How to Write a Brilliant Romance: The Easy, Step-By-Step Method of Crafting a Powerful Romance (Go! Write Something Brilliant) (3 page)

The
first
stage
of
novel
crafting
needs
to
be
research
into
what
publisher
will
be
interested
in
your story.
If
you
are
a
connoisseur
of
category
romances—the
mass
market-size
novels
that
are published
every
month
from
Harlequin—then
you
might
consider
writing
one
of
those.
Usually, they
are
55K-60K
words,
have
two
points
of
view
(POV)--the
hero
and
heroine—and
each particular
“line”
(Love
Inspired
Suspense,
or
Harlequin
Intrigue
are
examples
of
“lines”
within
a publishing
house)
has
their
own
particular
guidelines.
If
you
plan
on
writing
a
category
romance,
go to
the
publisher’s
website
and
download
their
writer’s
guidelines.
It
will
give
you
the
particulars
on how
to
write
for
their
particular
line.

If
you
prefer
a
longer
novel,
longer
mass
market
size,
or
trade
size
(the
oversize
books
that
are
sold in
bookstores
rather
than
grocery
store
racks),
then
you
are
looking
at
a
longer
word
count— something
in
the
area
of
75K-90K
words.
This
length
gives
you
the
opportunity
to
develop
a subplot,
or
add
in
a
villain
POV,
as
well
as
building
in
more
conflict
and
romance.

Once
you’ve
decided
the
length
and
market
for
your
romance,
it’s
time
to
build
your
characters
and start
crafting
the
ten
beats
of
your
story.
(We’ll
dive
into
these
beats
and
character
creation
in
a moment.)
You
may
not
want
to
plot
out
every
nuance
of
your
story,
but
if
you
give
yourself
a skeleton
structure,
you
can
then
fill
in
the
gaps
as
you
write,
discovering
your
story
along
the
way.
I highly
recommend
knowing
the
beats,
however.
It
keeps
writer’s
block
from
setting
in
and
gives
you a
roadmap
to
your
next
destination
in
your
plot.

Writing
the
story
is
about
sitting
down
and
working
it
out,
scene
by
scene.
I
recommend
a
scene
no shorter
than
1200
words,
and
no
longer
than
3000.
Your
reader
needs
a
break
between
reading
and if
your
scenes
are
too
long,
they
will
become
fatigued.
Likewise,
if
your
scenes
are
too
short,
you won’t
be
able
to
establish
all
the
scene
elements
necessary
to
affect
the
emotions
of
the
reader (which
is
the
point
of
the
story).
Often,
a
chapter
has
two
scenes,
although
if
the
scenes
are
short, you
might
want
to
add
a
third
scene.

Scenes
are
the
glue
that
holds
your
plot
together.
We’ll
start
with
a
look
at
the
overall
plot,
but
then we’ll
dissect
it
down
to
the
essential
scenes
to
include
in
your
novel.
Although
we
don’t
dive
into
full scene construction in this primer, information on how to craft a scene can be found at
www.mybooktherapy.com.

Once
your
novel
is
finished,
of
course
you’ll
edit
it,
get
feedback
from
others,
and
then
begin
the process
of
selling
it.
Information
on
how
to
craft
a
proposal
is
included
in
the
final
section
of
this book.

Writing
a
novel
is
a
profound,
comprehensive
undertaking.
But
if
you
break
your
novel
down
into ingredients
it
becomes
manageable,
even
exciting
as
you
journey
through
the
romance
of
your characters.

Which
is
where
we
are
going
to
start.

We
fall
in
love
with
people,
not
events.
Not
plots.
Not
great
storyworld,
riveting
dialogue,
or
prose.
People.
Characters
who
feel
real
and
who
we
could
actually
meet.
Characters
with
flaws
and
fears— and
yet
enough
confidence
to
drive
them
through
the
story.

Characters
who
win
our
hearts.

How
do
you
craft
these
kinds
of
romantic
heroes
and
heroines?
Let’s
start
with
our
heart-throb hero.

Every
romance
has
to
have
a
great
hero
who
leaps
off
the
screen
and
into
our
hearts.
Think
of
your favorites:
William
Wallace
in
Braveheart
,
or
maybe
Robin
Longstride
in
Robin
Hood
.
Maybe
it’s
simpler modern
day
hero
like
Hugh
Grant
in
Notting
Hill
.

As
you
start
building
your
romance,
crafting
the
right
hero
is
key.
You
need
a
man
who
will
be noble,
but
flawed
enough
to
be
relatable
because
every
woman
wants
to
come
to
the
aid
of
her
man, just
a
little.
(It’s
the
nurturer
inside
of
every
woman.)
He
must
also
have
a
fear,
something
the
author can
put
pressure
on
to
make
him
behave.
Finally,
he
must
be
courageous
and
willing
to
face
those dark fears.

Let’s
take
a
closer
look.

A
Hero
Must
Be
Noble.
Every
hero
must
have
something
to
fight
for.
As
Miracle
Max
says
in
The Princess
Bride
:
“What
do
you
have
to
live
for?”
The
answer:
True
Love.
Perhaps
your
hero
isn’t fighting
for
true
love.
(At
least
not
at
the
beginning.
By
the
end
of
the
romance,
he
will
be!) However,
every
hero
must
have
something
he
believes
in,
something
we
find
noble
and
true
and worth
believing
in
with
him,
even
when
he
acts
like
a
cad
to
the
woman
he
loves.
Maybe
it’s
a
secret, or
a
wish,
or
a
past
mistake.
It
could
be
a
dream,
or
something
he’s
protecting
the
heroine
from.
It could
be
his
family,
or
his
homeland.

