Topic: New to Romance Writing

I didn't even mean to write one.  It started out as a prequel to another book.  Heh.  I don't have any particular theme in mind when I write; I didn't even know that "Rhiannon the Nude" was a quest story until I reflected on the reversals.  So the prequel turned into a Forbidden Love story.  Any suggestions on writing that?  (You know, aside from the usual, the heroine throws herself in front of a train, or the hero thinks the heroine is dead, so he kills himself, that sort of thing. lol)

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Re: New to Romance Writing

Let the story take you. Just write the story and see where it goes. Don't over think it.

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Re: New to Romance Writing

Janet Taylor-Perry wrote:

Let the story take you. Just write the story and see where it goes. Don't over think it.

Thanks, Janet.  That is the kind of style I have anyway.  I may have mentioned I didn't realize that Book I was a quest until I went back, reviewed the reversals, and went, 'Oh, this is the Quest Master Plot.'  So then I did some topiary to fit that.  I can't even be sure this will be a forbidden love story; that is at the center of it, but it does show an awakening and a kind of ascendance at the end (not to give anything away).  I'm always surprised at what happens in my stories; the narrator of the story is actually writing it; I'm just the first reader.  lol

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Re: New to Romance Writing

rhiannon wrote:
Janet Taylor-Perry wrote:

Let the story take you. Just write the story and see where it goes. Don't over think it.

Thanks, Janet.  That is the kind of style I have anyway.  I may have mentioned I didn't realize that Book I was a quest until I went back, reviewed the reversals, and went, 'Oh, this is the Quest Master Plot.'  So then I did some topiary to fit that.  I can't even be sure this will be a forbidden love story; that is at the center of it, but it does show an awakening and a kind of ascendance at the end (not to give anything away).  I'm always surprised at what happens in my stories; the narrator of the story is actually writing it; I'm just the first reader.  lol

There are only two requirements for a novel to be classified as a Romance with a capital R:

(1) It must have a happy ending or happy for now ending (HEA/HFN)
(2) The story must be primarily about the development of the MC's relationship

There are numerous unwritten rules, but all of them have been broken by someone somewhere. There are also themes that are hugely popular compared to others. So depending on what your personal goals are, this is important to know. More importantly, if you want to go trad publisher route, you really need to know the publisher requirements and the best way to find that out is by reading as much of their published books that you can.

This is just FOR INFO, since based on your reply, it seems like you kind of stumbled into Romance rather than purposefully aiming for it. There isn't a right or a wrong way, but hopefully this would help you, once you've finished the first draft, to be able to classify your novel as a ('proper') Romance or not.

And welcome to the group! If you have any questions, you're more than welcome to start more threads! smile

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Re: New to Romance Writing

Thanks Janice, both for the reply and the welcome to the group.  I have been toying with the idea of entering the romance genre.  I read them and get an Edgar Rice Burrough's moment.  He started writing when he read the popular fiction of the day and thought, "I can write as bad as that." lol  What happened is that a couple of reviewers thought that they came in at the middle of a story, and I've always followed the rule that you should always start your book at the middle of the story.  But I thought a prequel would be in order.  There was a core incident, first described in my story, "The Gorgon," that had to be in the story, but as it evolved, a love triangle, actually two intersecting triangles, seemed to be the lead in to the Incident.  That took over the story, but it was forbidden love, so not quite romance by your two rules.  Although well, romance in that sense does happen, but between the MC's; and it does happen between the MC's in the "Rhiannon the Nude" boo, but as one of the events of the story.  Still, several people have noticed that my writing might, if made more PG, appeal to young adults, so I might end up eventually in YA Romance.  Writing is a long strange trip, as between now and 5 years ago I wrote a number of mini-essays in philosophy which have a ready made audience ripe for self-publication.

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