Hey everyone, I am writing a romance story about a young woman on vacation without her workaholic husband. The inciting incident is when she meets a young man at the resort which develops into an affair. She is forced to decide whether to divorce her husband or elope with her new lover. Do you think this is good enough for a romance plot?
That isn't a plot, it's just the basic idea for a story. A plot would be a much more detailed breakdown of the conflict between the 3 characters, since story is conflict and the characters are the agents of that conflict. As basic ideas go, it could work or it could be dull as dirt depending on how it's handled, whether you bring anything fresh to it or not. I mean—'Young man joins rebel forces and fights against the evil empire.' Could be Star Wars, could be dozens of movies about historical or invented incidents. Each one is handled completely differently.
Ah, thanks so much! I'm trying to figure out how to inject conflict into the story. A possible idea is that the young woman could go missing from the resort and the young man employed there will be charged as the principal suspect for murder. However, that kind of changes the genre from Romance to Romance Thriller and I'm not too confident writing thrillers.
as a general fiction contemporary story? okay, go ahead. for a romance genre novel, specifically? absolutely not. romance genre novels have very strict requirements. cheating is off limits.
Ah ok, I want to write a romance novel so maybe the woman could be divorced. That would preclude her having to cheat. I could make her a woman in her 40s or 50s on vacation after her divorce and she falls in love with a 20 year old man working at the resort she is vacationing at.
Or she could be a widow. Or she could be an "old maid," who never married because (a) she had to take care of her invalid parent, who recently died; or (b) the love of her life during college was (1) killed in a tragic accident, (2) died of some disease, or (3) went off to war and was killed, and she never recovered; Or something else.
Nice! These are some great ideas! Thanks! I particularly like the idea of the love of her life being killed in a tragic accident. I think it would cause readers to sympathize with her more and root for her eventual happiness. It is also a strong backstory I can use to add tension towards the midpoint and climax. It can also be a reason why she would reject love and this would create more conflict.
Yeah, what they said. You would have a very hard time finding a reader of genre Romance who would give cheating a pass, and even love triangles with no cheating have fallen far out of favor in the past few years. If you haven't already, I would highly recommend doing some reading of recently released genre Romance books (like within the last 3-5 years). Some successful authors I would highly recommend, who are writing great Contemporary Romances these days: Olivia Dade Rebekah Weatherspoon Melonie Johnson Suleikha Snyder Kate Sherwood Jess Bryant Norah Roberts and Beverly Johnson are always a good bet, but they have been writing forever and in multiple sub-genres. Queen Nora likes to dip into Fantasy Romance quite a bit and Ms. Bev has a fairly large backlist of Historical Romance, and some of their older works are a bit dated. But you can't argue with the millions and millions of books they've sold. I don't want to assume that you haven't done your homework, but as @hyacinthe alluded to, most Romance readers have very specific expectations about the genre regardless of the plot. If you disregard you're looking at a bunch of 1 Star reviews and the possibility of being labeled a DNR (Do Not Read) author. Don't piss off Romancelandia, my friend - I've seen it happen and it isn't fun.
Thanks so much for the author suggestions! I'll definitely check them out. Yes, I would really like to fit my book into reader expectations so it can be marketable so I would definitely not want to piss off romance readers haha. I used to write in a different genre but I am now taking the plunge into romance so I'm wary that there are pitfalls.
It's really good to hear that you're so open to feedback and suggestions as you dip your toes into the genre! Ever since self-publishing exploded, there have been a fair number of authors looking at how much Romance sells (35% of the overall market is the stat I keep seeing tossed around) and insisting that they can write one themselves without understanding the genre expectations. Back in the days when Trad publishing was king you didn't really see it because those manuscripts went right into the bin. I'm sure other genres see this as well, which is why I would never attempt to write Sci-Fi, YA, Mysteries, etc. I don't even offer critique or feedback outside of Romance because I don't write or read those, so I am not the person they're trying to sell a book to ultimately. But there seems to be this misconception that writing Romance is easy because someone saw a cover with Fabio on it from 25 years ago and thinks it's a quick buck. If you don't mind my asking, why are you interested in switching to the Romance genre? I'm not trying to be nosey, I'm just genuinely interested, I promise! Like for me, I love writing about flawed people who overcome obstacles together and become better people through The Power Of Love. TV shows like Schitt's Creek and The Good Place are my jam, and I think anyone who reads my books would be able to tell that after getting halfway through. I think looking at what kind of stories you want to tell can help guide your plots and characterization in the right direction for you.
