Tag: writing romance

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Knowing (and Meeting) Reader Expectations

All fiction readers come to their chosen stories with certain expectations.

A mystery reader expects a puzzle to solve.

A thriller or suspense reader anticipates tension and excitement and an explosive ending.

Fans of literary novels expect to get lost in world building, beautiful prose, and lovely descriptions.

Romance readers expect:

  • Well-drawn characters
  • On-the-page chemistry between the hero and heroine
  • Compelling reasons that keep the two apart until they wake up and realize they’re perfect together, leading to a
  • Satisfying resolution and a
  • Happy Ever After ending. Or at least a Happy For Now ending

Characters need to be compelling and feel like people we could be friends with in real life. They should have story goals that are known to the reader close to the beginning.

Give them a quirky trait to seal them as true-to-life characters. In The Princess Bride, Farm Boy Westley responds to Buttercup’s every demand with, “As you wish.” Darcy’s pride covers his growing feelings for Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.

Hero and heroine both need to grow during the story, overcome obstacles and learn something about themselves that helps propel them to the end of the story.

The recent release, Here With Me, by Mandy Boerma with Tari Faris and Susan May Warren, is a second chance romance. Both Sadie and David contributed to their break-up ten years ago. To get to their Happy Ever After, both characters must learn to overcome their weaknesses—David to communicate more clearly and Sadie to trust and accept help. David has a failure along the way, but he learns from it and becomes more determined to win Sadie, no matter how long it takes. Sadie feels betrayed and let down and it reinforces her resolve to handle everything alone. David’s persistence and care helps her learn that God can be trusted, and she should accept help when she needs it.

There are various kinds of chemistry romance characters experience. There’s instant attraction, the slow burn (Enemies to Friends, for instance), or awakening interest (Friends to Something More).

To keep readers turning the page, the story needs to have tension. Tension is not the same as conflict. An argument is conflict. So are competing goals. The best tension comes from something unexpected or unknown happening.

You create this by using things such as:

  • Subtext in dialogue
  • Weather or other external forces
  • A ticking clock (often used in suspense and thrillers but can also be put to effective use in romance. Maybe the heroine has to raise a loan payment and is running out of time. Perhaps the hero has to get a job or apartment to prove to the court he’s a worthy guardian)
  • Failure or the fear of failure

Other elements romance readers expect:

  • Witty dialogue/banter, especially with humor
  • The hero and heroine sharing lots of time on the page together
  • A unique setting. Rural town, mountain village, coastal settlement, or neighborhood in an urban area are often used.
  • Romantic gestures, large or small. Remembering she loves peanut butter cookies and bringing some to her at work. Or getting the whole community to support the unveiling of her big project in the town square.

Of course, the best characters need a compelling storyline and plot. They need shared goals as well as individual goals. They need conflict with competing goals. And it all needs to culminate in a satisfying resolution.

With all these elements, your readers’ expectations will be met with a heartwarming, compelling story and they’ll close the book with a contented sigh, satisfied.

The best reward for a romance writer.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Romancing Your Story

To Thine Own Self Be True

  • Plotter or Pantser? Or Plottser?
  • Outline or just start writing?
  • Index cards or story map?
  • The Hero’s Journey or Save the Cat?
  • Three Act Structure or Four?
  • The Emotion Thesaurus or 1,000 Character Reactions?
  • Scrivener or Word? Or Google Docs?
  • Tropes or archetypes?

There are nearly as many methods, resources, and ideas about writing romance as there are romance novels. New writers are often overwhelmed by the vast—and sometimes conflicting—teaching they hear.

Friend, I see you. I am you.

In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon wrote, “the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body.” In other words, there is always a new and shiny technique guaranteed to make writing your novel easier.

But does it really?

Thinking about a story, outlining a story, plotting a story is not the same as writing the story. No matter the method or process, writing a novel requires BIC (Bottom in Chair) time. And fingers on the keyboard, typing.

Writing is what makes us writers, not the number of craft books on our shelves.

