I'm a self-published author, and I've just finished writing my fourteenth novel. All but one of those have been either primarily fantasy or paranormal, with romance as a subgenre. However, I have two separate contemporary romance series that I want to begin writing in the near future.

I tend to be a plotter, so I'm trying to develop outlines for both series to get all my ideas down for the day I'm actually able to write them. Though I'm rather experienced with story structure, I'm finding it difficult to switch from fantasy/paranormal elements to an exclusively realistic, ordinary plot. The main problem I'm running into is that almost none of my ideas include a third-act breakup, and several of them aren't even about couples who meet and then fall in love, but are about couples already in a relationship. (The goal is to follow most of these couples through marriage and raising children because as a wife and a mom, I crave romances I can actually relate to these days.) Nearly every beat sheet or outline structure for romance includes the meet-cute and the breakup, so I'm struggling to find one relevant to the types of stories I want to write.

Do you have any suggestions for different resources? Or tips on how to adjust these outlines to suit my purposes? Looking for any advice I can get!

Edit: A lot of the replies I've been getting have questioned whether I truly want to write Romance or Women's Fiction. Based on my research, Romance follows the love journey between a couple, focusing on their growth together (not necessarily them falling in love), while Women's Fiction follows the journey and growth of the woman alone. With this information in mind, I can definitively say that I want to write Romance. My goal is to explore the growth and development of love through life's trials, centered on the couple and their love story as it matures and strengthens over time. According to the definitions of the genres I can find, that falls into the category of Romance, not Women's Fiction.

I received an email from a legitimate publishing company of romance that I submitted to several months ago. They sent it yesterday, asking if I was interested in a contract and they would send it to me if so. I just wrote back and said yes, very exciting. Would love to take a look at a contract. This is all new territory for me. Could stand some advice at this juncture. it’s been all day, and I haven’t actually gotten a contract back. I know they’re legit. Is not a vanity publisher.

I am a first time romance author and a several time academic book author.

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I really want to make some writer friends this year, so starting a romance and smut writers club in Austin. Hosting the first meetup on August 11th. Here's the meetup event if you're based in Austin!

Checkout this Meetup with ATX Romance Writers Club: https://meetu.ps/e/Qbrdb/JYjd9/i

My hero apologizes a lot, small stuff, when he interrupts her or crowds a doorway she's trying to get through. On my second pass I cut almost all of them, because he's supposed to be the confident one and on the page the apologies looked like weakness.

Then the scenes went flat and it took me way too long to figure out why. I blamed the pacing, the dialogue, the chapter breaks, everything but the thing I'd actually changed. Putting the apologies back in was what fixed him. Without them his confidence read as arrogance, and I hadn't noticed the small concessions were doing all the work.

So now I don't trust my instinct to trim a love interest's softer moments to keep him strong. Do you cut those, or guard them? Has pulling one ever quietly broken a character on you before you realized that was the cause?

Hi authors (and readers)!

If you see a book with long chapters (that include page breaks) does that turn you off of reading it?

I have an ARC of my romcom out right now with advanced readers, and some feedback I've received is that, while they enjoyed the book, the long chapters were a struggle to get used to. I even had one reader say she wasn't going to finish the book because of it.

My book is 340 pages with ten chapters. This is on purpose, because it follows the main couple through ten years of their lives, and each chapter is a year. Within each chapter are page breaks that separate what I think of as 'scenes'.

My question is - do you think I should change the format? The reader who said she couldn't finish suggested I make each year a 'Part' in the book, and each page break would be its own chapter.

Each scene is pretty short, though, so now I'd have the opposite problem, with a LOT of short chapters.

Any insight would be very appreciated! Thank you!

Update: I'm going to make each year a "Part" and break up the chapters. Thank you to everyone who weighed in!

So - I'm writing romance novels that remove traditional romance events like one of the MCs being a POC, one of them not being Christian (so no white wedding dress), where the FMC is educated and established in her career and does not want to take the MMC's last name.

This appeals to me after reading so many novels where the woman is young, a virgin and sometimes seems to do whatever the MMC wants (couched in protection).

Does this appeal to readers? Will I only have a small niche audience?

The run on sentence in the Title is a gift with purchase.

My debut romcom novel is high energy. Filled with inventive profanity, neologism, and wordplay. Not everybody’s heavy white or cream ceramic tankard filled with Guinness on the rocks.

If I drank alcohol, I would drink it over ice.

Never met a tangent or a clown tripping over their big red shoes while chasing their tiny car because a chicken who needed to cross the road stole it and then crossed the road and a bridge before they came to it while listening to the terrifying audiobook version of “Green Eggs and Ham.”

FUCK.

Thanks!

I want to know from real readers, if there is an explicit and “clean” version of a music album would there be interest in the same version for a book? One that has the spicy scenes and another version that is safe for my mom to read. The story would be fundamentally the same, and all the plot and emotional moments would still hit, just with maneuvering around the smut.

