Undoubtedly, romance novels are by far the most popular genres in the world of fiction writing and as such, it has been analyzed by many writers, popular tropes have been developed to show what kind of tension and drama readers want to see in the stories they read.
But wouldn’t that make all romance novels, basically the same, and writers will only steal off each others’ ideas? Well, if this is what you’re thinking then you’re already wrong, because romance novels, are infact not the same.
There are unspoken rules to writing romance novels that every writer knows about- or at least should know.
And in this blog post, I’ve covered the 5 rules to have at the back of your mind when writing your next romance story.
5. Use Tropes but Don’t Copy
Tropes, from enemies to lovers, forbidden love, second chances, love triangles and all the other long lists of tropes in romance genres, there’s one rule to writing these stories without actually having to steal off other people’s ideas.
Use them, but don’t copy. Tropes are meant as guidelines, not ways to steal off exactly what has been written before. So, when you start choosing your tropes, for instance, if you’ve read books where the second chance happens after they’ve divorced or when the ML betrays the FL, your story could turn it the other way around, making the FL betray the ML instead.
The idea with tropes is to give you concepts of what readers enjoy, but not to say you should use exactly as you’ve seen.
Another tip, is learning to combine these tropes in your own way to create the kind of tension and engagement your readers are searching for.
4. Happy Ever After or Happy for Now
One of the most important rule in writing romance novels, is that you should always, I mean, alwaysd, end your story with a Happily ever after, or at the very least, a Happy for now ending.
I know there’s an allure to writing tragic endings, and making it seem like not all love stories have a good ending, but contemporary romance stories seek tragic love stories where in the end, love conquers all.
Perhaps your main characters live in two different worlds. The one whose parents already achieved the American dream, and is on the fast track to some of the best college, and the one whose family has cell block in the local prison named after them.
Yet, in the end, they both win. Everybody knows that story isn’t going to be easy, but imagine an ending where they both win. It doesn’t necessarily mean they must end up together, it just means, they come to a resolution where everybody is at peace.
Maybe they end their relationship, but both get their dreams, and an epilogue shows ML and FL reunites at maybe a bar, years later.
3. Focus on the Character Development
Unlike fantasy stories where the focus could be a blend of both the journey and the character seeing new perspectives, or thrillers where the character can basically remain the same all through the story, romance novel readers are interested in seeing the characters grow.
A mafia boss who kills anyone that crosses his path, but begins to show a soft spot for the woman he falls in love with.
A prude man who thinks he knows better than anybody, and refuses to respect them, gradually becomes more accepting to other people’s ideas, even when they sound stupid.
The idea is that at the beginning of your story, your readers need some reassurances that the characters are results of some past traumas they’ve experienced, and from the first view, it is either true that they’d clash, or they feel like it works perfectly for them, but slowly, they realize there’s more to each other than meets the eyes.
Whether you’re writing instalove romance, or slow burn, it works the same for both. In the case of instalove, they start out feeling perfect for each other, but past traumas resurfaces and they realize, this person has a darkness I might not be able to endure.
While for slow burn, they start out knowing they are wrong for each other, but slowly begin to realize they have more in common than they think.
Either ways, they discover each other, and evolve together.
2. Make it Flow
As a romance ghostwriter, many of my clients have come to me with their romance stories, letting me know they feel something is missing. And when I read the stories, I realize, it’s not that they don’t have a good grasp of what a romance story should feel like, it’s that they throw in different kind of conflicts in an attempt to move the story forward, but romance doesn’t work like that.
Romance is more about the inner struggles made bigger by external struggles. A man who loves a woman so much that he considers marrying her, even though he despises marriage only to discover that she has been married before, and to make it worse, she never truly divorced her husband.
Just when they are about to move past it, his ex resurfaces, saying she’s pregnant for him.
All these conflicts brought in strategically, can keep the tension high, and keep readers waiting to see if the people they are rooting for will end up together or not.
1. Add Sexual/Intimacy Tension
Beyond just the flow, a badly written romance story will have all the necessary words like love, kiss, sex and everything in-between, but what it would lack, is the tension.
What kind of tension will they both face as a result of their love for each other? Will they hate each other yet, cannot stop thinking about the other person? Can their taunting be mistaken for hate when it is in fact, love?
When all of these are put together, you have sexual tension that cannot be avoided, and lovers, who would end up together.
Conclusion – Rules to Writing Romance Novels
These 5 rules are like the guidelines you need to create romance novels readers would love, no matter the genre. However, for new writers, we understand how hard it can be to put all these together, which is why, Let’s Write For You was created in the first place.
We love helping romance writers bring their novels to life. We’ve done the same for over 100 authors on Fiverr and will love to do the same for you.
All you need to do is contact us.
P.S.: Feel free to check out or article on how to write romance novels for beginners.