I really enjoy romance novels. and i love writing romance plots in my stories, but I don't think I'm really a romance author. (I think a lot of people who don't really know the intricacies would assume that I am, but the insider baseball people would agree with me.) it's just so fun to read! I know that love relationships make a lot of people happy and the story of how that happened is so much fun to explore.
If you work at it a bit, I may have just given you four different novels. In fact, I once knew a woman whose story was II(b)(2). She was single and, as I got to know her, it gradually came out that she had once had a significant other, and he died of [something I can't remember]. She was smart, attractive, professional -- and still not over the loss of her significant other, which had happened maybe fifteen or twenty years previous. I think readers could relate to any of those plot suggestions if they are pursued properly.
Thanks so much Laurin! You have asked some really great questions tbh! The main reason I'm switching to the Romance genre is because as you have clearly articulated; romance sells. There is especially a huge market for Romance Shorts (10,000 - 20,000) words on Amazon Kindle that I would like to break into. I love reading Romance stories but I don't have a particular interest in writing them tbh. As a matter of fact, I am very intrigued by your book as it is the type of book I love reading but the link in your signature doesn't seem to work. I generally tend to write Contemporary Fiction stories that deal with social problems such as gang violence, prostitution, drugs, internet addiction etc. however these types of stories are hard to market. My original idea for this novel had to do with sex tourism but that doesn't seem to be ideal for a Romance novel.
Thanks! It is always great to have many options! I find that in Romance stories creating strong and compelling characters is especially important because if the stake is love then it's important that the character is likeable so that the reader will root for them. It's amazing how things that have happened in the past can affect us today.
That is really weird about my signature! Here's the direct link to my Books page, I would be thrilled if you checked them out: https://www.laurinkelly.com/books There are definitely some darker romances out there - my 3rd book deals with graphic recovery from drug and alcohol addiction for one of the MCs, and my 2nd is about two hitmen who embark on a journey to assassinate a Presidential candidate who's put out a hit on them. As long as you keep the focus on the romance and the journey of your couple, one that ends with them Happily Ever After or Happy For Now there's all kinds of stories you can tell, from light to dark and everything in-between. I personally have had little success with my one short story on KDP, but it's a Magical Realism fairy tale that probably has limited appeal. It was in an anthology that went out of print so I tossed it out there. I've had a few sales here and there but nothing like my books.
Awesome! I bought "Under the Knife" as it looks really interesting from the blurb. You have written very diverse romance stories! Which one has been the most successful for you? Yeah, the top 100 books under the "One Hour/Two Hour Short Stories" on Amazon Kindle seem to have very similar themes. Magical Realism doesn't seem to be very popular for that category but kudos to you for taking that leap. It's always great when we as writers take risks!
Overall, Under the Knife has been, mostly because I sold a lot of copies after it won/placed in a few Rainbow Awards categories back in 2016. I probably couldn't have paid for that good of publicity. My publisher went under in 2019 (my 3rd book with them had been out for about 3 weeks ), so I self published everything on KDP in 2020, and since I went in that direction my Gravity has been the best seller, though UTK is catching up a bit. From Blood to Roses is my weakest book, and the sales certainly reflect that. Romantic Suspense is definitely not my strong suit. Thanks for the purchase, I really appreciate it! I'd love to hear what you think after you've had a chance to read it.
Awesome! Winning an award definitely helps with publicity no doubt! Oh no! Thank god for self publishing! It's always good to have that option available. It's good to analyze what works and doesn't work when you write a book. People respond to things differently and it's really awesome that you have more than one book that has performed well. You're welcome! I started reading the first chapter and I'm really impressed! It's a smooth read so far.
