Writing Romance

The writer sits at her desk, her auburn hair catching the late-afternoon sun, her chocolate-brown eyes focused far, far away. For as long as she could remember, she'd spent Sundays at the beach, wearing the same bikini she'd worn in high school and looking even better now than she did then. Each of her companions was more compelling than the last one; her life was an ever-changing cast of ... romance novels. The stories were exciting and alluring, each fulfilling its promise to whisk her away. After having read so many romances, then, why was she having so much trouble writing her own? Because she didn't have Vanessa Grant, published by Harlequin 25 times over, to attend to her queries about plot, conflict, character development, and love (not sex, please) scenes. As luck would have it, now anyone can benefit from Grant's romance-writing know-how. In Writing Romance she coaches you on everything from naming your characters to getting an editor to read your finished manuscripts. She's got ideas about story development ("Try dumping your character into your worst nightmare"), setting ("If you're not an expert on your setting, it's wise to have your character new to the setting as well"), suspense (it's created by unanswered questions), and more. If you find that your characters are running amuck, try out Grant's garbage-can test. Pretend to throw out your novel. Then, Grant says, ask yourself what one part of the story you would pick out of the garbage, if you could pick out just one. You might be surprised by what you hold on to. Grant peppers her text with helpful examples from the pages (and preparations) of her own books.