What are some tips on writing a good romance story?

Answer 1

*WikiAnswers cannot give you ideas - writers must come up with their own ideas in order to be writers - click the Related Questions to learn how to find good ideas*

Fantasy is a difficult genre to define! Here's how Sandra C. Durham divides the genre:

• Contemporary and Urban Fantasy - Stories taking place in the real world, but with an element of magic or fantasy. Memory of Fire by Holly Lisle.
• Epic and Heroic Fantasy - Stories that involve a battles of Good vs. Evil or quest. Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R Tolkien.
• Historical Fantasy - Stories that are set in factual History, but contain fantasy elements. Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
• Mythic Fiction - Stories directly inspired by myth, folklore, and Fairy Tales. The Gates of Sleep, by Mercedes Lackey.
• Humorous Fantasy - Light hearted fantasy stories. Xanth series by Piers Anthony.
• Science Fantasy - Stories where science and magic work, or science extends to magical abilities. Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Worldbuilding is a crucial step in writing fantasy - see Related Question! Your fantasy world needs to be rich, vivid, and believable.

Here are some more tips for writing good fantasy:

• Give your characters plenty of personality! You need especially rich characterization in fantasy, because most of it is character-driven. Make sure that your characters are unique individuals, cleanly described so that the reader feels as if they would recognize them in a dark bar!
• Know your world and your characters - avoid unexplained shifts in character personality, or continuity problems because you forgot where that mountain was!
• Make it believable - your readers are going to be willing to go along with you up to the point where your internal logic starts falling apart. If magic works a certain way in your world, then it must always work that way; if you have dwarves, they can't be six feet tall.
• Avoid copying - fantasy is an area where it is very tempting to "take the easy way out" and just toss in some generic "dark elves" or dragons - Just Say No! Use your own imagination to create a unique world.
• Use rich imagery and vivid descriptions!
• Action! Make your stories full of adventure and excitement.
• Sometimes the best ideas come from others. Check out writing idea sharing sites, or "plot bunny" websites for inspiration.

Answer 2

*WikiAnswers cannot give you ideas - writers must come up with their own ideas in order to be writers - click the Related Questions to learn how to find good ideas*

Good romance depends on good characters. You must start out a romance with characters who are believable enough (and likable enough) to catch the reader's interest. Check out the Related Questions for more specific information about making a good character.

It's a story, a love story. Relationship story. What makes it any different than general fiction? Nothing, except that, in a romance, the relationship is paramount. It has to have a happy ending. But I don't like to read any book, where, in the end, there is this sense of hopelessness - romance, general fiction, what have you. I don't write about that and I don't want to read about that.

Julie Garwood

Here are some more tips from romance writers:

• Make the conflict believable - two people are not going to have romantic difficulty just because he finds out she used to work in a dry cleaner's! Give the couple some sort of personal reason, some deep conflict to work out. Make it totally logical that they not get together until this is resolved. The old "big misunderstanding" is no longer a believable way to keep characters apart, not when they should just talk to each other or check the facts.
• Make the dialogue believable - each of your characters should have a special way of speaking and acting, and you need to make their conversations believable. Make your characters so real that the reader knows who is speaking just by what is said and how they say it.
• Have a happy ending - romance novels must have a happy ending. The characters resolve their conflict and live happily ever after. The End. There is no other ending allowed in the romance genre.
• Research your facts - especially if you're writing historical romance! You must do the research to create a realistic setting. Romance readers are a savvy bunch, and they will notice if you've done a sloppy job - and they won't ever read your work again!
• Think of a unique way to have the two meet.
• Hot scenes - today's romance novels have hot "bedroom" scenes. How detailed you want to get depends on you, but you can no longer write that "cut scene" where all the action happens offstage and you catch up to the couple as they lounge in bed the next morning!

Romance novels are affirmations of all that is meaningful in life - and these affirmations are just as important to our emotional well being as exercise and nutrition are to our physical health.

The ideals of love, fidelity and positive feminism are explored more thoroughly in romance novels than in any other genre. In reading and writing romances, I have discovered my own value as a woman. I believe most avid readers of romance novels have more strongly developed ambitions for themselves, their partners and their families than the average woman. We have spent more time considering the meaning and implications of love, and we recognize (in spite of our general liking for spicy love scenes) that physicality is really a minor feature of a relationship. Emotion, and all its intricacies, is what draws us . . . and that is why romance novels define what is best about being human.

Lisa Kleypas

What NOT to do - some mistakes to avoid in romance writing:

• Ban the Brogue! Never try to write a character's dialogue in some sort of dialect or phonetic brogue! To begin with, accents are horribly tricky things and it is too easy to get something wrong. But the main reason is that it's too bloody hard to read! If you want to make the reader believe that your character is a medieval Scotsman or an Aussie surfer, just use the slang popular to those cultures! Don't subject your readers to "Och, ma wee bonnie lass," and "g'day maite!"
• No Faking the Facts! Do your research (said again for emphasis) and don't just toss around lingo that you don't understand. If you're going to describe your historical lassie, know how many years a "score" means and what a "stone" is in pounds! Don't confuse a sennight with a fortnight! Look up your facts and do your research before you write.
• Cut the Cliches! Avoid the following like the plague they are to a good writer: the stubborn hero who refuses to admit his feelings, the evil mistress, the wilted lily heroine, the sudden and inexplicable electricity between two people who've just met under under unrealistic circumstances, the emotionally crippled hero who comes from an abusive family, the character who can't face marriage because their parents had such a horrible marriage, the sudden desire to brush a "wayward lock of hair" out of someone's eyes (who does that?)!
• Some more tips:

• Be fantastic at the English language. Use descriptive words, correct grammar and spelling, etc.
• Be in the mood. Do not attempt to write if the passion is not there.
• Be in your favored climate. If you need three monkeys and a chirping cricket in the room to write your best material, then so be it.
• Get others to read your work as you progress. This will help you understand if your work is a little difficult to comprehend or if you are on the right track.
• Write it your own way; copying the work of others will not be original and will not make you feel accomplished.

Answer 3

Focus on developing strong and believable characters, create tension and conflict to keep readers engaged, and build a realistic and compelling relationship between the main characters. Show, rather than tell, the emotions and chemistry between the characters to make the romance feel authentic. Be sure to have a satisfying resolution that leaves readers feeling hopeful and happy.