It's not my usual genre, but the short story I'm currently working on is Romance. Not erotica, in fact as far as romance goes it's pretty tame. I'm still of two minds if I should even include a chaste kiss. As some of you who read my progress journal know, I tried to read romance novels/short stories to wrap my head around the genre, but was unable to find good ones. Things I've learned: A HEA (happy ever after) or HFN (happy for now) are absolutely required. The story should focus on the romance aspects and not on worldbuilding or other stuff happening around. There need to be stakes to the romance aspects, some events or inhibitions that should make the HEA/HFN difficult and which need the characters to grow. No cheating, and threesomes are frowned upon. Wouldn't happen in my story anyway, but others may want to. And that's pretty much what I've managed to learn. It's not much, and I suspect there are other genre requirements I missed, due to not being widely read in this genre. So please share your insights with me. I'm close to finishing up this short story of mine, but before I give it out to Betas, I'd like to check the major genre boxes. If you have pointers on good romance short stories/novels, I'd be grateful as well.
IDK much about Romance, but I did find this 10 point checklist for the genre. https://www.soyouthinkyoucanwrite.com/romance-writing-checklist/ I hope that it helps a smidgen.
Romance is pretty formulaic compared to other genres. Here someone breaks down the major plot points (I didn't look at cave trolls link so this may be redundant): https://jamigold.com/2012/11/write-romance-get-your-beat-sheet-here/ So usually your characters have two internal conflicts. Something they lack (like a character flaw) and also a fear about the romance ending (all men lose interest, I'll lose my job if I'm with them, etc ). The main characters should help each other work through their character flaw, making them a better person in the end. I like breaking the plot in four acts. Act 1: all about meeting and setting up things Act 2: they fall in love (leads to midpoint aka the high point of them falling in love) Act 3: complications arise, fears are realized, the characters are a bit miserable Act 4: the characters realize love is worth it. They come together, there is usually a big moment where you see how they've grown as people.
Thank you @marshipan , your summary was extremely helpful. I've identified one arc I think I need to expand upon
If you're going to introduce a sexual element to your story, make sure both characters are adults. For example, if you want characters that are exactly four years apart in age, make them 18 and 22 at the minimum, NOT 14 and 18. You'll save yourself a LOT of issues with the moral police and what not. That said, you could write a romance that does have a romance between a 14 and 18 year old but any sexual activity would have to wait til the younger character is 18. Just my opinion. I haven't really liked reading romances but I did enjoy the movies such as "A Walk to Remember" that were based on romance books written by Nicholas Sparks.
Not an expert in this field, but so far as I know, a romance is a story where two people are forced together until they fall in love, then they're forced apart until the ending. Also, I think the worldbuilding bit of advice is questionable. A lot of romance writers specifically go out of their way to research historical time periods to enrich their stories. Like those Scottish romances or fantasy romances. I was once facebook friends with a romance writer (Glynnis Campbell/"Sarah McKerrigan" -- nice lady, bit silly) and she was writing this one book that involved a guy taking a vow of silence falling in love. So as long as the historical aspect propel/create hurdles for the romance, you should be good.
This is a reasonably up-to-date source, from Romance Writers of America. It mentions the date 2016 as a source for some of its information, so it's reasonable to assume this is a more recent article than 2016. Some very surprising (at least to me) statistics. https://www.rwa.org/Online/Romance_Genre/About_Romance_Genre.aspx And this is quite funny ...and probably pretty typical!
