So I’m writing a Rom Dram and I’m having a little trouble with the middle sections between major plot points. The last half has major information plot revelations about the Male MC’s mysterious relationship with his brother. I’m having a much harder time writing the first half of the book which mainly just focuses on the romance and the female MC’s mental health struggles. Is there any good Co-Plots or Side Plots you’d recommend for Romance?

I have been working on a Romance Fantasy some time now and was at around 40 pages in when I stopped it in middle and started working on a GL romance, which I am more excited to work on.

Do authors switch genres? I'm planning to do the GL first and then will surely work on the Romantasy I was working before.

Does this spil the author image because I've no plans to use different pen names as of now.

And also, are GL romance novels popular (regardless of anything I'm gonna write it. It's just a romance novel, difference being both tha leads are college going women)

I’m torn between New York and honestly any other US city as the back drop for my novel. My main characters are both journalists so having them in a large metropolitan city feels convenient in terms of plot options. The thing I struggle with is choosing where. New York feels over done but I live here so I have familiarity on my side. Additionally, the MFC is slightly obsessed with SATC which is relevant to the plot. Are there any cities you wish would come up more in romance that may work?

So after finishing my first draft I’m aware that people say you should not look at it again for a while. But what’s a while? A week, a month, longer ? It’s very difficult to leave it alone and not keep making changes and adding things. 😬

Hi! I’d love to know what your go to method for character art/scene art is.

I recently had some character art commissioned (love it) really want to get more. The artist I went through is also an author and has a busy schedule so I don’t know how often she’ll be open for commissions. Looking at other popular artists, they’re respectfully not in the price range of someone starting out.

For those who don’t have a huge budget for this, how do you do it? Do you spend hours teaching yourself another skill? Are you finding newer artists whose price range fit closer to your budget? Are you leveraging ai? I would appreciate any insight you can provide.

Hi! I have a question.. I’m writing a slow burn where the two main characters fall in love and they shouldn’t, because one of them has a gf.

Now I usually don’t like stories where cheating is involved because I find this unappealing. However, there are specific circumstances here that would make it less terrible imo. Not right, not excusable but at least a tiny tiny bit understandable.

As the story develops, the character will break up with the gf and “make it right” but I need to write a few scene where there’s sexual tension and they do cross the line a little bit.

Would you still find the scenes “hot” if they were all written? Or would you still not be able to go past the cheating thing? Would there be something specific that would make it more tolerable or excusable for you?

Thank you :)

I’ve been using Google Docs, but sometimes it feels overwhelming! Are there any good platforms for writing? I’m not interested in AI beyond a really good spell/grammar check, but some structure is nice for adding characters, brain dumps, outlines, etc. I used a trial of Sudowrite and liked it but wanted to know if there was anything better out there!

ETA: Google Docs is overwhelming to me because of the blank page aspect. I’m looking for something where I can be more organized in creating outlines and background info.

Hello lovely Authors! At what point did you really start putting yourself out there as a debut author with your first book and what social media platforms did you focus on and get the most traction with?

I'm currently in the editing phase, so wondering if I should start posting stuff now and getting my website and email list going or wait until it's more polished and I have a cover sorted? Thanks!

I’ve written a college romance that I’m planning on querying eventually. Finding comps has been so difficult even though I’m reading and browsing a ton. I know I’m going to have to use a combination of titles to come close to matching my book.

As of right now, I’m looking for a college romance title + speculative romance title to nail down my comps. One of my problems is that a lot of college romance is categorized as YA, (at least according to Goodreads) when I feel my story is NA or adult since the characters are 21 or 22 and reaching the end of their college careers. The title I’m looking at is Begin Again by Emma Lord.

Is it ok to cross these two audiences? If I comp a novel that’s technically YA but has the same age characters would that raise eyebrows? Thanks for your help!

I'm wondering what the shortest/avg time from starting to write/plan your romance novel to actually completing the writing/editing to geting it available online assume kdp or similar platform.

I have started many writing projects and not finished any because I get stuck for the next idea, then I think the whole story doesn't work so i stop and start again.

I would like to try again but plan it a little better including time frames. Obviously this will vary greatly but I'm interested to know as I see some people publishing 6 books in a year, which suggest approx 2months each, but I suspect those is unrealistic for most people, especially when you're new.

I just want to get one finished that I'm happy with, and I think I need to structure my time frames better to get it done.

As a plotter, Romancing The Beat has been amazing for helping me craft satisfying inner journies for my characters. But I'm struggling to come up with cohesive external plots to go along with the romance arcs. It feels like the book helps you create a great bottom layer of a cake, but I'm struggling with creating the top layer.

Is there a similar book/structure that can be layered on top for the external plot?

Something with guideposts similar to what Romancing The Beat has that can fit on top would be amazing.

I’ve been trying to write a book since 6th grade. I’ve not even gotten close yet. I’m thinking maybe pursuing a novella, with its shorter word count and emphasis on simple plot line, might help me get one under my belt.

