Write Romance with the Secret Plot Formula

You're inspired to write Romance novels. The task seems easy enough. Everyone knows a Love Story's simple, time-honored formula:

• Boy meets Girl; 
• Boy falls in love with Girl;
• Boy and Girl live happily ever after. 

There's just one tiny problem with your "formula." It only covers three scenes that Romance readers want and expect. 

So how are you going to fill the other 355 pages?

"No sweat," you boldly respond. You read commercial Romance all the time. You've seen lots of fascinating stuff happen in the middle of the book: murder investigations, magic quests, Zombie tea parties... (Well, maybe not that last thing.) The point is, you have lots of ideas and plenty of precedent. You figure you'll knock out those 355 pages in a couple of months.

Then you get your first reality check... 

It comes in the form of a manuscript critique. 

"I thought you said this book was a love story," whines Beta Reader #1.

You're stunned. It is a love story. Why can't Miss Whiney-Pants see that?

Beta #2 chimes in, "Then why are all these killer clowns (or Russian spies, or space aliens) in your book? Where's the juicy stuff?"

Juicy stuff? You're wounded to your core.

Of course, you were going to put some sizzle in the middle... eventually. But obviously, you had to write about the time-traveling robot. And the hero's triumphant battle with cannibals. And the heroine's secret fling with her gypsy fortuneteller (who was supposed to be a walk-on, until he got really interesting in Chapter 72.)

"Wait a minute. How long is this book?" Beta #3 demands suspiciously. "Romances are only supposed to be, like, 200 to 400 pages long. You knew that, right?"

Uh...not really. Somehow, your sweet little love story turned into an 800-page monstrosity about crystal balls and soul-stealers from The Beyond. Maybe, just maybe, you don't know how to write Romance, like you thought you did.

Write Romance Novels that Sell

So let us blow your mind. To write Romance novels that readers want to buy, you need to understand that: 

• 7 plotting pitfalls guarantee "no sale" in a Romance; 
• 3 specific "milestones" MUST appear in every scene;
• 6 clever hacks can prevent readers from closing your book at the end of a chapter; and
• There's a right place and a WRONG PLACE for the hero to speak the L-word. (Who knew?!)

My Friend, plotting a Romance novel is NOT easy. For 10 long years, I received rejection letters from Legacy Publishers, even though I was an award-winning journalist, with a track record for excellent writing! 

What finally sealed the deal? 

The answer may surprise you. I didn't get my first book contract because I completed 2 novels, or because I sat through dozens of workshops at 5 national Romance conventions. I didn't get published because I was a finalist in a national Romance-writing contest, or because I acquired 2 literary agents!

Nope. I got my first book contract because I finally mastered the formula to write Romance for the commercial market.

To learn this formula, you would have to study hundreds of Romance novels (which doesn't guarantee success.) Or you would have to spend thousands of dollars on college courses — assuming, of course, that your professor actually knows the commercial Romance formula. Unfortunately, most college professors only know how to teach literary fiction (which will never earn you a book contract from Harlequin, Avon, Entangled, Kensington, Hallmark...etc.)

As for self-publishing? Let me put it this way. If your storytelling can't compete with the hundreds of expertly written Romances, published by Traditional Houses each month, your labor-of-love will quietly die, unnoticed and ignored.

So think what you like about "formulas," but I'm here to tell you, learning to write Romance for the commercial market does not have to be hard. Nor does it have to be expensive. That's why I developed this comprehensive plotting course for Romance authors...