheme include a fellow member of the RNA’s Marcher Chapter, the lovely Jan Baynham. As an unpublished author, Jan submitted her novel Her Mother’s Secret to the NWS. It went on to be published, and Jan’s career took off.
You can find out more about joining the Romantic Novelists’ Association here.
If you want to write romance, start by reading everything in the genre that appeals to you. Once you’ve got a feeling for the type of stories you like best, three letters will help you craft your own romantic novel. They are A.C.E:
Audience and Atmosphere
Characters and Conflict
Expectation and Experience
A is for Audience. Always keep your reader in mind. Reading romance is an escape, so whether your story is historical, contemporary, conventional, or alternative, give your audience what they are looking for — a story with plenty of Atmosphere. The swish of skirts and glitter of candlelight against silverware sets the scene for an historical novel. Sun, sand, and champagne sipped on a yacht supplies the glamour every contemporary romance needs.
C is for Characters. Focus on quality, rather than quantity. When it comes to romance, the fewer speaking parts, the better. Bring in other people only to enhance the reader’s understanding of your principal characters, or to deepen the Conflict between them. In this instance, the word conflict refers to the dramatic tension between how a character feels and the public face they adopt. For example, Pride and Prejudice has a whole raft of characters, but each plays a vital role in exposing the real Elizabeth and Darcy. Those two central characters are confined within the rigid class structure of their era, while their strong emotions create the inner turmoils which drive the plot.
E is for Expectation, which brings us back to your audience. Anyone choosing a romance to read is looking for a central character they can relate to, who is swept off their feet by their idea of a perfect lover. There’s no satisfaction for your reader if the path of fictional true love runs smoothly, so make it a roller coaster of Emotion (another E!) and Experiences. Let your central characters be faced with situations that test them in the same way your readers are tested in their own lives. Readers love to follow the journeys of heroes and heroines as they come to terms with hardship, pain, separation, and every other kind of disaster before finding their Happy Ever After.
Love conquers all is a cliché, but it’s perfect in this situation as it describes what readers like to read about. Your job as a writer is to give them what they want.
Next time I’ll be talking about how you can avoid the three common mistakes that get a manuscript rejected without being read. Subscribe to my blog by using the button above, so you don’t miss out!
Thank you so much for mentioning me, Christina. I’m very grateful to the RNA New Writers’ Scheme and its readers like yourself. The advice and critiques I received played a vital role in my journey to publication.
It’s my pleasure, Jan. I loved Elin’s story!