A romance novel is forever for some of us. 

“What’s the ‘most’ quintessential novel?” friends ask me. Some argue it is the true crime paperback they’re reading for no more than four hours and are already halfway through? Others say it is the Erotic thriller, conceived first in literature, and later, picked up by doting movie producers all too quickly. Maybe it is science fiction, bending our brains a little beyond what we can ever imagine? Or is it really the one which we’ve all read and relished at least once, and we secretly wonder if any other type of novel will make us feel so much as this one did – that good ol’ romance novel? 

Romance novels are eternal for readers like me. 

And so shall live the romance novel and its writers. Every generation has had its champions – Shakespeare gave us the incomparable, era-establishing Romeo and Juliet, Jane Eyre put Charlotte Bronte forever on the map of epic romance writing, Jane Austen’s body of work, as no talk of romance is ever complete without mentioning her grand prowess. We also have some modern, contemporary champions, whose works have been heavily adapted in new media and film – Nicolas Sparks, the leading lord of writing tear-jerker romances that aren’t easy to forget, Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander which revived the thirst for historical romance in readers all around.

All Drama, No Queen by Andaleeb Wajid, (also features in our list of 82 Women Writers in India) Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon The Heart Asks Pleasure First by Karuna Ezra Parish, The Worst Daughter Ever by Aarti V Raman and Wrong by Shilpa Suraj are some of the contemporary Indian romance novels that will make you want to fall in love all over again. Sandhya Menon’s When Dimple Met Rishi has even been turned into an a web series by Netflix – available for you to binge watch once you have read the book.

The burning question here is how does one ever write a romance novel like Austen, or Bronte, or create fire on the page like Sparks? How does one write a romance powerful enough to stand so solid that it becomes a trope of its own, much like Romeo and Juliet?

How to write a Romance Novel

It is not a Formula, but Fundamentals

Do these things have a formula? 

Some say there is. But some say there is a formula to life itself! Yet, had there been a formula, something so sure, everyone would write a romance novel that hits & stays on the top of bestseller list or living the same kind of picture-perfect life. But that clearly is not the case, and so the hypothesis falls flat. But there is something else. Something we like to call the ‘fundamentals’. 

Unlike a formula, fundamentals allow us larger playing field. It’s diffused knowledge and every good romantic novel contains these attributes in its prose. If you have a firm hold on the fundamentals of romance writing then, you can write a romance novel that you have been dreaming about. And just like no one lives the same formulaic perfect life, you will too find your own unique voice to write a romance novel. 

Your craft will improve if you grasp these very simple rules. We have comprised a short list of nine simple rules (or fundamentals) of romance writing which will give you all the ammunition you need to write a romance novel.

You may find this interview with Shravya Bhinder, Bestselling Author of Something I Never Told You interesting.

The 9 Rules of Romance

1. Write from the Heart 

If something is about matters of the heart, then it would be quite a shame if it doesn’t come from the heart. This first rule is cardinal, central to any and all kinds of writing, be it prose, poetry, fiction, genre fiction, non-fiction etc but clearly, it applies most to writing romantic stories or novels. This is probably because romantic stories work only when they have a bareness to them, almost a kind of stupidity (or innocence) because in love we are our most vulnerable, most open, most unfiltered self. Hence a little bit stupid, as we navigate the uncharted waters that is loving another person. 

But what does writing from the heart really mean? This is one of the easiest things to do and at the same time, the hardest. It simply means that write what comes to you. Dig deep inside your own feelings and understanding of the people around you, and the complexities of the world and write about that. And most importantly, don’t forget to write the harder, uncomfortable parts of your or your story’s truth. 

There are some tricks to the trade of writing from the heart. All they require is some self-awareness. A writer always has to carry self-awareness with herself in order to truly render the complications of the emotional world. In romance, more so than others. 

• Write as if no one is reading. 