My FMC is on a break from her fiancé after the first huge argument they’ve ever had. He was right, handling her late mother’s estate is a pain and she probably should have just accepted his help and offer to hire a team to take care of it. She’s eager to get back to her normal life and make up. After all Dan is nice. That and his job as a private pilot lets her take passion projects at work and work from all over the country as he goes from contract to contract. She was never a big romance person, that’s for books. She likes her life well enough as it is.

Until of course she finds herself feeling like a teen with a crush on the neighborhood general contractor, who has been helping out her mom over the years. He is likewise content. He has his own company and can do whatever he likes. Also he’s almost 40 with no interest in the drama of dating, he’ll fulfill the occasional physical need as the problem arises and continue on with his life.

As they work together to fix up the house to get ready to sell FMC finds herself more frustrated with Dan and his current and past actions (and with herself for tolerating it), more attracted to the contractor, and more torn about whether to sell the house or stay. The contractor is finding it hard to stomach her impending return to her fiance and old life.

Good god now that I type it out I wonder if there’s 50k words of content and 2 POVs in there and I’ve got another novel on my hands…

Anyway, is the premise of contentment to the point of delusion/ not settling for less enough to drive a romance plot? Does it need more drama?

Edit: 24 hours after posting this and the romancing the beat sheet is complete and it’s probably a full length novel. BUT this is the first ever complete outline

I’ve decided to experiment my fantasy romance novella without publishing on Amazon. That means setting up my own website and publishing my chapters in serialised format and marketing and publicising my own ways — learning about all the tricks and tips along the way. So far, no sales yet, but some interest as I have only just started.

I’ve done a bit of research in the other Publishing Platforms like Royal Road, WattPad and Radish — and it all seems like I am giving my equity away… a little too prematurely.

Does anyone have some traction with being an indie writer where you are doing everything on your own?

Hi all, I’m close to finishing my first draft of my romance novel. It’s my first book and I have loved every second of writing it so far. Perhaps when I start the whole editing process I might not love it so much! 😬

Anyway, I’m struggling with the ending a little bit. Do I just finish with my characters finally getting together and the big romantic moment, and then leave what happens next up to the readers imaginations? Or do I write an epilogue where the reader discovers what happens next ?

There are quite big things that would need to happen like FMC moving to another country, possibly marriage for this to happen etc.

Any thoughts appreciated, I’m loving this group, it’s been so helpful.

A minority of my 10 or so beta readers think 44k words is too short. Most don't.

The genre is dark dystopian, with an epic feel. Book 1 ends on a hard cliffhanger, right as the couple first get together and are spotted, at the last minute, by a villain.

ETA: Readers will be clearly WARNED about this cliffhanger. They will not be expecting a resolution in this book. So all you "I hate cliffhangers" people can relax. You would not be picking up this book.

It's a forbidden romance, so the implication is that the villain is going to run off and tell all and that they're doomed unless they can figure out a solution. There is no natural cliffhanger in the next 5-10 chapters, at least not one strong enough to end the book on. I'd have to add one in, which would be difficult although not impossible.

Book 1 is very plot and romance heavy. It is not a slow burn. I'd call it a medium burn. My betas have told me it's fast-paced and hooky and most wanted to read on.

I realize this is in novella territory (although that's debatable) but it's intended to get people hooked and go onto read the rest of the series. I know novellas don't tend to sell as well, but I think that mostly applies to standalones. The price will be either $1.99 or $2.99, and it will be in KU.

In case it matters, books 2 and 3 are finished, and get longer as they go. They will be available for preorder by the time Book 1 comes out, and there will be an excerpt from Book 2 in the back of Book 1, and so on.

A couple of my betas suggested doing 2 books instead of 3, but that means both books will be about 100k. the easiest thing to do would be to keep it a trilogy but make book 1 a bit longer. But will 2 additional chapters really make that much difference? It will end on a cliffhanger no matter what. There won't be any kind of resolution to anything.

Thoughts?

I have a lot of ideas for romances that have a kind of depressing / upsetting / unpleasant background story. They'd still follow the HEA formula, but the setup of the middle of the plot would have some difficult elements.

Not in a Dark Romance (TM) prurient fantasy way either. Mostly just realistic darker themes. Some examples:

The FMC inherits a house from an estranged parent, makes friends with her new neighbour, the main plot is them clearing out the house together and overcoming her hang-ups and falling in love. The dark aspect is her traumatic memories and the depressing state of the decrepit hoarder house.

A sports romance. The main plot is one aging competitor sabotaging his young teammate even as they kinda fall in love, this indirectly leads to the younger one getting seriously injured and ending his career early. The main plot is the MC coming to terms with being past his prime, and then making up for what he did to the younger person. The dark aspect is that he causes him serious harm and has serious feelings of guilt.

A wars if religion era romance, the FMC is basically a heretic bookseller and the MMC is an occupying soldier, they fall in love but he eventually develops scruples and reports her, in the end love wins and they escape together. The depressing part is that the whole setting is super fucked up with persecutions left and right.

I very rarely see this type of plot or setting in romance, even when it's billed as dark, I tend to see things that play into a fantasy, like vampire coven politics or detective story type stuff. So I'm wondering, is there such a thing as social problem romance? Horror romance? Grimdark romance? Or does that run counter to the escapist angle that romance readers are looking for?

