On Writing Romance

by Leigh Michaels

  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 rather 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, conflict, 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 be 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.

  IN REVIEW: Studying the Essentials

  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.

  What qualities make each hero and heroine heroic? Real? Sympathetic?

  What makes each hero lovable? What makes each heroine someone you'd like to know better?

  What is the problem that causes tension between the two main characters and threatens to keep them from reaching a happy ending?

  How does this problem affect both hero and heroine? Why can't one or both of them simply walk away?

  What makes the love between these two characters special? Why is this relationship perfect for them, the best love story they could possibly have?

  How does the author resolve the big issues that have been raised between the characters? Is the resolution surprising? Satisfying?

  The Framework of Your Story

  Who is your heroine? What makes her sympathetic? What will the readers like about her?

  Who is your hero? What makes him someone the readers can fall in love with?

  What is the initial problem that brings the hero and heroine together?

  What forces them to stay in contact? Why can't one of them just walk away?

  What do they see in each other? What features about each one attract the other?

  What larger difficulty, character flaw, or past experience threatens to make it impossible for hero and heroine to be happy together forever?

  How do they solve those difficulties?

  What is the happy ending? Does one of them make a sacrifice? Do they compromise?

  four

  Hero and Heroine

  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 to 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 th
at 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 about 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.

  By showing Abby in both her roles, Ferrarella shows us a woman we immediately like. She's smart, busy, thoughtful, loving, but not perfect — she's running late and having just a little trouble holding on to her self-control.

  Historical Heroines

  The heroines of today's historical romance novels aren't all that much different from the heroines of books set in the present day. The historical heroine may battle additional constraints — fewer opportunities for women, tighter rules for acceptable behavior, less independence in decision-making — but she often sets out to get around those limits, and she generally succeeds.

  In an era in which women did not have careers, the historical heroine nevertheless will find a way to make her mark on the world. She may run her father's estate, raise and study plants, or teach the servants to read, but she won't just sit on a sofa; she'll do something worthwhile with her time. The heroine may have few options to earn a living wage, but she'll be as self-supporting and independent as she possibly can. She may be younger than the average contemporary heroine, but she'll be mature for her age — looking beyond short-term goals and thinking of what's best for others.

  If she's had a bad marriage, it ended with the death of her husband. Like her contemporary sister, she's willing to live independently for the rest of her life, though the realities of society may force her to consider a marriage of convenience. And even if she's required by society to marry for something other than love, she'll find a way to turn that marriage to her advantage.

  In her single-title historical Something About Emmaline, Elizabeth Boyle introduces a heroine who's quite able to defend herself from an intruder — if she wants to:

  It had been a very busy afternoon at the house on Hanover Square and Lady Sedgwick had sought her bed early. … The door of her bedchamber burst open. It rattled on the hinges and banged into the wall with a furious slam.

  Emmaline sat bolt upright and stared at the caped stranger marauding into her sanctuary as if he had every right.

  So she did what any lady of the ton would do when her honor was in peril. She pulled a small pistol from under her pillow and pointed it with dead-eyed aim at the intruder.

  So perhaps she hadn't gotten this lady of the manor part down completely, but it was what she would do.

  “Stay where you are, sirrah, or it will be the last thing you do.”

  He ignored her warning completely, coming closer. The candle he held aloft cast a circle of light around them both. His gaze fell first on her face, then … fell to the pistol in her hand and one regal brow rose. “Put that away!”

  “I will not,” she said, her hand shaking. … She could … see that he was devilishly handsome and well dressed. … She'd always had a weakness for impossibly handsome men, especially dark-haired ones. … She took one last regretful look at the magnificent man before her. …

  It was at that moment that Emmaline Denford, Lady Sedgwick, realized she was about to shoot her husband.

  The very notion startled her so much, she dropped the pistol. And then the damned thing fired for her.

  Emmaline is hardly a typical woman of her time (1801), but she's a typical historical heroine — able and willing to protect herself and not at all above noticing a handsome man.

  Imagining Your Heroine

  What qualities does your ideal heroine possess?

  What qualities would make you want to be friends with her?

  What qualities in a heroine turn you off?

  What careers or jobs would be off-limits for a likeable and sympathetic heroine?

  THE HERO

  In most romance novels, the hero is the second most important character — but he's also the pivot around which the story revolves. Because he's central to the entire story, it's very important that he be a fascinating character — someone the readers want to learn more about, someone they can fall in love with.

  Today's romance hero is more verbal, tender, and vulnerable than the romantic hero of ten or twenty years ago. While the strong and silent type still exists, this modern man can show flaws, ask for emotional support, and have a sense of humor.

  It is possible, however, to make your hero so sensitive, so vulnerable, or so wounded by life that he appears to be a wimp. When a female author, writing about the kind of man she thinks she'd love, gives him habits and characteristics that are more commonly found in women, the hero may end up acting more like a girlfriend than a hero — readers may find him
unconvincing as a man and vaguely dissatisfying as an object of affection.

  Nor should you go too far in the other direction and make him look like the sort of man who wouldn't hesitate to abuse a woman to get his own way. Forcing kisses or other intimacies is controlling — not romantic — behavior.

  It's also frighteningly easy to make your hero look like a fool. If, for instance, he's divorced from a simply horrible woman, readers are going to wonder — with good reason — why he was stupid enough to marry her in the first place.

  Convincingly Attractive Heroes

  The hero has to be convincingly attractive to both the heroine and the readers. It's fine for him to be a bad-boy type if he displays positive qualities that balance out his naughty tendencies. A true hero needs to be exciting, sexy, and more than a little dangerous, but he must also have a solidity that assures our heroine she can trust and lean on him.

  Good looks are a plus, but he has to be more than rich and good-looking to be worth the heroine's time. A drop-dead handsome face is less important than how he treats the people around him. If the hero yells and hits walls and throws things, but the heroine is charmed despite his behavior because he resembles a Greek god and has abs like a washboard, she looks like a fool.

  What does the heroine see in him to make her fall in love and want to spend her life with this man? What makes him good husband material?

  Alpha and Beta Heroes