4 Quick Tips for Writing Romance
And, where to learn more
From the time I was a teenager, I loved books with romantic sub-plots, but it was only as an adult when I got to read queer romances that I learned to love capital R Romances. The well-written ones are fun and cozy, leaving their readers feeling warm, hopeful, and refreshed.
While Romances are the perfect escape, and easy to read they are NOT easy to write. Getting a reader to fall in love with your characters and your world, getting them to root for a relationship, and making them feel big feelings requires serious craft.
If you are writing a romance - whether it’s sweet YA rom com, or ultra spicy romantasy - here are four quick tips to raise your romance game.
Four Quick Tips
Halfway through your book is the perfect place for a first kiss or sex scene.
Use the plot to create forced proximity so that your MC and love interest MUST interact.
Show your couple making each other happy so that the reader will root for them to be together.
Turn up the heat by giving your MC and their love interest opposing goals.
Wait there’s more…
Normally, I’d spend the rest of the post explaining why each of these four tips works, as well as practical advice for how to make them work in your novel. But, today, I’m holding back.
That’s because next month I’m teaching a course called Crafting Swoonworthy Romance in collaboration with The Writer’s Center. The class is fully online, offered asynchronously in four sessions. In the course, I’ll expand upon all four tips I just shared, plus all the other juicy secrets you need to make your readers swoon.
Although I specialize in writing LGBTQ+ rom coms, I welcome romance writers of all genres. Hope to see you there!
The time of the workshop is not given. Only the dates.