Let’s
take
a
look
at
some
of
our
favorite
romances:

You’ve
Got
Mail
:
The
hero,
Joe,
longs
for
the
one
woman
who
fills
him
with
joy.
(Remember
what Joe
says
to
his
father
on
the
boat?)
He
isn’t
a
jerk—we
know
this
because
we
see
how
he
is
kind
to his
siblings
(or
uncle,
if
you
know
the
weird
storyline).
And
he
doesn’t
like
how
his
father
and grandfather
have
gone
through
women,
marrying
them
and
then
divorcing
them
after
affairs
with the
nannies.
Our
hero
wants
true
love.

While
You
Were
Sleeping
:
The
hero,
Jack,
wants
something—
someone
—of
quality.
Okay,
Jack
expresses it
in
making
this
amazing
chair,
but
because
of
this,
we
see
deeper
into
his
heart.
He
isn’t
just
a glitzy,
shallow
man
like
his
brother
Peter,
the
guy
in
the
coma
the
heroine
thinks
she
wants.
The
hero is
a
man
who
knows
craftsmanship
and
quality.
Most
of
all,
he
sees
that
in
our
heroine.

Sleepless
in
Seattle:
Our
hero,
Sam,
wants
someone
who
completes
him.
Who
complements
him
so well
he
doesn’t
know
where
his
hand
stops
and
hers
begins.
Sam
wants
the
real
thing—and
we
see that
he
is
the
real
thing
in
how
he
relates
to
his
son.
He’s
a
good
father,
and
will
be
a
good
husband with
the
right
woman
who
fits
his
life.

In
Chasing
Liberty
(a
lose
remake
of
Roman
Holiday
),
the
hero
is
all
about
protecting
the
heroine,
the daughter
of
the
President.(
We
see
this
Noble
Cause
in
a
lot
of
movies,
even
Notting
Hill
.)
However, Ben
also
wants
a
woman
who
will
sacrifice
what
she
wants
in
order
to
be
with
him.
He
wants
the grand
gesture—something
he
also
gives
her
as
he
follows
her
through
Europe.

Whatever
your
hero’s
Noble
Cause
is,
it
needs
to
be
strong
enough
for
us
to
love
him
and
forgive him
when
he
does
something
stupid.
(Like
in
You’ve
Got
Mail
when
Joe
Fox
stands
up
Kathleen Kelly
in
the
café.)

Book Therapy Question for your hero: What causes are you fighting for that make us love you?

Along
with
a
Noble
Cause,
you
will
also
craft
a
Noble
Moment
because
although
our
hero
may
have a
Noble
Cause,
he
behaves
poorly.
And
if
he
behaves
too
poorly,
then
we
might
reject
him
before we
understand
what
he
has
to
fight
for.

This
is
solved
by
inserting
a
Noble
Moment,
aka,
the
“Boy
Scout
Moment”
in
the
beginning
of
the novel.
This
is
sometimes
referred
to
as
“Save
the
Cat”
or
“Pet
the
Dog.”
A
Boy
Scout
Moment
is when
the
hero
does
something
noble
and
good—like
save
a
cat,
pet
a
dog,
or
help
an
old
lady
across the
street—that
shows
us
that
he’s
a
good
guy.
It’s
a
glimpse
of
his
nobility.

It’s
Jack
Ryan
in
The
Hunt
for
Red
October
kissing
his
daughter
and
packing
her
teddy
bear
in
his briefcase.

It’s
Bob
in
Return
to
Me
not
betraying
the
waitress
when
she
fills
the
bottle
with
tap
water.

It’s
Sam
in
Sleepless
in
Seattle
cuddling
up
with
his
son
even
after
said
son
forces
him
to
talk
with
a radio
talk
show
host
on
Christmas
Eve.

It’s
when,
in
P.S.
I
Love
You,
Gerry
says
in
the
middle
of
the
fight,
“Am
I
going
to
have
to
sleep
in the
tub
again?”
And
then
he
dances
in
his
underwear
to
make
his
wife
smile.

The
Boy
Scout
Moment
is
a
small,
yet
memorable
act,
and
building
it
into
one
of
the
early
chapters of
a
book
allows
us
to
like
the
hero
until
his
Noble
Cause
is
apparent.

Book Therapy Question:
What sweet, kind, and sacrificial Boy Scout Moment can you insert into
the story early on
to
stir
the reader’s love for
the hero?

Your
hero
must
be
less
than
perfect.
Some
characteristic
that
makes
him
real.
Maybe
he
has
issues with
recklessness,
or
perhaps
he
trusts
too
much
and
has
gotten
burned.
Maybe
he’s
jaded
and
mean on
the
outside,
but
of
course,
he’s
tenderhearted
on
the
inside.
(However,
though
he’s
less
than perfect,
he’s
fixable.)
A
hero
who
is
too
good
to
be
true
is
an
untouchable
hero,
someone
we
find difficult
to
love.