Writing Romance by Vanessa Grant

Vanessa Grant gives detailed and practical advice on how to write a successful romance novel in Writing Romance, Self-Counsel Press,1997-2007.

Subjects covered in Writing Romance include the business of beginning the story, creating conflict, pacing, revision, finding a publisher and preparing for the marketplace. Over half of the fiction books sold in the world are romance, so there’s a huge market for them.

Romance Subgenres

Most novels contain some romance, so Writing Romance would be helpful for almost any author beginning their novel. It makes sense for authors to write about what they enjoy because it will come easier and the story will be better because of it.

There are some excellent notes on writing suspense, paranormal and science fiction along with romance.
A whole chapter is devoted to suspense including the rules and how to keep things unpredictable. It’s important to keep the outcome hidden. Anyone who has read a book where they could predict what was going to happen next knows that doesn’t make for a fun read.

Archetypes

Writers often use common archetypes without even thinking about them but it’s interesting to break them down into recognizable categories. A couple of the familiar standbys are the virginal heroine and the Alpha hero. To keep things interesting it would be wise to throw in a wild woman or passionate artist.

The setting can be a simple background or the main focus in the story. It depends on how strongly the setting influences the characters. Guidelines on how to create a strong descriptive setting authentically are included even if you’ve never been there.

Plot and Conflict

While the plot is important, without strong characters and conflicts there won’t be much life in the romance novel. Helping the reader get attached to characters makes the story better because they will sympathize when they have huge problems. Victory at the end will also be much sweeter because the reader cares about the people in the story.

 Brainstorming with a series of questions is one of the techniques used to flesh out characters. As the questions continue, they get harder so more bizarre or interesting scenarios and characters are created.

Controversial Issues

In some cases experiences with such things as alcoholism, mental illness and/or dysfunctional families become beneficial to the writer because they can relate to those issues easier. For alternative lifestyles, occupations or diseases that there are no experiences with, Vanessa Grant shares how to go about researching them.

About Vanessa Grant

Vanessa Grant is a popular romance writer who has authored 30 books and successfully sold over 10 million romance novels. She runs workshops on romance writing and offers online seminars and courses.
The CD-ROM included with Writing Romance is full of writing resources. These include templates for writing the book, an eight part seminar on writing romance, and links to publishers and market information.
Writing Romance is a fantastic step-by-step guide for learning how to write a successful romance novel. Also included are two of Vanessa Grant's novels Taking Chances and Yesterday’s Vows in eBook format. To explore more of Vanessa’s writing resources like her workshops or online courses see VanessaGrant.ca.