CHAPTER 44

THE BASICS OF ROMANCE

BY RITA CLAY ESTRADA AND RITA GALLAGHER

WHAT IS ROMANCE?

Let’s start from the beginning. What is a romance? With all the books out there, why is one called a romance while another is labeled women’s fiction or Western or science fiction or mystery or techno-thriller or … well, you get the point.

It’s so simple, and so very complicated. A romance is present in every book that has a man and woman falling in love, but all of those books are not part of the romance genre. A story is only a romance when the main theme of that book is romance!

In other words, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a Western, mystery, or science fiction as long as the main theme is romance. Then, and only then, can it be called a romance.

The expanding marketplace for romances has allowed the genre to evolve into formula fiction without the formula.

—Debbie Macomber

What Is Not a Romance?

If the main theme of a story is a man and woman fighting for their lives against the Mafia as they fall in love with each other, it’s probably a thriller. If the man and woman fight each other as they try to flee the Mafia, it’s probably a romance. See the difference?

Whatever the emphasis is, that’s what the book is. Think of movies: Star Wars was a science fiction story with a romance growing between the action. Pretty Woman was a romance set in the powerful elite of the corporate world. The basic rule is that for a book to be a romance, the romance must be the most important element in the story.

Now, to throw in a monkey wrench.

Danielle Steel-types of books aren’t romances. They’re known as soaps. Why? Because they’re problematic—one heart-kicking dilemma after another. One life-threatening quandary after another. One tear-jerking, emotional death and divorce after another. The romance is secondary to the problems, growth, and tears of the heroine. That’s a soap. Danielle Steel created the written form and made it her genre. Many have followed, but few have had the success she has.

Maeve Binchy and others have created another genre … and you guessed it, these books are not romances either. This genre deals with women—the problems and quiet realities of their lives. These women experience growth, new beginnings, raising children alone and doing it to the best of their ability, leaving husbands and winning the economic war, going back to school, opening businesses and going to work for the first time. Through all of this, they make a success of their lives. This genre is called women’s fiction.

In an equal, more knowledgeable world, this would all be called just good plain fiction. It used to be, but not now.

The publishing industry has an odd view of fiction sales. If you took away genre and subgenre fictions, you’d have what the market supports today: general fiction and women’s fiction. General fiction is anything written by a male that both men and women read. Women’s fiction can be written by men or women, but is aimed at women, since most American men don’t (yes, you may read “won’t” here) read women fiction writers unless it’s in a genre they can publicly relate to—a genre like mystery.

We hope we can explain all about the romance genre by starting at the heart of romance. And that place is called category romance.

Category—The Heart of Romance

Category books are produced in lines. Lines come out with new titles monthly, and a set amount of books are usually published each month. All books in a line carry the same theme. They also have a set word count and topic, and each line has a very personal tone. Each line is different, although sometimes the differences are subtle. Any books published in the Harlequin lines (Temptation, American, Presents, Romance, etc.) or Silhouette lines (Desire, Romance, Intimate Moments, etc.) are category books. Also, almost all category lines are contemporary romances, and most have word counts of 75,000 words or less. Therefore, category romance is often referred to as “short contemporary” romance.

Categories are very important for the romance genre. They not only have very loyal fans, but they introduce new trends in fiction that are exploding or sneaking in the back door. What you see now in the microcosm of category romance, you can bet you’ll see in stand-alone books in the near future.

Any story where the main theme is love between a man and a woman is a romance.

Basic Plot of Romance

In a romance, there is One True Love for the heroine, and once he comes on the scene early in the book, there are no other men for her—just as, from that point on, there are no other women for him (especially in category romances). The hero doesn’t cheat on the heroine, and although there are times he may want to throttle her, he never, ever lays a hand on her. That’s the basic backdrop for the plot.

For every rule we’ve just stated, you can find an exception in the nearest bookstore. However, those writers have already sold their work. The very word exception tells you how hard it would be to sell an out-of-the-mainstream story until you sell your first. Then, when you have a book or two under your belt and your editor wants another, you can try something out of the ordinary. It’s easier to slip a foot in the publishing door when it doesn’t have a ten-ton ball and chain attached.

Now, when we say middle-of-the-road story, we certainly don’t mean middle-of-the-road characters. They need to be original and spicy, with distinct personalities. Characterization is where you can get creative and really show your style.

