Writing Contemporary Romance

The 21st century has been defined by difficult conundrums; on the one hand, hashtags such as #AllMenAreTrash are trending. On the other, dating platforms such as Hinge, Bumble, and the famous Tinder have become familiar parts of contemporary dating. People have become more aware of the vulnerability of women to predatory, inappropriate, and illicit behaviors in the workplace (#MeToo), at home, and in romantic relationships. However, paranormal young adult romances such as Twilight, which features an often-debated 100-year age gap between the main characters, have been proven to have a place on young readers’ bookshelves.

There is a trend towards writing romantic fanfiction about favorite celebrities, book and movie characters, and singers (see original Wattpad-story-turned-movie After…or don’t. It’s quite the terrible movie). E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, which was originally a fanfiction work for Twilight, took the world by storm in 2011, thus ushering erotic romantic fiction (erotica) into the limelight. In a world where people simultaneously yearn for and reject romance, how do you know your novel will fight into the spectrum?

Who are the readers of romance novels? What makes a quintessential romance novel? How do you work romance into a work of serious fiction? Is romance still a genre that services only women? What is the point of a romance novel in today’s political climate? How does one write a subversive romance novel, or is the point to not be subversive at all? These questions are very difficult to navigate for the inexperienced romance author or even authors who are venturing outside of their given niches/genres.

However, hopefully, you will find some good insights in the following advice.

You might have heard the saying “all good stories are love stories.” I, for one, tend to agree. From age-old romances such as the Iliad to modern-day epics such as The Lord of the Rings, stories filled with different elements and themes ranging from war and conquest to the defense of your known world are suffused with elements of a love story. Hence, it’s not a surprise that romance novels still fly off the shelves and into the hands of eager, and maybe secret, romantics.

However, romances aren’t as straight forward as the ones written by Shakespeare and the Bronte sisters anymore (if their stories could ever be considered simple). As times have changed, the audiences of love stories have also changed. More than ever, there are bisexual, pansexual, gay, and lesbian readers of romance stories, and there are an increasing number of stories that are geared toward dismantling a binary and cis-oriented world. Writers are increasingly having to navigate the fine boundary between writing a good romance novel with gay elements, a good gay story, and outright writing a story full of queerbaiting.

Other times, a romance writer might find the idea of a love interest being watched over by their central figure in the story romantic. However, how does a writer keep readers from feeling creeped out by this idea and labelling it as stalking? Another popular subgenre of romance novels is the trope of a woman of a lower social economic status/class falling in love with a man of immense wealth and status (a classic Cinderella story, if you will).

In a world where we are trying to empower women into being their own source of economic wealth and to have complete freedom and autonomy, how can romance authors navigate this boundary?

READERS OF ROMANCE

Readers encounter romance novels in their many forms (such as ebooks and audiobooks along with the traditional paperback) and their numerous subgenres (paranormal, contemporary, young adult, historical, erotica, suspense, etc.). While some of the most prolific romance authors such as Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts (who are worth multiple millions) still fill the shelves of bookstores with their titles, new authors are doing quite well for themselves and amassing a big following. These authors include L.J. Shen, Christina Lauren, Casey McQuiston, Abby Jimenez, Alexa Martin, and Jenny Han.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD ROMANCE NOVEL

To write a very good romance novel, there are some essential elements that must be included: a central love story that is the main focus of the novel and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Readers of romance novels are there for the love; they don’t want to be sullied by negative emotions at the end of the novel. They need to know that true love still exists and that all problems can be overcome in the face of love. Some familiar romance tropes include

• a strong/self-sufficient female heroine
• male characters of the “bad boy/playboy” variety
• the childhood best friend/crush trope
• being reunited/second chance trope
• strategies on how to exit the friendzone
• the hate-turns-to-love trope.

Like all novel writing, all romance novels should be geared toward a specific target audience. Are you wanting to write a wholesome love story for a 16-year-old girl? Are you targeting someone more mature who has maybe been through a divorce? Are you targeting young closeted teenagers who need to know their kind of love is normal? No matter the answer, the issue with these questions all boil down to relatability. All romance novels need to feel relatable to the reader.

When writing a love story, it is important that you can write a love story in which the reader can imagine themselves in the shoes of the protagonist. Therefore, it is essential that you identify your target market and who would be the ideal audience for this book. Because definitions of a good love story are constantly changing and tropes are constantly being recycled and renewed, you need to identify your section of the market and stick to it.

Readers of the romance novel are prolific; chances are, yours won’t be the first romance novel they have ever read. There are many communities of romance readers on websites such as GoodReads, on groups on Facebook, and even in newfangled sensations such as TikTok. Therefore, you must be careful not to alienate these communities because word-of-mouth recommendations for romance novels (if not all books in general) are essential. Especially in a close-knit community such as that of the romance readers, you must be sure to create a sensational work that will encourage readers to pick up your work, recommend it to friends, and have them all dying for the second installment.

This leads me to the next trope: the serialized romance story. Many of the bestselling authors of contemporary and modern romance novels no longer write standalone novels. Their stories are always presented as a series, and a cast of characters are generally introduced right from the outset. While the first book may focus on one heroine and hero, these characters are sure to have a cohort of friends. Realistically, practically, and economically, having a cohort of friends that can be featured as attractive and relatable characters will get your readers eager to read your next novels.

Therefore, you must always think of the longevity of your work not only in the sense that it should be good enough and applicable enough to the modern day that it will be read by many readers, but your work should also be extended so that you create an audience for your writing style and your imagined world. Therefore, the first book is pivotal in establishing not only the tone and setting but in establishing longevity. You must not only imagine two great characters and one great story; you must imagine one for these characters friends, sisters, cousins, mothers, etc.

Readers love returning to revisit their favorite characters while being introduced to a world full of good relationships. Therefore, it is important that you think about character development and overarching narrative arcs right from the beginning. How do these different characters’ back stories differ? How are they similar? What are their relationships to each other? All of these questions require consideration because publishers would be more willing to publish your work knowing you have come fully prepared with an arsenal rather than just one smoking gun.

You have to create a range of products and SKUs that you can offer to the public; as the great cast of Shark Tank has taught me, investors don’t want to invest in single-product companies; they want to invest in a range of products that can promote long-term growth and profitability.

While the above analysis of the publishing industry and the romantic subject of romance might be cold, there are many practical and logistical elements of publishing and writing that must be considered. Here is where I insert an essential piece of advice: find the right editor.

The Importance of the Right Editor

Editors are immensely valuable to any writer, let alone a romance writer. Editors have the most knowledge of the industry, the genre, and the audience in general. Editors are essential bridge between the market (the reader) and the writer. Rather than doing all the market research and investigation yourself, you can rely on your editor to have the most up-to-date information and to ensure you have access to your target audience. They will know the statistics (they pay for subscriptions to these services) regarding the size of your market, the age you should write for, how to make your writing suitable for the subject at hand, and how to penetrate your market and get your name out into the world.

Rather than simply polishing your final product, finding the right editor at an early stage can help you with the developmental and stylistic processes so that you can work on polishing your ideas and themes before ever putting words on paper. Editors can help you with the tone, the flow, and organization of your work to ensure your work is the clearest it can be and to ensure that your audience and their set of predetermined expectations are met.

Writing a romance novel isn’t like writing general fiction; there are many nuances, specifically those pertaining to reader expectations, that must be considered. Therefore, it is important for you to equip yourself with the best tool on the market and find ways to excel above the millions of romance novels that are published a year. Here, I stress again: find the right editor. Look at editing services and inquire about working with them. Fall in love with working with an editor, and you can work towards a more convincing love story.