Knowing the basics up front will keep you from reaching the middle of the book with a limp conflict, no sexual tension, and two characters who have absolutely no reason to want to be together.
HERO AND HEROINE
Without two people to fall in love, there is no story. Since you're asking readers to spend several hours with your characters, it's important to create a hero and a heroine they want to know more about. That means the characters have to be both real (so readers can relate to them on a human level) and sympathetic (so readers feel the time they spend reading the characters' story is worthwhile).
If the readers spend several hours reading the story, most of that time will be in the company of the heroine. So your heroine must be someone the readers can
understand, like, and respect—someone they want to hang around with. Someone who seems like a real person.
The hero must be someone the readers can picture themselves falling in love with. But you want them not just to fall in love with him—experiencing that dizzying, glorious rush of emotion—you want them to stay in love with him and believe that the heroine will be truly happy with him forever.
The next chapter, which goes into detail about heroes and heroines and how you can develop your main characters, may be the most important chapter in this book. If your hero and heroine don't come to life for your readers—if they aren't people they care about, root for, and want to be happy—they're not likely to spend their precious time reading a book about them.
Knowing your characters is extraordinarily important. If you don't know these people almost as well as you know yourself, then how will you know how they would react to the problems you've created for them—or to each other? You will sometimes hear an author say something like, "I wanted my heroine to be shaken up by the bad guy making a pass at her, but she just rolled her eyes and said, Yeah, right, like that's going to upset me.' So I had to figure out another way to make her turn to the hero for help."
Your reaction might be to wonder if the writer is having a hallucination. After all, the writer creates the character—so how can the character simply refuse to cooperate? What the writer is really saying is that she created a character so believable—so real—that she knows how that person would act or react in a given situation. When she then tries to write a situation that is inconsistent with the character's values or personality, the character just won't go along with the plan.
Chapter four will go into more detail about creating real, sympathetic, believable characters—the first requirement for your romance novel.
CONFLICT
While the developing relationship between the hero and heroine (which we'll address next) is at the center of the story, it is not the entire story. If the main question in a romance novel is simply whether and when the hero and heroine will admit they love each other, then the story will be unsatisfying. Readers know from the beginning that they will, because they're reading a romance. Watching two people date, get to know each other, and slowly explore their growing attraction isn't terribly exciting.
It's the difficulties that surround this couple falling in love at this moment— the difficulties that threaten to keep them from reaching a happy ending—that keep the readers' attention. The way in which these difficulties impact these particular characters, putting pressure on them and bringing out their good points and their flaws, is what makes their story exciting.
That's the main way in which romance novels differ from real life—in real life, most of us prefer a calm and peaceful period to get to know each other. But calm and peaceful don't make a gripping book. It's the tension between the characters, caused by the problems they face, that makes the story exciting and unforgettable.
Tension between the characters is conflict, the second of our important framework pieces.
In the excitement of creating your hero and heroine and developing your story, it's easy to confuse plot with conflict. The plot is what happens while your two characters are falling in love; it's simply the sequence of events. Conflict is the difficulty between the hero and heroine that threatens to keep them from getting together. It arises because of the problems the characters face.
Most romance novels have two types of conflict: the short-term problem and the long-term problem. The short-term problem (sometimes called the external conflict) revolves around the initial situation that brings the couple together and keeps them together so they can get to know each other. The long-term problem (sometimes called the internal conflict) is the deeper difficulty each character faces—the difficulty that threatens to keep the couple from finding happiness together.
In many beginners' stories, the hero and heroine have plenty of problems. He's having trouble with his business; she can't get along with her father; he's got custody issues; she's in debt. But unless these problems cause tension between them, there's a shortage of conflict in the story.
The hero and heroine don't have to be at each other's throats all the time. In fact, it's better if they aren't always disagreeing. But if they agree on everything, if their relationship is calm and peaceful, then what's keeping them from recognizing and admitting they're in love?
On the other hand, if they can't get along, why doesn't one or the other just walk away? Why can't they avoid each other?
Chapter five will investigate conflict in depth—what it is and isn't, and how to develop realistic and believable conflict.
THE ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME LOVE
The need for a romance in a romance novel seems so obvious. After all, the romance novel is a love story—the hero and heroine have to fall in love. But if you stop and think about it, this important aspect is trickier than it first appears.
It's easy to write in a synopsis, "As they get to know each other, they fall in love." But showing that love growing is an entirely different proposition. If it happens too quickly, the readers will be bored. If it happens too slowly, the readers won't believe the happy ending.
Each event in the story helps your lovers see each other differently, discover new traits (good and bad), and get to know each other on a deeper level.