The first and foremost thing is that you write freely, you let the story flow out of you and you do not worry about the punctuation, the grammar, the timeline of events or even a general sense of continuation. This is sometimes, also called the ‘vomit draft’, where you release everything on the paper in a go. Once you will see all of that on the page, you will be able to structure it, compartmentalize it in different sections and mould it into better prose. But the idea is that whatever you will do here, in this zone, you can be assured that this is what you really had to say.

• Write In-Emotion.

Write sections of your novel or fiction when you yourself are feeling emotional about things. If you are feeling ecstatic, and full of emotion, sit on your desk and write it down. Or if you’re feeling deeply sad, do the hard thing and get that on paper. Chances are the paper will offer you more resolution than anything and the emotions will allow for gravitas in your fiction. Get into the deep emotional state, which is also famously called the ‘flow’ state and just simply write down everything you feel in the moment.

• Doubt Another Time. 

Write simply for yourself. As a writer, we easily get distracted and demotivated by reading the criticisms of other writers, criticism of our genre, or subject matters, and even the greatness of some writers making us worry incessantly how could we ever write like them! We doubt highly, that the stories we have to tell are utterly insignificant and that we will never make it. Forget about all of this. It’s the smart thing to do! Simply write what you want to say. Part of being a writer is sitting at the desk daily, regardless of enthusiasm, typing words on and on. Doubt plays a big part in great writing. It helps us edit, it helps us restructure, and it helps us see our own work from the eyes of others. But there is a time for it and it’s usually at the end of the day.

2. Write what you know (or feel)

When it comes to love stories, and the multitude of romance novels that are out there, writing what you know is absolutely essential. The love story is a classic, and only when you bring in your own unique experience or perspective or world to it, will it become renewed. 

Some people, when they are new to writing (and sometimes even the veteran ones) make the mistake of straying too far from what they are naturally good at. It is always a good idea to experiment in your own style, push your limits and build new strengths, but one should do it while maintaining the core of their own voice and knowing what makes their work powerful.  

A writer writes best when they are talking about the things they have experienced. Let us say that you are a writer who has spent all her life in Bombay and you write a novel about two lovers set in Seoul. Unless you have spent a lot of time in Seoul, you cannot present a convincing picture of what it is to live and exist in Seoul. One must weave an intricate picture to write a convincing story; a rich portrait can only come out of a rich experience. Experience that you actually have, only translated into fictional scenes. 

But what if you want to write a vampire or a werewolf romance? What do you do then? Clearly, no one has had the direct and privileged experience of falling in love with a werewolf. So how to write it best? In this case, the imagination is the same as experience. So if you have watched a lot of werewolf movies, read a lot of vampire novels or have flipped a history book or more regarding the history of witches, it all counts as experience that will get you to write your novel.

3. Who are you writing to? aka find your Sub-Genre 

Even when one is writing like no one’s reading, as we mentioned earlier on, there is always an audience in the writer’s head. That audience could also be their own selves, looking back at the work in a future time. Writing is less of a monologue and more of a conversation with the different characters and voices that live inside our heads. There is always an audience. 

It is important to know who you are writing to when you are writing a novel. Are you, in fact, writing to a much younger audience, let us say 15-18, who have not seen the world so deeply, and have lesser experiences than a 40-year-old reader? Because you might have to explain things a bit differently. Gen Z has a whole different language than Gen X. Whether you are writing YA or adult romance or literary fiction, choose your themes, characters, and place and set accordingly. 

If age is a major deciding factor in understanding the needs of your audience, you also need to know the romantic niche you are writing in. The tropes traditionally used in vampire romance are slightly different than the ones used in a college romance. It is also important to know what the readers are liking and reading on a basic level, or what is the magnum opus of the said genre. This is not so you try to copy anyone or twist your narrative for the market, but maybe to slightly shift the market itself and change the audience you imagine in your head. You should write to the audience that deserves your work, the audience that you connect with. 

