Romance novels aren’t like other genres and hitting all the things that romance readers want can be tricky. How do you make your readers believe your characters are falling in love? How do you show that sizzle of attraction?
How do you write a good kissing scene? How do you bring in the much-needed tension but still have your characters flirting and getting closer?
In this book I take one of my romance novels (Acting Married) and I go through the entire novel with you, basically interrupting myself to tell you what I was thinking as I was writing the novel. It’s like watching a movie with commentary. I pull back the curtain so you can see why I started it the way I did, why I decided to put certain scenes in, and what pushes the romance forward in the book.
I preface all this with what I consider the essentials of a good romance novel, and I end with my list of well-loved romance tropes that you can draw from in order to write your own bestselling romance novel.
On my continuing quest to learn everything I can about writing and editing romance and women’s fiction, I picked up this book without knowing anything about the author. It was NOT what I’d expected, but it’s a great book.
This is NOT your typical craft book. Lieske only gives 25 pages of description regarding the romance genre (meet cut, attraction, repelling, dark moment, etc.). Then, there are a few pages at the end of the book where she lists and explains a bunch of romance tropes. The rest of the 320+ pages are actually her novel (Acting Married) which she interrupts to point out all of the things she described in the first 25 pages. She not only points out moments of subtext, she explains why she put it in that spot. It’s very much a hands-on learning experience.
If you’re looking for a how-to-write-fiction book, this isn’t for you. If, however, you have a good understanding of fiction-writing basics (showing; voice; characterization; pacing), this book is excellent for showing you how to take the fundamentals and put them into a romance novel. If you’re interested in writing romance, I highly recommend this book.
Rate PG for some drinking. Get your copy here!
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