Let’s face it. You need two main things to write a good story: a tight plot and realistic characters who live on after the book is put down. It can be 60–40 or 40–60, but it’s best when it’s 100–100.

By the way, a lot of good published stories have had better characters than plots, but no one cared because the characters were so good that the reader suspended disbelief.

A romance novel is …

• about a woman trying to achieve her heart’s desire, facing and fighting obstacles to reach it—and succeeding in the end.

• about a woman learning who she is, finding her place in the world, then fighting to gain (or keep) it.

• about the uncertain and confusing feelings that go with that most important part of women’s emotions—love!

• about the irresistible physical and emotional attraction between male and female. Some lines (such as Harlequin Romance or Steeple Hill) deal subtly with this aspect of romance. Others, such as Harlequin Temptation and Silhouette Desire, are more descriptive about sexual attraction—and about sex. However, whether subtle or descriptive, romance with all its joys and many-faceted complications is what makes the world go around.

My first editor, Vivian Stephens, once told me, “When you get the world’s attention, you’d better have something good to say.” That has stuck with me to this day, twenty years later. A writer’s priority must be the book. Invariably, other publishing idiosyncrasies—poor distribution, lousy covers, sloppy editing, promotion or the lack thereof, scathing reviews—become distracting factors. But the writer’s primary focus must forever and always be the manuscript. If it’s not good, nothing else matters.

—Sandra Brown

A romance novel, like any other kind of book, should have a wow start, something that instantly pulls the reader into the story. The first sentence should make the reader care about what’s going to happen and curious enough to race through the pages to satisfy that curiosity.

FROM ROOT IDEAS TO CHARACTER GROWTH

So far we’ve given you a general idea of what a romance novel is all about. Now let’s go a little deeper. What follows is an overview of what it takes to actually write a romance novel.

Writing a Story With Purpose

The first thing to think about it is, what is my story about? Theme. Root idea. Premise. What do those words mean? They mean there must be a reason or purpose for your story. If you know what you’re trying to prove when you write your romance novel, the words will flow easier, your characters will respond better, and the entire design of the book will fall into place. Are you trying to prove that a woman who once loved and lost can love again? Or that a woman who loves her own child enough to kidnap her isn’t really a criminal?

No matter what your purpose, jump into the middle of the problem. Then, after briefly sketching the backstory, show step-by-step why (as in the first example) a woman can love again. Or why the kidnapping mom isn’t a criminal.

As you proceed, don’t forget that this is a romance novel. The hero must be introduced almost immediately, and he should complicate things for the heroine, not make them easier. Ultimately, the heroine has to solve her problems for herself and reconcile her attraction to this man who is making her goal more difficult. And since love, though sometimes difficult, is balanced with joy, your character’s perspective will change during your story; she will be able to resolve her problem on her own, strengthened by the hero’s love.

How she responds to this change in her life—how, because of love, her focus changes, converges, then tries to readjust—is the heart of your story.

Premise Is the First Step to Plotting

The plot is the map or the blueprint of your book. Knowing your premise and sticking to it will keep your story from losing energy and direction. Premise will keep your story on what editors call “the main thrust” and help each step, incident, and reaction evolve logically. Although the reader doesn’t know where you’re heading, you need to know at all times. Sometimes that’s easier said than done, like when you’re in the middle of a great scene and the dialogue gets away from you, but it’s worth the effort in a well-plotted story.

The Rules of Sexual Awareness/Tension

A romance novel has two more important ingredients:

• sexual awareness

• sexual tension

Rule One: From the first time they meet, the hero and heroine are deeply aware of each other. They don’t have to like each other instantly, but they do have to be aware. This awareness escalates, changes, and rearranges throughout the story and culminates in the resolution.

Rule Two: The hero and heroine should be together as much as possible. In scenes where they are necessarily apart, the absent one should be kept in the reader’s mind through memories, yearnings, and so on.

Rule Three: Each time they are together, their feelings should take on another aspect. Their emotions will strengthen, shake, threaten, and, as the book progresses, solidify the relationship.

Rule Four: The senses of hero and heroine are sharpened when they are together. Whether they are fighting or on the verge of making love, sexual tension escalates with each scene.