Joanna Trollope said, “I have more books than I’ll ever read, and I keep buying more books. It’s the one addiction I have.”

I have bought (and then given away) enough how-to books for a writer to furnish a small library. If someone I like recommends a book, I snap it up, set it on top of my already close-to-toppling TBR (To Be Read) Mountain. And there it sits until I can’t take its reproachful cover glaring at me any longer and I place it on a shelf with its other abandoned siblings.

Then I plant myself in front of my computer, place my fingers on the keyboard, and get to work. 

Until my story stalls, yet again, and I run to the newest shiniest craft book on my shelf searching for the secret sauce that will make my story stand out and get noticed above the estimated 2.2 million books published each year.

The answer to how do we make our stories unique:

  • Be original.
  • Be familiar.

Contradictory, right?

Not really.

Readers want stories they relate to.

This accounts for the various and popular tropes. All readers have personal preferences, and this extends to tropes. They may like marriage of convenience stories, enemies to friends, friends to more, secret baby, fairy tales retold, and so on. But even with familiar tropes, readers want something new and original and fresh. 

I have a friend who used to say she wanted to be the next *insert Big Name in publishing.* Our critique friends kept telling her that was impossible. Not because her writing wasn’t good enough, but because she was shortchanging herself and her readers by not being the best writer she could be, instead of a pale imitation of someone else.

She listened, wrote a book from her heart, and it found a publishing home. Making her writing transparent and vulnerable made the difference.

I still buy craft books. I even read some of them. But I’m far enough along on this writing journey to trust that I can write stories worth reading.

So can you.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Romancing Your Story Writing Romance

A Rose By Any Other Name (Authenticating Details)

Once upon a time, when I was new to fiction writing, I brought a chapter to my weekly workshop/critique group. I read a selection from a romantic suspense where the heroine receives a package from a stalker. In the padded envelope was a dead bird.

My workshop leader/writing teacher/mentor complimented the writing and plot twist, then asked me a question.

“What kind of bird was in the package?”

(I had no idea.) “Hmmm. A little brown bird. A sparrow?”

“Why not say sparrow instead of bird?”

“I don’t know.” (This shows how much I needed to learn.)

“Authenticating details are part of what takes good writing to great writing.”

It took me a long time to understand what my mentor was saying: specificity makes the scene come alive for the reader. “Bird” could mean anything from penguin to turkey and your reader pause to wonder just how big that package was. A sparrow evokes a specific image.

What are some ways to add depth and details to our story worlds?

  • Choose the specific over the general, such as buzzard rather than bird, rose instead of flower. But don’t go so far into specifics (unless it’s vital to the plot), that the reader must pause and research what a long-wattled umbrella bird looks like (black, short-tailed, with a head crest. The males have long wattles).
  • Weather can help set the mood. It’s hard to describe a suspenseful scene if it’s a bright and sunny day. Are the clouds dark and menacing, full of rain? Or white and puffy, moving gracefully across the sky?
  • Food. Is your character eating fries out of a bag while driving their Mini Cooper or leaning over a sink, eating a ham on rye sandwich? Or sitting alone at a long table in an ornate dining room with candles and green cloth napkins to eat a bucket of chicken?
  • Music. What’s playing in the car or in the café? Does a song evoke an emotion in your character?
  • Smells. A steak sizzling on the grill elicits a different expression than driving by a dairy farm. (Trust me, it’s not pleasant.)
  • Clothes and fashion. In the movie Grease, when Sandy’s attire changes from Peter Pan collar blouses and skirts to black leather and off-the-shoulder tops, the viewer knew instantly she was telling Danny she was willing to change to fit into his world.
  • Accessories. Does he wear pearl stud cufflinks and a matching tie pin? Does she wear an armful of bracelets or a colorful necklace?
  • Props. If they scribble a note to say they’re meeting a friend for coffee, do they use a fountain pen, a broken crayon, or a highlighter?

