Thank you! I have bought "Romancing the Beat". I definitely need a book that breaks it down as how you described. I'm excited about writing my first romance story! I'll try to do some research on reverse age gap romance.
Thank you! That was very informative! Just one question; what if the protagonist finds out her husband is cheating on her in the first Act and this becomes the motivation to have an affair. Would that still be a problem for romance readers?
Thanks for the suggestion. I find that pluz-sized heroine romance shorts sell very well on Amazon Kindle. In fact they dominate the "One Hour Short Romance Books" on the Kindle chart.
I've certainly seen movies where that's the protagonist's motive, but I don't read enough romance myself to be able to give you a definitive answer, Mark. Personally, however, imagining myself reading... If her husband was a jerk or neglecting of her, on top of being a cheater, I would totally understand her actions. If it was just his cheating alone, I would understand her reason for doing it, but I might have a twinge in my head of "Just because he's an asshole, doesn't mean you should do the same." So, again, I can't speak to this genre, others here can far better. But this sort of delicate balancing act sounds very much a beta-reader level kind of problem. You won't know for sure until you get it into the hands of people and garner feedback. If they then feel she isn't justified enough, ramp up the husband being an asshole.
I can't speak for all readers, but as I said above in most cases they are going to find it difficult to root for a cheating protagonist under any circumstances. You are going to be much better off with a strong, independent MC who leaves their cheating spouse in the dust and then embarks on a journey of emotional and physical satisfaction with another person. Cheating just because someone did it to you is kind of a petty, self-destructive thing, and I think a lot of readers would find it off-putting and difficult to get behind. I know I would run for the hills. Assuming you are talking about your female MC - Romance readers are predominantly women, and most are looking for a female protagonist with a decent moral compass who's not afraid to demand respect and pursue better in life with someone who has similarly aligned values. Damsels in distress looking for men to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and save them is so old-fashioned and out of style for the genre. There are approximately 8 million ways to create conflict in Romance and adultery is IMO a rather lazy and played out tool for doing so.
I'm not surprised! There are a lot of plus-sized ladies out there wanting to see someone who looks like them be the star of the show getting their own HEA, and not just hanging around as the fat best friend side character.
I don't read a ton of Romance shorts (I'm more of a novella/novel length reader so I can luxuriate in the character & relationship journey), but if you think I would be a good fit to Beta hit me up in a DM. No pressure, of course, but I appreciate that you want to do right by my beloved genre and thus would be happy to help if I can.
Thanks so much Steve and Laurin! Your advice has been exceedingly helpful for me! And I will definitely take you up on that offer Laurin, thank you. By the way, what does "beta"? mean? I am not very familiar with that jargon haha.
Betas are readers that you send your stories to after you're done tweaking the first draft to your liking and best ability. They then offer feedback on what did and didn't work for them so you can get outside, objective input before submitting (trad) or publishing (self). Each of my books had 6-8 Beta readers and their input was incredibly valuable - they were all either successful m/m Romance authors and/or avid readers of the genre. I admittedly only used a couple for my short story though.
Ah, thanks for explaining that Laurin! I am getting used to these writing terminologies haha. I can appreciate from your experience the value of having Beta readers. I have been mulling over some ideas in my head and I think I have come up with a plot so I can't wait to push it all the way through.
I agree with @hyacinthe that cheating is off limits. A few years ago, I wrote a romance novel and sent it to a publisher who would eventually turn out to take the vast majority of everything I sent to them. But they rejected my fist piece because it contained cheating. I had to learn the hard way after writing a 65,000 word novel that it was not going to work because of that. A plot, as has been pointed out above, has much more detail. I have written 5,000+ word documents just outlining all the meandering parts of a plot. Eventually I take that document and divide the major points into chapters. Then I write the chapters. It's a technique that has worked well for me, but I know not everyone does that. It's something to try though. One thing you might consider is that she is on vacation after recently divorcing her workaholic husband. That would take the cheating out of it. She has sworn off relationships forever--that is, until she meets [insert name here].