I'd suggest the book Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes. It's a great breakdown of the standard, expected plot. I'm also a person who was drawn to romance because it sells. In some ways, I enjoy writing it more than other genres. It's really helped develop me as a writer when it comes to plotting, characters, relationships, and writing to market. It can be a bit frustrating sometimes too--altering a plot or character to appease the specific romance market you want to reach, but in the end I enjoy refining a story for my market and seeing others enjoy it. It can be more satisfying. Your idea of reverse age gap I don't see a lot. Which could be a good or bad thing. It could mean there's no good market for it (aka not many people want to read it), or it could mean there is a market but a lack of writers (hungry readers). If you haven't already, I'd research if reverse age gap is a profitable trope/niche. You want something niche but also popular enough to make money. Good luck!
I read it ages ago, and loved it. And I'm not a lover of Romance as a genre. But the setting and characters were compelling. The outcome of the subplot was never predictible—and yet, it was one of those endings that was a bit surprising, yet totally satisfying. Under The Knife is a really good book, and well worth a re-read or two. It's rich in content. I can easily see why it won an award.
I think that is the one line you need to keep at the back of your head when thinking up scenarios or writing a protagonist, Mark. You aren't writing what you want to happen, you're writing this to give enjoyment to the reader; and as such, they always put themselves in the hero's place. You must always think of it in terms of "would the reader think this good or a dick move?" A good example - I just finished editing a book for a friend where their "hero" concocted an entire conspiracy theory around her employers, because all of her "clues" were thought up in her head and not physical clues. At one of the key scenes, she literally shouted, "I don't need proof, they know what they did!" Now, this would be fine if the author was intentionally writing a conspiracy theory nutjob or someone losing their mind. The problem was they were writing a white knight super heroine. I had to explain "The hero cant shout that, the hero *always* needs at least some proof. Either to prove someone's a bad guy or to prove her theory true to the reader." The protagonist has to justify their actions to the *reader* because if the reader does not agree with the protagonist, they end up disliking them; and the reader's enjoyment of this genre hinges upon the reader liking the hero/protagonist. She had the "hero" imprisoning and torturing two scientists, without proof, just suspicions. I said "If Jason Bourne tortured a train driver, without proving he worked for the bad guys first, what is Jason Bourne doing? He's torturing an innocent civilian - would you as the reader think Jason Bourne a hero, or an asshole? Now, if the white knight heroine had seen those same two scientists doing an unethical experiment on another human being before that, which proved them to be evil? If Jason Bourne had seen that train driver previously kill someone in a back street? You then gain the reader's permission to have the hero beat the snot out of them. And that's what you're doing, trying to always gain the reader's permission. The same rule applies to romance. The percentage chance is the reader will most likely hate people who cheat, so you can't have the protagonist doing it. You always have to think about what the reader wants if you want to sell books.
Olivia Dade's 40-Love is an outstanding example of the reverse age gap. She also specializes in plus-sized heroines, which you don't see too often. She has a large following and has carved out a great niche writing out-of-the-box couples.
But she might be the exception, not the standard. Plus, if you already have a following, it's much easier to get away with something that isn't the standard because your fans will read anything you write. No name indie romance writers, nine times out of ten, will not see success if they write something atypical unless there is a known hungry market for it that others haven't capitalized on. Figuring out if that's the case with reverse age gap will take researching what's out there and how it's performing specifically for all recent indie authors. There are people who want it, but is there enough for a no name indie to make a career of it? If there are multiple unestablished indie authors seeing success with reverse age gap, then it might be a viable market. Or, if lots of reverse age gaps maintain a good rank for a long period of time that could indicate a hungry market. If this was a passion project I would say go for it. But it doesn't sound like that is the case here.
I found this list on Goodreads with over 1500 books: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/older-woman-younger-man Not sure if these would all fall under the Romance genre, but a cursory glance seems to indicate that at least some of them are. Caveat of course that I have not personally vetted any of these books to be sure they were shelved correctly.