It's much easier to focus on action or to detail the bad guy's plans than it is to portray, step-by-step, the slow flowering of a caring relationship. As you
develop the framework of your story, keep in mind the importance of the characters' reactions to each other. What events will best allow each to see new aspects of the other's character? What is there about each person that causes them to fall in love? What makes this couple so perfect for each other (even though it doesn't appear that way at first) that their love story will remain in the readers' minds forever?
Chapter six will go into more detail about the once-in-a-lifetime love, the third pillar of the successful romance.
THE RESOLUTION
How is your story going to end? I'm not suggesting you have to know every detail—before you start writing—about how your characters solve their difficulties and live happily ever after, but it pays to have a good idea. Having your destination in mind makes the journey easier.
And if your book is to be a romance novel, then the story must finish with a happy ending—a positive, upbeat, hopeful resolution, which in most cases will involve a permanent commitment between the two main characters.
As you're thinking in terms of framework, you don't have to know your characters' street addresses or how many kids they end up having, but do look hard at any big issues you've raised. If your characters' conflict has involved their lifestyles (he loves the country, she wants the excitement of the city), will they compromise or will one of them give in? If he hates her job, how do they resolve the problem so both can be satisfied? If she's had trouble trusting him, how does he prove himself (or how does she convince herself he's trustworthy now)?
The most important thing about the resolution is that the issues—big and small—that have separated the characters are settled in a way that is logical and satisfying to the readers. Each issue is handled rat
her than avoided; the solutions are plausible and fitting for the situations and the characters, so the readers can believe that this agreement will last and will continue to be acceptable to both main characters. A satisfying ending comes about because of the actions of the characters themselves, not through the interference of others.
Chapter six will go into more detail about planning the resolution of your conflicts and deciding how the issues you've raised between your characters will ultimately be resolved.
THINKING THROUGH YOUR FRAMEWORK
You may not be ready to put on paper all the ideas for your hero and heroine, con-flict, once-in-a-lifetime-love, and happy ending. After all, you've just started to find out why these things are important to your story.
However, you need to he thinking about these separate elements and how they interrelate as you develop your story.
The questions in the exercise below are good ones to keep in mind as you write. If you find yourself feeling bogged down as you think about your story, go back to these questions. The time you spend in quiet reflection early in the writing process could save you dozens of hours in revising.
If your idea is not yet developed enough to address these questions, that's okay. Keep them in mind as you read the next three chapters, and you'll be pleasantly surprised to find the answers taking shape.
1. Look back at the romance novels you've been studying and pick out the essential ingredients of each story—hero and heroine, conflict/problem, developing love story, and resolution.
2. What qualities make each hero and heroine heroic? Real? Sympathetic?
3. What makes each hero lovable? What makes each heroine someone you'd like to know better?
4. What is the problem that causes tension between the two main characters and threatens to keep them from reaching a happy ending?
5. How does this problem affect both hero and heroine? Why can't one or both of them simply walk away?
6. What makes the love between these two characters special? Why is this relationship perfect for them, the best love story they could possibly have?
7. How does the author resolve the big issues that have been raised between the characters? Is the resolution surprising? Satisfying?
1. Who is your heroine? What makes her sympathetic? What will the readers like about her?
2. Who is your hero? What makes him someone the readers can fall in love with?
3. What is the initial problem that brings the hero and heroine together?
4. What forces them to stay in contact? Why can't one of them just walk away?
5. What do they see in each other? What features about each one attract the other?
6. What larger difficulty, character flaw, or past experience threatens to make it impossible for hero and heroine to be happy together forever?
7. How do they solve those difficulties?
8. What is the happy ending? Does one of them make a sacrifice? Do they compromise?
Romantic heroes and heroines are a bit different from the sort of people we run into every day. Main characters have their flaws, but overall they're just a little nicer, brighter, quicker, and better than real people. They're allowed their petty moments, but in important matters they take the moral high ground.
Of course, standards vary by category and type of story. The hero of a mainstream stand-alone romance can get away with a great many things that the hero of a sweet traditional category romance wouldn't dream of doing. But even the bad-boy hero will have good aspects to his character, and the readers won't have !o dig too deeply to find them. The chick-lit heroine may have some rough edges, but deep down she's not the sort to be cruel even to people who deserve it.
THE HEROINE
Though there are always two main characters in the romance novel, in most books the major focus is on the heroine—the story is primarily her story. Though the hero's point of view and thoughts are usually included, the heroine's point of view and thoughts usually take up a larger portion of the book.
To be both believable and sympathetic, the heroine should have a balance of good and bad characteristics, as all humans do. She should be pretty much like the people we run into every day in the office coffee room or at the supermarket.