Conflict

A woman betrayed by love decides to give up all men for the rest of her life. Then, having charted her course, she is suddenly confronted with the hero, who shatters all her previous conceptions about the opposite sex. Both inner and outer conflict will appear here. And again, senses, feelings, and emotions are the three parts of the engine propelling the story to a satisfactory conclusion.

Conflict is the engine that moves the story forward. There is no story without it. Conflict forces the characters to modify their different traits and perspectives. It forces the hero and heroine to rise above the situation, to become strong, to find themselves and their self-esteem. In a romance, just like in any other well-written novel, conflict is the crux of the story.

A romance novel is about two very different people who meet and, despite differing perspectives, fall in love. Throughout the book, they overcome their differences, learn from each other, and draw closer together.

A romance novel is about two halves becoming a whole—then joining forces to become two joined wholes. (This is our personal philosophy, but history has proven that every well-received book holds the same premise.)

Why? Because one of the things we’ve learned over the years is that the best romance novels are not about codependence; they are about finding love in equality. The female has problems to work out and a process to learn from. She will make him fall in love with her and help teach him his own lesson. Now that’s a woman—not a dainty flower or a codependent wimp who can’t live without a man to guide her!

Hey, I’ve been rejected by some of the best.

—Jo Beverley

That is one of the most important points we can make to you. These female characters are stronger than they know, are more inventive than they give themselves credit for, and are number-one survivors. The man is the extra. He is not the only way to go.

And we don’t believe that one character flaw should be used to illustrate the fullness of true love. It’s not the right image to demonstrate in this form of print. We said image because we think romances help strengthen minds and resolves, defining what is right and good about men and women.

Characters Make the Conflict

Before writing about your characters, get to know them. Give them opposite backgrounds, personalities, and traits. For example: A fragile, gentle woman owns a china shop. She falls in love with a muscle-bound, former football player who doesn’t know Limoges from Wedgewood. Each time he enters the shop, he creates disaster. But when he takes her in his arms for a passionate kiss, she is treated like rare porcelain.

He is a hamburger and beer man; she is a caviar and champagne lady.

Result—conflict!

She loves the symphony and ballet; he finds them terribly boring. She loves attending theater parties on opening night; he hates to wear a tux. In every aspect of her life (except for her choice in a man), she is rigidly formal.

Result—conflict!

What does he have to learn from her?

What does she have to learn from him?

If you know the personality of the heroine and hero, you will know which traits will draw them together and which traits will create conflict between them.

With some skill and thought, you can even turn these character tags around and still have a strong story.

Expressing Character Through Point of View

Point of view (POV) is the person who’s telling the story. If it’s the female, you’re writing as if you’re in her head, thinking her thoughts, and feeling her desires, needs, and wants. You do the same thing if it’s the male point of view.

A long time ago, writers (especially new writers) were told to stay in one viewpoint forever: the female point of view. Now editors and readers alike want to see both sides of the main characters.

Note: This does not mean that you skip from one head to another to another and then back again. For reader identification and ease, stay in one mind for each scene.

Because women relate best to basic female emotions, the heroine’s viewpoint is usually presented. Every woman understands the pain of lost love or betrayal, whether or not she has experienced it. Women also understand the determination to seek a goal and the joy of achieving it, regardless of whether the goal is fame, fortune, or a man.

In a romance novel, another key word is man. If a woman thinks that all she wants is fame, fortune, and a career, a man will usually pop up to complicate her life and give her more than she bargained for. That’s what a romance novel is all about: Goal (whatever she wants or strives for) = achievement and love.

Now let’s talk about the male point of view.

Writing is an action verb. Do it, don’t just talk about it.

—Marie Ferrarella

What is important about the hero? The hero is the catalyst for the heroine. Like a powerful magnet, he enters her life and creates physical and emotional chaos. (So what’s the difference in real life? Not much!) The heroine is drawn to him, and all her prior ideas about life and love are turned topsy-turvy. How she deals with this hero and her own private, conflicting emotions are what the story is all about.

There is another reason for explaining the thought processes of the hero in a romance novel. Within those pages, a reader finds the hero of her dreams: the man that she married or wants to marry. Not that he’s perfect—he can’t be perfect, and neither can the heroine. But the interaction and growth they experience, no matter how abrasive at the beginning, brings out the best in each of them by the story’s end.

