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The Kiss and the Heartbreak (Ten Beats of a Romance Part 3)

By on October 12, 2010 in How to write a Romance

Last week we went over the first five beats of a romance novel.  Let’s move on today and talk about the last four beats.    Beat 6:  The Sexual tension (the Kiss!).   This is my favorite part.  (Ok, I like the dialogue leading up to it too!) But, a great romance has at least 2 great kisses—sometimes three. (If you’re writing for ABA, you might have more than a kiss).     Kiss One: An “introductory—I didn’t mean to, did we just do that?” Kiss Kiss Two:  A, “I really want to kiss you now and I’m going to” Kiss Kiss Three:  And an “I love you, and I mean it” Kiss   If you have to, the last two can be combined.    Of course, before the First […]

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Adding Spark to your romance (Ten Beats of a Romance part 2)

By on October 6, 2010 in How to write a Romance

We’re talking this week about the 10 beats in a romance – those ten elements that help us craft and structure our romance.  Today, we’ll build to Beat 5: Sparks!   A great romance has a lot of Sparks! I love a book or movie with great dialogue. It’s that spark between the hero and heroine that make us fall in love with them.   You want to build in some witty conversation, and especially FIGHTS! A great fight causes great tension.   My two favorite scenes in While You Were Sleeping are the couch scene and the walk home/leaning scene. But have great dialogue where they share their hearts.  Often this happens when they are in a fight…so, think of a place where your hero/heroine could have ONE great […]

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Ten Beats of a Romance Part 1

By on October 5, 2010 in How to write a Romance

We’ve taken a little hiatus from our How to Write a Romance blogs over the past two months – but it’s time to get back to work!   As we got this year started, we had a chat about the 10 beats or points in standard romance.  Over the next two weeks, we’re going to recap just a bit before we continue on and dive into how to create these points.    Every genre book out there has key elements—things that we expect from that genre novel.   A suspense has a ticking time bomb, and a deadline.   A mystery has a dead body, and red herrings.   A romance has elements too that we expect.   Now, people might say that because of this, a romance if predictable. […]

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Sample Chapters – Sell your Voice

By on October 1, 2010 in Delivering Convincing Proposals, Editing Basics

Sample Chapters:   Let’s talk just a moment about Sample Chapters.   Every proposal package includes sample chapters for the story you are proposing. Even if you are a multi-published author, you will have to write sample chapters for new contracts with new publishers, so it is wise to learn how to write them now.   There are so many elements to writing decent sample chapters, and we’ve covered most of those topics over the past year, but I felt we needed to touch on them in order to fully cover the proposal package.   When new authors read “Sample Chapters” in the submission requirements of an editor or publisher’s website, sometimes they are tempted to think… “I’ll pick my BEST chapters…chapter one, chapter eight, and chapter twenty-two.”  Delete that […]

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