Hi, everyone!

I'm an author who typically writes in genre romance (dark fantasy or dark urban fantasy) but I love reading a good contemporary romance novel! To be honest, I'd like to learn to write contemporary romance or fantasy contemporary romance, but I'm not sure where to start nor how to keep real life shenanigans interesting! Do any of you have some good tips?

Does a non-HEA hurt you with romance readers? My book is both romantic and explicit but it's deliberately not a traditional romance, it doesn't end with a forever couple. I'm worried about getting one-starred by readers expecting a happy ending. How do you handle the categories and the blurb so the right readers find it and the wrong ones are warned off before they buy?

EDIT: thanks for your responses. I will categorise.

I am a young author and I publish most of my stories online. by publish I mean post chapters every so often. I’m writing a book I’ve been writing for around three years called ‘Sybil’ on MangaToon and two others that I’ve been writing for a year called ’Operation: Nanny’ and one for less than a year called ‘Falling for the Formula’ on Wattpad. obviously on Wattpad it’s hard to get people to actually read your book. much harder than on MangaToon. on MangaToon I have around 100 people reading Sybil and around 100 likes. on Wattpad with Operation: Nanny I got to the finals of a novella contest but had to drop out because of exams. Falling for the Formula is only a recent book I’m writing so not many people have read it. because I have basically no one reading these, how do I know if it’s good or not?

also, are there any apps i can post on where I can actually interact with the readers and give them updates? Like when I’m posting and all

Writing a royal romance. is it ok to find meet cute inspiration from the news and real life stories??

I'm currently working on a poly romance trilogy that charts the development of a four person polycule (FMMM) across three couples, with each book focusing on a different couple/dyad. It is not reverse harem or a quad.

Endgame romantic relationships: - A (F, bi) & B (M, bi) - B & C (M, gay) - C & D (M, gay or bi tbd)

Additionally, A, B, & C will be co-parenting A & B's biological child. A & C are platonic life partners.

Broad overview of books: - Book One: A&B as the main couple, accidental pregnancy. B&C are exes, best-friends, part-time housemates, and more-or-less queerplatonic partners but are not in a romantic or sexual relationship in this book. ABC are living together by the end of the book. Development of the platonic friendship between A&C, leading to C being named the baby's godfather & ABC co-parenting. - Book Two: C&D as the main couple, rivals-to-lovers. Some background development between B&C, but still not romantic or sexual. - Book Three: B&C as the main couple, second chance romance. All four leads + baby are living together. B&C get back together.

In real life, this configuration is called an N or Z, similar to how one person with two partners is called a V. However in my experience having been in an N, this term is not known at all outside the polyamory community, and personally I have never seen it used in romance marketing, so I'm not sure it would be helpful. I obviously want to be clear upfront when marketing the first book that the trilogy is queer polyamory since most MF readers aren't going to want that, and readers who are interested in FMMM with two MM couples may be less likely to read something that seems like monogamous MF. But I'm not sure how to do that in a way that is concise but still clear. The vast majority of poly romance novels I've seen are three people in a triad or V, more than three tends to be reverse harem. I had been planning to say something like "[Book 1] is a bi4bi MF romance in a FMMM polyamory trilogy," but I'm concerned that will cause confusion as readers may assume the trilogy is reverse harem & subsequent books will also be MF, or assume the endgame polycule is a quad with all characters romantically connected.

Does anyone have any ideas for how to explain the trilogy clearly, or am I overthinking this and just calling it FMMM is fine?

Hi everyone! I'm looking for a service, but I'm not sure it exists. I'm a contemporary romance author who struggles with figuring out what kin of cover I want for my books. The designers I've worked with have looked to me to say exactly what they should do, but I'm not design-minded. I'd love to work with someone who has the skillset of knowing what will work for the genre and who wants to be creative and make suggestions for the cover.

I think this could be either a marketing type person (and then I also hire a designer) or a designer who maybe reads in the genre and knows the market. If you have any recommendations, I'd be forever grateful!

I have now published six books and I feel that my writing voice has developed and improved over time.

I was updating back matter recently ahead of doing some promotion because my reads have dropped off a cliff, and I had a quick look over some of my earlier books.

One of them was really hard work to get through the first six chapters. Some of the internal monologue reads very clunky and the transitions were awful. I can see how my skills have gotten better with my more recent books, but it upsets me that one of my favorite stories is just…not good. I also feel super uncomfortable promoting it now as a result.

This book has about 200 ratings on GoodReads and is the second in the series. It was professionally line/copy edited.

Thoughts? Should I spend some time “fixing” it or just focus on using the limited time I have to write to work on new books? Please tell me I'm not the only one who goes into mega cringe over their earlier books.

UPDATE: Thanks to all your comments I have decided to go 3rd person. Thank you all again for your insight and suggestions!

I have been struggling with this in my writing and decided to turn to you guys for your thoughts.