Anything that adds visual detail to your scene will help your readers know and “see” your characters. An engaged reader is one who keeps turning the page. Exactly what we want.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Writing Romance

REALISTICALLY RELATABLE

Making your hero and heroine relatable is key to creating characters your readers will care about, will laugh with, and will cry over. Your protagonists must also care about each other. They must have enough in common so that their attraction makes sense, but they also must have enough differences to create conflict.

How do we create characters who leap off the page and into our readers’ hearts?

Characters need to have:

  • Relatability. Make them human, not perfect. Give them flaws, real character flaws, not just physical imperfections. I once edited a book by a man whose heroine was perfect. I told him she needed to have a flaw. “She does,” he assured me. “She has a limp.” A limp is not a flaw, it’s an imperfection. Being quick to judge is a flaw. Lying about inconsequential matters is a flaw. An inability to apologize is a flaw.
  • Strong personalities. I’m a fairly passive introvert and my first drafts heroines are very much like me. In other words: boring. It’s in the rewrite that I figure out their personality and give them some sass and spunk. I’m in the process of doing that with my work-in-progress’s heroine. She’s still way too passive, but she’s getting there. I’ll often think of something outrageous that I would never do and force my heroine to do that. I’ve had characters go bungee jumping, sing karaoke, and appear on a reality television show.  
  • Conflict. Both within themselves and with each other. In my work-in-progress I’m pairing a hero with a strong sense of justice and honesty with a heroine who is intent on helping someone, but it means not telling the full truth. Instant conflict!
  • Attraction. They need to have chemistry, which is easy to see, but hard to write and describe. I guess I’m a prude, because physical attraction is the hardest thing for me to write. Kissing scenes about kill me. I’m beyond grateful I don’t write sex scenes. But showing physical attraction between your protagonists is crucial to getting your readers to cheer them on to their happily ever after.
  • Obstacles. Kind of like Conflict, but bigger, harder, more intense. Always be thinking, What can happen to keep this character from reaching his/her goal? What can I throw at them or put in their way? It can be anything from weather to mechanical to physical/geographical distance to family or work responsibilities to employer policies to those pesky personality differences.
  • Authenticity. Nothing makes a reader lose interest in a book quicker than a character who does something unrealistic. I once read a “romance” where the hero gave the heroine not one clue that he was interested in a relationship. I was convinced that at the end, he’d give her an incredulous look and say, “Where did you get the idea I liked you, much less that we were dating?” and she would realize she’d made up the whole relationship in her head. Alas, he apologized for all the ways he’d failed her and promised to be a better boyfriend in the future. I instantly apologized to my heart for making it pump all the hours I’d wasted reading a book with zero plausibility.

Writing realistic and relatable characters is a skill worth learning. It’s the secret sauce that will turn your stories from good to can’t-put-down-able.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Romancing Your Story

What’s Your Type?

So many personality types and traits and tools to figure them out.

  • The Enneagram
  • Myer Briggs
  • The OCEAN Model
  • The 4 Types

These are just a few of the various personality typing tools available to writers for crafting characters.

The Enneagram is currently popular but can be overwhelming with its nine personality types and the interconnecting relationships they form.

Myer Briggs starts with four models, but with all the possible combinations, it ends with sixteen personality types.

The OCEAN model measures five traits:

  • Open-mindedness
  • Conscientiousness
  • Extraversion
  • Agreeableness
  • Nervous/High-strung

The 4 Types have had various iterations depending on who’s espousing them. I’ve heard them described as Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic, and Melancholic. Also Popular, Powerful, Peaceful, and Perfectionist. Or Tigger, Rabbit, Eeyore, and Pooh. Otter, Lion, Golden Retriever, Beaver.

What all this means is, as writers, we have a plethora of available personality traits to draw on for characters. The challenge is in making our characters seem like real people, not a list of characteristics chosen from a list.