It is very important to know your audience as they can make or break novels. So ask yourself once – is your novel YA, is it adult romance, is it a historical romance like Julia Quinn, harlequin or gothic romance or is it very savvy, very contemporary like Salley Rooney or Melissa Broder?

4. Maintaining Space-Time: Place Setting and Worldbuilding are everything

Your setting is everything. You can have the best love story, the most drool-worthy of characters (Mr Darcys of the world), and the most gut-wrenching, time-tested romantic tropes, but if the story does not live up to the time and place in which it exists, it will falter and shatter. 

It might seem that place setting and worldbuilding belong to speculative fiction writers, sci-fi, or if romance, then only those who write only of zombie love and animaguses. Rather, place building is absolutely essential in every single written thing. One has to bring the reader down to the place they are at. 

Some tips about nailing the place and time of your romantic novel:

• Do your research. 

This is especially true of those who write historical romance or regency love stories (much like Bridgeton). They need to know the period they are writing about, the rules, manners, and basic philosophical and political ideas of the period so that the characters can truly depict the joys and hardships of the world. Now this does not mean one needs to write a history book. Let’s take the famous Bridgeton example. The regency era gets a sharp, fictitious turn when people of color got handed the titles of Lords and Ladies. Even as the author does this and gives power to the underrepresented people, she also puts great effort into not erasing the actual struggles they went through. In fact, it is a fabulous idea, because by finally giving handing a microphone to the other side of history, the author allowed for a louder debate within the show, than just a subtext. 

• ‘Place’ in Romance need not be a Romantic Place. 

A lot of blogs seem to suggest that the set and setting for a romantic novel is best done in places like Paris or Florence, or maybe near the beach or on forgotten islands, in busy New York with the characters being busy career-minding people who end up finding the time for each other. The truth is, a great romantic novel can be written anywhere, in the busy, unapologizing streets of India, playing atop houses connected roof-by-roof or maybe in a hospital where death and grief stand alongside love and bloom. All you need is a deeper knowledge of the setting so that you can churn out suitable characters from it. Like a tattle-tale aunty who intently watches the roof hopping in India or a patient in said hospital, in the throes of death, inspiring the junior resident to go ask his colleague out, as life doesn’t give chances to everyone. So be imaginative!

5. Write Strong Characters: Main Couple and Side Characters

In the same vein as the ‘setting’, the romance novelist has to spend a good time fine-tuning the characters and the arcs they follow in order to bring the story to fruition and truly move the reader. Some writers lose this game because they put a lot of energy into making their main characters well-rounded and strong but are not able to bring the same x-factor in their side characters. Side characters or supporting characters are the pillars on which a story stands. In order to write strong characters for your novels, make sure that you follow some of the proven character writing strategies for all your characters. The main couple, definitely, more than ever. 

• Built a backstory

You might be starting your novel in medias res, that is, smack in the middle of action. For say, your character might be this brooding, dashing person emotionally unavailable to their lover. Someone who does not want to fall in love at the start of your novel. This should have strong reasons which will require explanations later ahead in the story. In order to allow such a thing to happen organically and flawlessly the romance writer needs to have a good sense of the backstory of your character. Think about everything, even if you do not want to use it in the book – about her parents, grandparents, the jobs her parents did, their struggles, her best friend from childhood, the kind of food she likes, and personal philosophies. Basically all of it, from the minor details to the archetype personality of the character!

• Give them quirks

Good and imprinting characters are seldom perfect. They are quirky, idiosyncratic and sometimes absolutely nerve-wracking. Quirks also make characters relatable. We all have faults and weird stuff. And it is sometimes the stuff that makes people fall in love with us deeply. At the same time, if you’re writing a marriage-romance story, it is these very quirks that the wife/husband could love and has come to hate. Quirks, used smartly (almost as unconscious motifs), can do a lot for you when writing a romance novel. 

• Write from the complexity around. 