The greatest joy women find in the hero’s role is seeing what makes him tick. For years, men were seen as gods, strong and virile. They ruled the woman’s world and many women were intimidated by their power. In romance novels, the reader is given a peek inside those Lords of the Realm. Many female souls rejoice when they see that men are also vulnerable. Men can be hurt, they can yearn, suffer, and even cry. And miracle of miracles, when true love takes over a man’s heart, he can change. He can grow and become as strong as the women we admire. The heroine he loves can smooth his rough edges. She can teach tenderness where there was insensitivity, compassion where there was heartlessness, and selflessness where there was selfishness. She can show him the strength in being vulnerable. And the reader identifies.

Romance heroines aren’t “women who love too much,” nor are they perfect. They tackle their problems head-on and stand by their convictions. These are women of courage, risk-takers. Women as real as you and me.

—Debbie Macomber

Prevailing Over Conflict!

By their very natures, your characters create story energy through conflict. What she wants isn’t what he wants. What he thinks isn’t what she thinks. He disagrees with what she does and vice versa.

With all that conflict, what, you ask, could possibly hold these two people together? These five points:

1. A strong physical (chemical) attraction.

2. The fact that opposites attract.

3. The hero’s surprise to find a woman who isn’t so blinded by his charm that she keeps her opinions to herself.

4. Or, though intrigued by the hero, the heroine fights being told what to do, when to do it, how to think, and so on.

5. Committed love! All the push/pull of likes, dislikes, fights, and make-ups forces both hero and heroine to look, not only at each other, but at themselves.

Because the heroine is a strong and worthy adversary, the hero grows strong and worthy, too. You can also reverse the theory, but we like it this way best.

What Is Character Growth?

With every painful hit life hands us, we adjust and grow, change our perspective, and try to avoid making that same hurtful mistake again. If you realize this, you already know about character growth.

While we create, experience, and live with our characters, we may forget that with each impact, each mood swing, each reaction to the hits along the road to the character’s goal, that character is changing. We also change as we react to life’s lessons through our own personal disasters. With each problem, we change our perspective, our methods of coping, and we find new means to reach our goals. There isn’t a time when we aren’t constantly shifting to meet whatever specific goal we have set.

The same thing applies to your characters. A book is a slice of life, and real live characters react in the same way as real live people.

Keep in mind that your characters will never again be the same as they were at the beginning of the story. Their story lives will force them to change and grow.

Giving Your Characters Goals and Motivations

Just like you, if a character has a strong goal, she is strongly motivated to reach it.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Are your main characters goal-oriented?

2. Do they have the inner strength, motivation, and persistence to fight for their goals?

Note: Perhaps at the beginning of the story, the two main characters have very different goals. But as they interact through conflict and disasters, they are drawn together and, in the end, achieve happiness with just a slight modification of their original goals

3. Remembering that a reader doesn’t want to read about weak, insipid characters, have you shown enough present strength and potential in your hero/heroine for them to grow and, through constant striving, achieve their goals?

4. As your characters progress and persist, are they taking honorable chances that will make them grow and try new things despite whatever obstacles they encounter?

5. Have you stayed away from the old and tired “victim of fate”? Remember, readers want ever-strengthening characters getting a handle on life while focusing on cherished goals.

Now, what are you supposed to do to keep your writing alive and well?

READ, READ, READ

Read everything and anything that piques your interest. Read fiction from the best-seller list. Read anything and everything from your general genre. Category romance? Read a couple from each category, then go back and read a couple more from each category. Get a good, overall flavor of the various lines and how they speak to different topics.

Write what you like to read most; it is what you will write best.

—Susan Kyle, aka Diana Palmer

Read nonfiction, any type you like: bios, poetry, narrative prose, do-it-yourself books, Westerns, spy stories, classics that weren’t introduced to you in school … the entire gamut. Read anything that will educate you on living. On becoming better at anything. On writing.

The most important research you can do is read. Read everything, especially the category in which you want to write. Every writer I know is an avid reader. Reading is the first love; then writing comes naturally.

—Mary Tate, aka Tate McKenna

  RITA CLAY ESTRADA is a founding member of the Romance Writers of America and has published more than thirty romance novels.

  RITA GALLAGHER is a widely respected teacher of novel writing and writing workshops. They are the authors of You Can Write a Romance, from which this article was adapted.