The Hero:

  • Ruggedly handsome Checkmark with solid fill
  • Over six feet tall Checkmark with solid fill
  • Cowboy/Navy SEAL/Billionaire Checkmark with solid fill
  • Loves puppies and babies Checkmark with solid fill 

The Heroine:

  • Beautiful without makeup Checkmark with solid fill
  • Quiet and studious Checkmark with solid fill
  • Too busy for love Checkmark with solid fill
  • Scheduled/organized or messy/forgetful Checkmark with solid fill 

I got tired of reading about heroines who always had their hair up in a messy bun, so I gave my last protagonist a short, spiky pixie ‘do. Not exactly a character trait, but it was something different and it worked for her.

The best characters are complicated and full of contradictions. A cooking show host who can’t cook (Dining With Joy by Rachel Hauck). A high ropes course guide who’s afraid of heights (a story idea I’m playing with). A businesswoman who paints and creates (You’ll Be Mine by Rachel Hauck and Mandy Boerma). A 5’5” executive protection agent (The Bodyguard by Katherine Center). A doctor who faints when he sees blood (Doc Martin).

How do we “go deeper,” as my former writing mentor used to say, beyond hair and eye color, occupation and height?

Everyone has something from their childhood or adolescence that shaped them into who they are as an adult. Don’t be afraid to explore that incident or wound.

I know a writer who literally (yes, I’m using that correctly) fixes a cup of coffee for herself and her character, then sits down and asks the character all kinds of questions, starting with what kind of coffee drink do they like and why.

“Oh, you’re a tea drinker, not coffee. Why?”

“Yes, having hot coffee spilled and leaving a scar on your arm would be quite painful. Was it an accident?”

“Thrown at you? By whom? Your father? Who was he angry at? How old were you?”

And so on. She drills down until she gets at exactly what happened.

Sometimes, of course, a coffee preference has no hidden meaning. In that case, the questions start more broadly until something pings.

“Tell me about your family. What’s your birth order?”

“Youngest in a large family? Were you the spoiled baby or lost in the shuffle?” She’ll continue in this way until she learns the character was an over-achiever, always trying to get noticed, and this is why her protagonist must be the last one to leave the office every day. She’s overly conscientious and that can lead to compulsiveness and obsessiveness.

Questions are a powerful tool to help you find the personality traits that will move your character from a stock archetype contrived from an Enneagram assessment or Myer Briggs profile into a fully-fleshed out person who rises from the pages to live in the reader’s mind long after they close your book.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Writing Romance

Who’s Behind the Mask?

Upon doing a search for romance novels that include a masquerade, I found that many romance novels include the word “masquerade” in their title, and Goodreads has a list of 1,147 books that include a masquerade in the story, but not all of the 1,147 have the word “masquerade” in their title. Many of them do not look like something I would read as I only read clean and/or Christian fiction, but I just wanted to point out how often masquerades are used in romance novels.

I remember reading only one book that included a masquerade, but I was very caught up in the masquerade and found it intriguing that the gentleman revealed his name to the woman from the start. However, she did not know him, but knew a bit about him as he was from a royal family. In addition, another man comes and interrupts their conversation to ask her for a dance. This man only reveals his first name to her, and so begins a battle for the female character’s heart.

I have heard of other romance stories where the romance begins at a masquerade as well, but neither character reveals their identity and each is left wondering who it is they have found an interest in, as they have no knowledge of the person’s name or what they look like. This begins the romantic plot of the story.

After finding so many romance books that include a masquerade, I have reached the conclusion that a masquerade is a popular romance trope. Because the masquerade often includes anonymity on the part of one character or the other, it brings to mind another popular romance trope—when one character or other has amnesia, usually temporary.

There is also a very famous romance story, the original being released in installments in a Paris newspaper over the course of five months, from September 23, 1909 through January 1910, before being published as a novel just two months after the last installment appeared in the Le Gaulois. This story also included anonymity because of a mask—Le Fantôme de l’Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera) by Gaston Leroux first published as a novel in March 1910, later made extremely popular by Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Broadway musical.