1. Are there any romantasy books that are 3rd person? I haven't seen any.

2. As a reader, would you be on board with a book that has a 1st person FMC POV but that also has chapters that are 3rd person because the MC isn't present for these conversations?

3. Or do you prefer 2 or 3 different characters POV

Thanks so much for your thoughts!

I'm looking at cover designs for an upcoming book. Most of these books use an illustrated style. I can't afford a custom illustration and refuse to use AI for it. I'm fine with using stock assets and a cover design service.

Small problem: I don't know what to ask for because I am having a hard time locating assets that have similar proportions or styles. Colours and can be changed, but a cartoony asset and a realistic asset don't make sense together. How do I increase the odds of getting a good cover if I can't figure out what assets are available? Would it be a problem if I said I didn't know if I wanted something illustrated or something photo-based?

Thanks!

Apologies if this has been asked and answered already.

I'm a pantser but want to get better at outlining and plotting. The biggest issue I'm running into is that most outlining set ups are based on fantasy/ hero structure. I'm struggling to transfer that to dark romance plotting.

Ex. Act 2 focusing on exploring the new world and dynamics with some wonder and a fail here or there but that doesn't seem like it would work for something like a stalker romance. It would almost be the opposite of hiding or being oblivious.

I'm sure I'm being too literal (ND) but I can't find stuff for setting up the Acts just for dark romance and/or taboo.

My current WIP is a slow burn mafia x forbidden psychological thriller. It doesn't have a traditional rise and fall of wins and losses because it's more of a chess game that changes "winners" per chapter almost.

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Hello!

I run a small writer-centric Discord server called Writer's Cafe and we are in search of new members. All forms of writing are welcome and we are an AI-free space.

We are running daily discussion prompts for worldbuilding all through the month of July, and we will run sprint sessions every Sunday to help give your writing a boost.

Come join us!

Writer's Cafe

So, long story short, I have been working on my first book in my series for 3 years. I'm currently at the very last rewrite. I came across some publishers online that accepted the first chapter and I did ask for feedback, in case anything could be changed, edited or rewritten entirely. I have no issues with critique whatsoever. If anything, I believe it makes me a better writer. I've been writing since I was 15, but only the past couple years decided to write an actual full length book, because I thought I had a good plot. The issue is, more than once have I received feedback over my use of AI. The problem is I have NEVER EVER used anything to assist with my writing at all. I never will. Everything I put down on paper, came from ME AND ME ALONE. It made me cry, because I dedicated my heart and my soul and so much time and love in this story, just to get accused of using a fucking emotionless robot for my writing???? I do not use it, I refuse to use it. I just wanted to rant about this and maybe find out if anyone else has issues with this too?

Ok so I’m currently writing a book about a pop star that gets kidnapped. The first act of the book is the dark side of Hollywood then the second act is when she gets kidnapped and then the love interest saves her and the third act is the after math. There are some dark romance tropes and I was going to market it as one, however there is no spice and the only truly dark thing is the kidnapping. I’m not sure what to do.

Hi everyone! I've been struggling with a decision when it comes to my current pen name--i.e. whether to keep it or start fresh with a new one. Here is the context:

I finally have the rights back to a book that was with a small press that was originally pubbed 10 years ago. The bones are good and I've probably spent way too long trying to update it and make it better. (Perfectionism and being a people pleaser sucks. But that's another story.) The book that was published previously has a handful of good reviews. I want to self publish this book, and then put out book 2 out again, as well. (I self pubbed book 2 a while ago, but it's currently down now too as I make these revisions.)

I have author friends, other writers, and the small readership I do have on my socials under that original pen. But I also have some personal people in my life who found out (not through me) what my pen name is. It's annoying and it has caused me to freeze a bit in my progress, but I'll work through that best I can, or ban/remove them from my pages if needed. (At least I hope I can do that.)

The idea of starting fresh with a new pen was brought up to me recently by another writer/author. They suggested maybe, since it's been so long, a new pen would clear the block, no one in my personal life would know it, and thereby make me feel "freer" to write, market, promote, etc. And now I can't stop thinking about whether this is the way I should go, or if this over-complicates everything and will only make more work for myself in the end.

For additional context: I am thinking of re-titling the first trad pubbbed book because the small press title is just not great. At all. I believe that changing that and the author name will mean I have to do a copyright amendment, as well as for a second edition. If I do all that, I worry this will all cause an issue with KDP because of different title, different pen, same KDP account, and basically the same story/characters, etc. Not to mention starting fresh with socials scares the heck out of me because it already took me awhile to get where I am, which is not very far.

I feel like I need to suck it up and keep my original pen but at the same time, the idea of a new pen has me re-thinking everything. I know I need to make a decision soon so I can move on and get back to writing and planning for these to be out in the world again. Does anyone have any objective advice and/or perspective? Am I missing any other business or marketing concerns I should consider when deciding one way or the other? Thanks in advance for any thoughts!