The best way to write deep characters is that you take from the vast complexity we see around us, in ourselves and in the people of our lives. Write through that. We contain multitudes, which allows for contradictions and paradoxes. See across yourself, your parents and your friends and think about what kind of people they are, think of their love stories and how being in love changed their actions and sense of self. This is all important fodder.

• Give them an arc.

This is a pretty standard advice for writing characters. All your characters, more or less, should have an arc. An arc means that they need to change in some way from the start of your novel to the end of the novel, they should either shift their moral compasses to either side, learn empathy, or self-worth, or do something that makes them into a slightly different human being. Give the reader a journey. 

You may want to check out this interview with Kiran Manral where she talks about developing her protagonist in detail!

6. Tropes are Evergreen. But like promises, they are meant to be broken!

When you’re writing a romance novel and are looking for the best advice on the standard do’s and don’ts, you might find a lot of conflicting information when it comes to using romantic tropes. 

The truth is that tropes are evergreen. They are hard-coded into our realities. They are the stories that we have always heard – the love triangle, the friends into lovers, the one where the lovers’ families hate each other – our brain and body respond unconsciously to them. But it’s important to note the fact that our times are constantly changing, and sometimes we get bored of the same story, or it doesn’t fit the new, modern sentiments, at times it even offends them. So it is important that the romantic writer very consciously chooses the romantic tropes that fit their story. Energize the reader when they find that the love triangle is actually a quadrangle (cue: Conversations With Friends)

7. Getting Intimate with Intimate Scenes

When writing a romantic novel, there will come a point where you have to pen down scenes where the lovers come closer than ever. These scenes are tricky to write at times and it all depends on the type of book you’re writing or the kind of voice you have. You can be very subtle, or very clear.

Let us take the first few lines of Raven Leilani’s debut novel Luster. ‘The first time we have sex, we are both fully clothed, at our desks during working hours, bathed in blue computer light. He is uptown processing a new bundle of microfiche and I am downtown handling corrections for a new Labrador detective manuscript. He tells me what he ate for lunch and asks if I can manage to take off my underwear in my cubicle without anyone noticing. His messages come with impeccable punctuation. He is fond of  words like taste and spread.’ It is explicit yet it is not about the sex they’re having. 

Intimate scenes are powerful, during those times our characters are vulnerable, and desiring which has the potential to reveal some of their deepest attributes.

8. Follow the Shape of the Story

The shape of stories is a famous concept. It was Kurt Vonnegut’s thesis which he wrote during his time in academia. According to this, every story follows a shape. He also gave eight universal shapes that a story can follow – bad to worse, boy meets girl, man in hole etc. Your story is also likely to follow one of these shapes depending on how conflict plays out. Is it a tragedy where the lovers aren’t able to come together, or is it a saga where they come and go and come and go? It is important to have some awareness of the general arc of your story in order to prevent major, structural rewrites of your novel. 

9. Read, Read and Read

Good writing is preceded by good reading. This is an age-old truth that all writers need to read. 

Writers need to read vertically, in the genre of their writing to understand what are the predominant thoughts of the era, what the readers of their time are responding to and even the craft of their particular genre. If you are a romance writer, it is imperative that you have read through the length and breadth of romance. It can really help one; for example, intimate scenes and the trouble some writers have while writing them can be solved by flipping through the works of others. It will tell you more clearly than ever, what works for you and what does not. 

Writers also need to read horizontally, that is to say, wide outside their own genres. Don’t just read romance, read literary fiction, children’s fiction, speculative novels etc. A writer is never a writer, they are a reader too, the first one of their work, in fact. And, if you need a bit of help with building a reading habit, check out our post on ‘How to make a habit of reading’

Conclusion

In order to write a romance novel that connects with the audience, a great aesthetic/style, a vault-tight plot, beyond-compelling characters, and an enticing setting are all that is needed; and this is all held together, and woven through the writer’s own unique voice. Stick to the shape of the story, read a lot, take your settings, characters and their core feelings from what’s around you, know your audience and once again, most important than any rule ever, write straight from the heart.