Another popular story that includes a type of anonymity between the male and female characters is Beauty and the Beast, where the man has become a beast because of an evil spell cast upon him. Most of us are most familiar with the Disney version of this story. However, there is speculation that it originated in 2nd Century CE in an ancient Roman tale. Other claims say that the original Beauty and the Beast was written by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve in 1740, and the most popular Beauty and the Beast story is said to have been written by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont in 1756. All three of these stories are different from each other and different from the Disney one we all know and love.

Tropes are very popular in romance novels and these are just some examples of how you can take a popular trope, such as a masquerade, and tweak or twist it a bit to still create a romance trope that begins with initial anonymity.

Kelly F. Barr lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She is married and has three sons. She writes historical romance. She has also been a blogger for ten years, and every Friday, you can find her Flash Fiction stories posted for your reading pleasure. She loves her family, including the family dog, books, walks, and chai lattes.

You can find her online at:

Website: kellyfbarr.com

MeWe: KellyBarr8

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Can Your Male Character Still Be the Hero in Your Romance Novel?

The current writing trend is to have strong, independent female characters. These female characters can run a business and a household, AND fight the bad guys, so do they really need a man in their lives? The romance genre has added more types of romance and characters to cater to all the different lifestyles in the current world.

However, God is still the Creator and His Word is still true and still says a true marital relationship consists of one man and one woman. I believe there is a need for both Christian Romance and Clean Romance. I know that the romance genre sales have exploded since 2020. Why? Because romance readers need “happy endings”.

I also believe that plenty of women in the real world, like the career women and the single moms, get tired of being strong and independent. They get tired of “doing it all” and would truly appreciate a strong, yet gentle, loving man to rescue them and give them a break, to allow them to have time to rest.

Maybe the only place they can find such a man or a break and rest in their life, is through reading a romance novel where there is a male character who offers his strong shoulder to the female character to  lean on, cry on, or simply rest on. A male character who will make some of the decisions for a while or take the kids to the park for a while, maybe even cook dinner occasionally. A Christian Romance novel can give them a taste of this type of relationship. It can offer them something to consider, to possibly make a change in their lives—to make better choices or to just know they have options and don’t have to “do it all”, or maybe our stories will simply give them the break they need and help them find their hope and strength in the Lord.

More importantly, we know that God made women more emotional then men, so even the strongest female CEO needs to release her emotions and appreciates a man with a good listening ear who can encourage her and who will hold her in his strong arms.

We may see lots of crazy in the world right now and wonder if there is a place for our romance novels. The good news is “yes”, there is a need for strong male heroes in romance as well as a need for good Christian themes running through our romance novels. There are hungry readers out their looking for, not just a happy ending, but also for hope, and we, as Christian Romance authors can give them what they need and are looking for.

Kelly F. Barr lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She is married and has three sons. She writes historical romance. She has also been a blogger for ten years, and every Friday, you can find her Flash Fiction stories posted for your reading pleasure. She loves her family, including the family dog, books, walks, and chai lattes.

You can find her online at:

Website: kellyfbarr.com

MeWe: KellyBarr8

Categories
Romancing Your Story

How Candlelight Brings Out the Romance in Your Characters

What is it about candlelight that makes a candlelight dinner so romantic?

First of all, did you know that when someone finds another person attractive, their pupils dilate and the other person finds that attractive as well. Studies have shown that men who viewed a photo of a woman with larger than normal pupils didn’t later recall her dilated pupils, but described her as “more feminine,” “soft,” and “pretty,” whereas, they described the woman with small pupils as “hard,” “selfish,” and “cold.” However, women who preferred “nice guys” were drawn to men with medium sized pupils and women who preferred “bad boys” were attracted to the men with larger pupils. No matter what size pupils you’re subconsciously attracted to, candlelight can help because low lighting, like candlelight, causes pupils to dilate and can duplicate those attraction signals.