Hello all,

I wonder if anyone has had experience with K-Lytics? Did you find it useful for romance specifically?

Would you recommend starting with the Premium membership first as Elite is quite steep. I'm mainly hoping to look at the romance and some sub-genre reports, which I believe you get at the basic level. Alternatively, you can purchase the individual reports.

Any insight would be very much appreciated!

Many thanks.

Hi all,

I'm looking to find forums, discords, groups, social media spaces where romance writers hang out these days- paid or free. I'm so lost! I only know about this subreddit but I'm sure there are other places I'm missing out on.

Hi! I’m a 24-year-old writer looking for other creative writers to connect with. I work in healthcare and would love to share ideas with writers early in the romance writing process. I’ve previously written poetry, and haven’t written fiction since I was very young so it’s been fun getting back into the genre!

I am doing a study of tropes for a subgenre of romance I know less , as both reader and writer, Summer Romance. I would like to put together a list of elements recurring in this type of stories, from scenes to character archetypes to themes.

So far I noticed :

• ex lovers reconnecting after accidentally meeting during a summer vacation
• heroine returning to her small town for the summer
• heroine going in vacation after a break up, being disappointed with love and meeting a new love interest
• childhood friends / teen friends becoming lovers during the summer

What are you favorite or unfavorite tropes or cliches in summer romance? Do you notice any recurring elements ? Look forward reading your opinion if you feel like sharing !

Hello! I'm looking to start a small "support circle" for people who are at the beginning stages of their project.

Writing is hard, finishing your first book seems impossible and let's not even think about publishing yet! This group of max 5 people is going to help support/brainstorm/critique to guide us through any obstacles and have a published book in no time.

Each member has to set a weekly writing goal for themselves which they have to honor by the end of that week. We will also hold weekly meeting in which we can discuss techniques, ideas and or books in general.

Most important requirement for this group is dedication. Any member who misses their goal with no reasonable excuse or isn't active will be kicked, so please only apply if you can do this for sure.

Joining requirements:

• Must be dedicated
• Must be 20+ (I'm a spice writer myself so only join if you're 20+ and comfortable with that!)
• Must be respectful and polite since we're sharing our story based on an honor system that it will remain confidential until we're ready to let the world see it!

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, send me a DM. Thanks!

There’s a community of Black writers on Discord - just say ‘hi’ below and you’ll receive the invite link in the chat!! The last post is over 💯 days old and so many of you have already reached out! So, just wanted to give the call out a refresh!!

Curious on your thoughts here. I know arranged marriage is still a practiced cultural custom in parts of the world, but could it ever be feasible in a non-cultural way in a contemporary fiction story that takes place in modern times, in the U.S. specifically?

Like perhaps could it be believable if a parent left in their will that they had to marry someone in particular to receive their inheritance?

Hi romance authors,

I'm working on my first romance book, and running into something I could use some unbiased opinions on!

I'm writing my FL as a recovering alcoholic. I want to explore some of the shame and other hard emotions that come along with an early-ish sober life (the story starts about 10 months into her sobriety). Would it be too unforgiveable to give her a past of drunk driving, even if it was only once or twice and was a key catalyst to her getting sober? I know many people find drunk driving morally reprehensible (as do I, and as would my character), so I don't want anybody to hate her or DNF when they find out she did that. I want to write her showing true repentance, guilt, and change from doing it as well.

And yes, for the sake of the story I think it would be helpful if she had "secrets" that she was keeping from the ML because she didn't want him to judge her. I'm having a hard time of thinking of other drinking-related incidences with the same heaviness, besides like accidental murder or assault. It is not meant to be a super dark romance. Thank you for your thoughts!

I have been dealing with writer's block for the past two months. I've tried doing my usual ways to get re-inspired but no luck so far.

Please tell me how you guys get out of writer's block.

Thanks.

Hi everyone, I’m new to all of this, but am just coming to the end of writing my first book. After all the editing process is done and if I still think it might be good enough, can I send it to publishers/agents in the US or should I just stick to UK only ?

Hi everyone! I've decided to make one of my recent publications into a duology, the thing is I didn't initally plan this so I didn't make it a series on Amazon and none of the backmatter says it is a duology. Has anyone done this before and how have you gone about it?

Does anyone have experience with self publishing under a pen name? How does it work from a tax standpoint?

I was asked this on my query manager for only one query out of about 15 so far and I'm curious what the "options" are? I feel like I want a partnership but also someone an ability to take my book "far" - doesn't need to be the NYT bestseller in 2 weeks but I do want to eventually have my books as movies/visuals.

That said, I feel like that is a "normal" relationship expectation overall so curious if anyone has thoughts on this, an agent maybe?

I’m working on a new series of interconnected sports romances. In this series, a lot of characters have previously dated each other and broken up. I wanted to offer a number of free stories related to the series, and I was thinking about making these short novellas about these failed relationships. They’ll have a HFN ending, but the characters will ultimately end up with other people in the series itself.

Would this be a turn/off for readers? I think it could provide an interesting layer of context to all the relationships, but I also know some people could be disappointed if they prefer the initial pairing to the permanent one.