Many new romance writers create heroines who are perfect. They're not only shaped like Barbie dolls, they're smart and witty and run multimillion-dollar businesses from their kitchen tables. They're gorgeous enough to be models, and they can wear white shorts to a picnic and never get a grass stain.
Or the new writer goes the other direction and creates a hapless and helpless heroine. This woman gets mixed up in one bad relationship after another and never questions why; she'll believe any fool story she's told without ever stopping to consider the source, and she's wildly inconsistent in the ways she reacts to people and events. Because this woman doesn't respect herself, she commands no respect from others—including the readers.
Readers quickly become impatient with the too-stupid-to-live heroine who stumbles into one disaster after another and has to be rescued, or who gives every statement she hears the worst possible interpretation, causing herself endless embarrassment and trouble.
The heroine who walks into an obvious trap doesn't win sympathy from readers but something closer to disgust. The heroine who believes a story when it's apparent to the readers that the person telling it is a liar is not sympathetic but annoying. The heroine who creates her own problems is not as likely to earn the readers' empathy as one whose difficulties come at least partly from outside.
Convincingly Attractive Heroines
Physical attractiveness is one of the areas in which romance heroines are a little different from real women. (When romance heroines are desperately unhappy, they always stop eating and lose weight. Now, honestly, how many real women do you know who do that?) Though there have been stories and even whole romance categories featuring larger-size heroines, these stories have generally been less successful than others in the marketplace. A wonderful story will be successful no matter what dress size the heroine wears, but a same-old, same-old tale won't sell off the shelves solely because the heroine is big as well as beautiful.
More important than size, however, is the heroine's self-respect. She does not need to look like a model or be shaped like one, but readers will like her better if she takes care of her body and looks as good as she possibly can.
However, there is another aspect to attractiveness that goes well beyond good looks. The heroine must be convincingly attractive to the hero, and that means much more than having pretty hair, wide eyes, and a symmetrical body.
What is it about this woman that makes him want to spend the rest of his life with her? If she has a vicious temper, the most gorgeous figure can't make her truly attractive. Such a heroine is inadequate and dissatisfying, and the hero looks like a fool for not being able to see past the pretty face to the unpleasant personality underneath.
A Heroine With a Past
A satisfying, sympathetic heroine is a woman with a past. That doesn't necessarily mean she has dark, deep secrets (though indeed she may have). It doesn't mean she's been a stripper or is on the lam because she's facing criminal charges.
Having a past simply means that our heroine, like all human beings, has been shaped by her experiences, and her reactions to what has happened make her a person distinct from every other individual on the planet.
Was she raised in an orphanage? Or did she grow up with a stern and critical father? Or was she the much-pampered only girl in a family of five boys? Those three women will have entirely different feelings about families.
The heroine's past experiences affect everything she does and every decision she makes. But it isn't necessary for readers to know all of that history right away. In fact, one of the bigger mistakes made by most new romance writers is to pour all the information about the heroine's past into the first chapter. It's much better to wait until later in the book to share that information, when readers must know a
bout the heroine's past in order to understand her.
Modern-Day Heroines
The heroine of today's contemporary romance novels (category and single title) is independent, self-supporting, and mature. She's often a career woman, though her job might be anything from nanny or waitress to president of a major corporation. If she's on the lower end of the economic spectrum, however, she doesn't intend to stay there and she has a plan for improving her job prospects.
She has problems—including some of her own making—but she is competent at running her life. She may have had a bad relationship, even a bad marriage, but she's grown from the experience and readers are confident the heroine won't repeat her mistake.
The chick-lit heroine is often a bit less mature and competent, more likely to hold an entry-level job, and more apt to have mucked up her life and created the problems she's facing. But even she is generally independent, not relying on others to rescue her or pay for her mistakes.
The heroine of contemporary romance may be looking for a love interest, but she doesn't need one. She can take care of herself, but finding the right man would be a bonus.
In her short contemporary Dad by Choice, Marie Ferrarella shows her very competent, very professional, very busy heroine not only as a good doctor, but also as a good daughter:
Dr. Abby Maitland was doing her best not to look as impatient as she felt.
Just down the hall in Maitland Maternity Clinic, patients sat in her waiting room on tasteful, blue-cushioned chairs, chosen to afford optimum comfort to women who were for the most part in an uncomfortable condition. She was booked solid without so much as a ten-minute window of breathing space. She'd come into the clinic running slightly behind and praying that no one would see fit to go into labor this morning.
That was when her mother had waylaid her.
Abby had always had difficulty saying no to her mother, not out of a sense of obligation but one of pure affection. It was hard to say no to a woman who had gone out of her way all her life to make sure that her children were happy and well cared for. Today was no different.
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