Candlelight also reduces stress and helps us relax, making it easier to drop into a romantic mood because you aren’t feeling tense or rushed. Candlelight casts a glow in a small area, so even in a restaurant, if you are seated in a room lit only by candles on the tables, you feel as though you are in your own little private space.

The man in your romance novel can create a perfect romantic scene, whether it’s a candlelit dinner, picnic, or movie night.

Long, slender, taper candles on the dinner table between him and his leading lady. Placing scented candles around the living room and choosing a romantic movie for the two of them to watch as they snuggle up to each other on the sofa, or if you’re writing about a married couple having problems and he’s trying to rekindle the romantic feelings they had for each other in the past, he could fill a couple crystal bowls with water and add a floating candle to each and set them in the bathroom near the tub and run a bubble bath for her, then he can prepare dinner that will be eaten by candlelight in the dining room. He could follow the candlelight dinner with a couple scented candles burning in a room with open floor space, play their favorite love songs, and ask her to dance.

Scented candles can also add something to the scene as we are all sensitive to smells, and certain smells can trigger memories, like an ocean breeze scented candle reminding her of that romantic evening walk along the beach on their honeymoon.

The next time you need to add a romantic scene to your romance novel, or your fantasy or other genre novel needs a little something, remember all the things that candles can add to a scene or to a romance through their light or their scent.

Kelly F. Barr lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She is married and has three sons. She writes historical romance. She has also been a blogger for ten years, and every Friday, you can find her Flash Fiction stories posted for your reading pleasure. She loves her family, including the family dog, books, walks, and chai lattes.

You can find her online at:

Website: kellyfbarr.com

MeWe: KellyBarr8

Categories
Writing Romance

What About Commitment?

Let’s face it. The majority of romance readers, including me, prefer a happy ending. But does that mean  the “fuzzy feelings” last?

Of course, anyone who has fallen in love and had a romantic relationship, whether short term or long term, married or not, knows that … no, the “fuzzy feelings” do not last long term, and … “happily ever after” doesn’t mean there will be no bumps in the road or struggles to overcome.

So, does a happy ending in a romance novel require “happily ever after”?

I don’t think so. But I do think our romance stories are missing an important piece. How does a couple remain “in love” for the long haul? They take their wedding vows – their commitment to each other – seriously, and they don’t give up during the difficult times.

What happened to commitment in our society? Sadly, our world has become a place where we get most of what we want quickly and easily, and this has bred expectations for quick and easy satisfaction in every aspect of life. Also, with the high divorce rate and many churches now accepting divorce, I think too many people go into marriage with the idea that “if it doesn’t work out, there’s always divorce”.

Commitment isn’t really talked about in today’s society or in many marriage ceremonies. Could Christian Romance authors possibly have an effect on today’s society or make them start thinking more about commitment again? I believe we have a responsibility to try. 

I believe we need to give commitment more of a spotlight in our fiction.

I’m not saying, “forget the romance”, but let’s show what commitment means. Imagine having your male and female main characters experiencing some conflict in their relationship. Of course, every story has to have some conflict.

But what would happen if we showed our hero thinking about how much he really loves this woman, in the midst of the conflict, and show his willingness to do the hard work—to find a way to work out the conflict and show he’s in this relationship for the long haul. Or, you can do the same through the female character or, better yet, through both characters.

I know every woman loves a warm, fuzzy, feel-good romance story, but I think there is a place for romance stories to include some of those fuzzy feelings while being more realistic. I believe showing how a relationship can actually last for many years because of the commitment of one or both people can add something to the story – something that will not only surprise the reader, but also give them inspiration, encouragement, and hope in their own relationship.

If you’ve seen the 2008 movie, “Fireproof” starring Kirk Cameron, you know what I’m talking about.

That movie, and Kirk’s insistence to have his real life wife be the one he kissed in the movie, instead of the actress playing that role, was a powerful example of commitment. There must be a need for such stories as that movie grossed $6,836,036 in its opening weekend and went on to gross over $33 million dollars in the box office and over an estimated $50 million in DVD sales. It also inspired couples to try the “Love Dare” to save their own marriages.

