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Talk about everything and anything related to the romance genre here.

What Genre is your Romance, and how did you come up with it?

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Posted on 6/6/2011
I am just curious about this.  When you started your story, how did you choose which genre to write?  Did you know before you started or did your story guide you? Mine kind of did both.  I started out writing a Fantasy novel, and somehow it has a strong romantic element.  I have never considered myself a romance writer, but here I am working on a four book series and Romance is taking over.  It is still more fantasy than romance, but just barely.  I must admit though, writing the " Love scenes" is fun.  Well, that's how I did it, how about you?
Showing 1 to 10 of 29 comments
2 years, 12 days ago

I generally know which genre a story will fit in before I start writing. I also usually know the sub-genre, which tends to the paranormal for me. This doesn't mean I know everything about the story. I'm not an outline writer. I work in both romance and mystery, so I generally want to know if I'm heading towards a couple falling in love or someone being murdered before I jump into the story.

It's not uncommon to bounce around a bit with genres when you start writing and learning the business. But once you move into working with publishers, you'll find you need to keep more control over the stories because you have various obligations to your publisher or publishers. Right now I'm working on a paranormal series with a romance publisher and a mystery series with another, so I know which genre, which series and which publisher I'm writing for with my current WIPs.
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2 years, 12 days ago

I started out writing literary fiction – that’s simply how I was taught to write. But I soon found out that laurels from literary journals did not pay $$. Not to say that literary is dead in the water, but it’s not a huge seller. I researched which genres were aces-in-the-hole, and one of them was romance. I write regular contemporary romance, because … well, it reflects my general sensibilities.

Ghostwriting is different. Genre soup. Give me a substantive outline and a writing sample, and I can write anything. I’m a fairly proficient mimic.
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2 years, 12 days ago

I started out with Young Adult, that's my genre of choice. When Colleen Lindsey put out the call for Beta testers in early March she wanted Romance writers.

So I said I could write romance and mocked up a quick chapter. 76,000 words later I guess I'm a romance writer :P Bon Voyage just got its first round of queries sent out last night.

If it sells I suppose I'll have to put some sort of hat tipping to TheSekritProjekt in the dedication.
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2 years, 12 days ago

I think my romances can best be fit into the 'paranormal romance' category. They don't *quite* fit there, because they're a mash of Romance, Action, Weird, and Slipstream, but... They fit there better than anywhere else.

Almost everything I write has a strong romantic element to it. I've got a five book space opera series (one written, two in progress, two more planned) where the novels are action, but the meta-story of the series is romance. My Steam Punk series, Iron Angel, (my publisher is waiting for the next installment... I ought to be writing, not commenting, Bad Me!) is Action / Thriller / Military, but the first three / four books have a strong sweet romance element to them. Finally my Artifice series is Paranormal Romance, but the meta-arc of the series is about what makes humans human.

So... I write in a *lot* of genres. I know what I'm writing as I'm writing it, but I don't always know what genre it's going to fit in when I start writing.
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2 years, 11 days ago

LIsa and Robert, I resonate with a bit of what each of you said.
Lisa, I did not set out to write Romance, I had Literary Fiction in mind as well, but am quite practical and the romantic elements of the story were what my crit group were most interested in, so I drew up on that initial critique. I am not a huge user of uber detailed outlines , so as the story takes shape I will shift directions when neccessary.

Robert, I too feel like my story doesnt quite fit into the Romance Catagory. However, most of the backstory that I have created and is floating around in my head is what leads me to this concluions, and since much of that may not make or may not make it into the book its hard to say what the finished product will read like in terms of genre. Right now I think it reads a little more "Chick Lit" than I would like it to...but it is a WIP so...we shall see!
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2 years, 11 days ago

@Tawni,

Coming from a literary background is definitely more difficult when you get into the romance realm. I went to a workshop given by a NYT Best Seller, and we were talking about why I have to struggle with plot so much, and she asked, “You come from a MFA program, right?” I hemmed and hawed a bit (hey, I did NOT finish my grad work, to my credit), and she said, “Oh, you poor thing! So you’ve been trained not write a plot!” Which was pretty much on the money. Mind you, I love this writer. She’s great at what she does, and her plotting is simply perfetto!

One thing that she suggested that might be helpful to both of us was to take a class in writing for television or film, or reading a book about it. I’m really considering this, because apparently there’s a very specific plot arc for romance. What I’ve been doing is “graphing” other romance novels – so geeky! -- so I can see where the major turning points of the story occur and how they affect the characters’ relationship. Sort of like I’d analyze a musical composition.
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2 years, 11 days ago

I did finish my MA in Creative Writing/English Lit. Really the best thing to do if you feel you're having trouble breaking free of the literary aspect when it comes to writing genre fiction is to find those genre writers who you most like and those who you'd love to write like and immerse yourself in them. Absorb them. Right now you're still too caught up in trying to analyze everything in an academic fashion.

No, there really doesn't have to be a very specific plot arc to romance. Yes, some writers may write to a specific plot arc but really, as long as you understand some of the basic conventions, you can develop your own story. Yes, romance does have a plot. In general, all genre fiction does. But really folks, there is no requirement for "the kiss happens on page 65 and sex happens on page 169" and other myths I keep hearing.

Questions -- what about Romance novels do you love? Who are your favorite romance authors and what draws you to those books? Look at what they're doing and why it draws you in emotionally -- not academically.
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2 years, 10 days ago

@Lisa & @Marie, thank you for the helpful input. I feel like I am somewhere in between. I defintelyfeel I would benefit from a writing class, from a technical standpoint at least. As for the emotional draw in a read, I think this is where my forte lies. With Hindsight, posted here, I think the emotional draw is pretty in tact. The struggle with this piece is to really make sure it works technique wise; that there are no glaring faults. Though as a reader, I find it much easier to forgive and techinical misgivings if I am drawn in emotionally.

I think my main issue is whether or not my story really fits in the Romance catagory. There is definitely a strong romantic element to the plot, but there is a lot of other stuff going on. If you get a chance to read it let me know what you see!
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2 years, 10 days ago

There can be an inherent difference between a romance and a story with romance in it. Basically, in a romance novel, the playing out of the developing romance between the couple is the focus of the story and the main plot. Of course there can be combined elements, like a mystery, that lead to romantic suspense. But sometimes the story falls into another genre and is that genre with a romantic subplot.

Of course you do have to master the basic techniques of writing, and a writing class can help with that. Actually a good class or strong "real world" workshop can work faster than online critique groups if you have the right teacher leading the course. And you never stop learning. Even published authors go to conventions and sit in on other authors talks. But having taught writing, I sometimes feel developing writers become too caught up in the technical analysis behind the story when they might be better served by actually writing.

I remember being part of a Sisters in Crime group that was thrown into turmoil when Donald Maass spoke at a conference and said he didn't want to see "scene and sequel" used in novel development. Most of the group had read the book, done the workshops and planned their stories around the whole "scene and sequel" concept. And they felt like that had suddenly been tugged out from under them. I don't think the problem was really with the technical concept behind "scene and sequel." I think the problem was that Maass felt he was seeing too many submissions developed to fit an artificial structure rather than manuscripts where the needs of the story itself drove the structure.

Only part of writing can be done by learning the technical aspects that can be taught in a writing class. I can teach those aspects. But then the writer has to be able to take those and turn them into something that is more of an instinctive feel for each story. You have to live the story you're writing, and make the right decisions for that story. No formula found in a book will do that for you.
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2 years, 10 days ago

Very well said Marie!
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Showing 1 to 10 of 29 comments

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