This doesn’t mean that if you write a good love story emphasizing commitment, you’re guaranteed a best seller, but your story may inspire some woman or some couple to value the importance of commitment in their relationship.

Kelly F. Barr lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She is married and has three sons. She writes historical romance. She has also been a blogger for ten years, and every Friday, you can find her Flash Fiction stories posted for your reading pleasure. She loves her family, including the family dog, books, walks, and chai lattes.

You can find her online at:

Website: kellyfbarr.com

MeWe: KellyBarr8

Categories
Writing Romance

Can You Write Christian or Clean Romance That Isn’t Boring?

Let’s face it, even Christian men and women want to feel that spark of attraction in a romance novel or their own relationship. God designed us to be attracted to each other, but there are definite limits we aren’t supposed to cross before we marry.

Some readers prefer their romance novels squeaky clean. Other readers want their romance novels to express some physical attraction.

What do I mean by squeaky clean?

These novels don’t go farther than the man and woman finding each other physically attractive to their eyes, and maybe near the end of the novel they’ll feel a spark or tingle at the other’s hand brushing their arm. But throughout the novel, they don’t hug or kiss. Maybe they hold hands once or twice.

So, in a squeaky clean novel, the writer has to really develop the characters’ personalities and they have to know what they are looking for in a person they would want to marry. These things have to come out in their dialogue and the activities they participate in with each other. That’s how they will eventually come to realize that this is the person for them without getting into any physical affection, or keeping it minimal like the spark when his hand brushes hers or the hug he offers when someone or something upsets her.

One other great way to show their attraction without the physical, is to have him protect or defend her in a situation. For example, he protects her from an old boyfriend showing up and grabbing her arm, demanding she talk to him. Or maybe he defends her when one of his friends says something negative about her.

Readers who like their novels squeaky clean find a man who will protect or defend a woman swoon worthy. They also enjoy when a man sends flowers or presents her with chocolates or a small piece of jewelry, or offers his coat on a chilly night, or opens an umbrella to protect them from a downpour.

Don’t get me wrong.

Readers who like novels with a little more physical attraction action also like the above signs that he cares. But they also want to feel the electrical spark between the leading man and lady, and they want to read about their hugs, caresses, and kisses and their desire for more, even though they refuse to cross that line until they’ve tied the knot.

The readers who want a little more physical attraction don’t want things to go beyond the bedroom door. They just want to know that when the time comes for these two characters to cross the bedroom threshold, there will be some fire, but they don’t want to read about it.

Your Christian or Clean romance novel doesn’t have to be chaste to please your reader. It just has to be either modest, sweet, or steamy as long as it doesn’t go beyond kissing and hugging. None of your Christian or Clean romance readers want to read about the sexual act. They just want to read about the physical attraction.

Kelly F. Barr lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She is married and has three sons. She writes historical romance. She has also been a blogger for ten years, and every Friday, you can find her Flash Fiction stories posted for your reading pleasure. She loves her family, including the family dog, books, walks, and chai lattes.

You can find her online at:

Website: kellyfbarr.com

MeWe: KellyBarr8

Categories
Writers Chat

Writers Chat Recap for February Part 2

Writers Chat Recap

Writers Chat, hosted by Jean Wise, Johnnie Alexander, and Brandy Brow, is the show where we talk about all things writing, by writers and for writers!

“Because talking about writing is more fun than actually doing it.”

Featuring…

How to Write a Romance with Johnnie Alexander

The $1.4 billion Romance genre is the most competitive and the most profitable Amazon category. Writing a story for this popular genre that readers will love requires authors to be familiar with readers’ expectations and popular tropes. On this episode of Writers Chat, Johnnie Alexander, discusses these topics and shares guidelines on how to write a romance with an engaging and emotional story arc. If you’ve ever wanted to write a romance or want to improve your romance-writing skills, then this is the episode for you!

Watch the February 15th replay.

Johnnie Alexander, an award-winning author of more than twenty works of fiction in a variety of genres. Her award-winning debut novel, Where Treasure Hides, is a CBA bestseller which was translated into Dutch and Norwegian. Her latest novel, The Cryptographer’s Dilemma, hit the Amazon best-seller list. Johnnie also writes contemporary romances, cozy mysteries, and romantic suspense. She is on the executive boards of Serious Writer, Inc. and Mid-South Christian Writers Conference and co-hosts of an online show called Writers Chat. She also teaches at writers conferences and for Serious Writer Academy. A fan of classic movies, stacks of books, and road trips, she shares a life of quiet adventure with Griff, her happy-go-lucky collie, and Rugby, her raccoon-treeing papillon. Connect with Johnnie at johnnie-alexander.com.

At the Writers Conference with the Writers Chat Team

In a previous episode, we talked about preparing for a writers conference. This episode focuses on your time AT the conference. Our Writers Chat Team discussed the following topics with input from our participants: ~~What to take to the conference ~~Conference etiquette ~~Staying open to God’s plan for the conference ~~Five tips from a director’s perspective Other helpful tips were also shared plus info on upcoming conferences. https://youtu.be/Z5jSThOfRs8

Watch the February 22nd replay.

Writers Chat is hosted live each Tuesday for an hour starting at 10 AM CT / 11 AM ET
on Zoom. The permanent Zoom room link is: http://zoom.us/j/4074198133

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Hole-Hearted to Whole-Hearted and How to Get There

What hole is in his heart? What hole is in her heart? This is where your romance story begins. Both your main male and female characters—the ones that will commit to one another by the end of the book—need to have a hole in their heart they are trying to fill, or are resisting to fill, at the beginning of your romance novel.

Maybe he wants to find a lasting love but comes from a broken home. His parents divorced when he was young after a lot of fighting, and maybe they bounced him back and forth, or maybe one of them completely walked away from him after the divorce. These things cause him to believe that he isn’t lovable or that all marriages are destined for divorce.

Maybe she longs for a lasting love but has been hurt by more than one man she thought was “the one”. Maybe several men who seemed interested, loving, and kind turned into workaholics with no time for her, or verbally, emotionally, or physically abused her. Now she’s afraid to give another man a chance; unsure she could survive another bad relationship, leaving her with a bigger hole in her heart.

These two characters obviously struggle with an internal conflict.

When they are thrown together in your story, in whatever situation you choose, they may feel a physical attraction. They may think “this might be the one”, but their internal conflict is still raw, so an external conflict results. Each of them resist the relationship in some way, trying to protect themselves.

As time progresses and you continue to put them together through the setting or their circumstances, eventually one of them softens and warms up to the idea that this relationship might really work out.

The other one may still resist for a while, but sooner or later, they both soften and their love for one another builds to where they both believe this relationship isn’t like the one his parents had or like the previous relationships she had.

The hole in each of their hearts heals and they commit to one another.

This is one possible basic plot line for a romance story. Every romance novel needs a boy and a girl who want and need love. Maybe the hole in one of their hearts is something that causes them to believe they don’t have time for love and romance. But whatever the hole is will affect the relationship between them.

The romance plot also needs an external struggle because romance stories need conflict. Conflict is the driving force behind a romance story, and maybe the external conflict is the one I mentioned above, or maybe one of the men who hurt your female character comes back seeking another chance just when she thinks she may have some real feelings for the man you’ve recently placed in her life. There are many external conflicts you can use.

But in the end two characters who began hole-hearted, become whole-hearted.

Kelly F. Barr lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She is married and has three sons. She writes historical romance. She has also been a blogger for ten years, and every Friday, you can find her Flash Fiction stories posted for your reading pleasure. She loves her family, including the family dog, books, walks, and chai lattes.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Guest Posts

Plot Structures: Predictable or Helpful?

Guest posts

Girl meets boy. Even though it’s obvious to the reader that they would make a perfect couple, they don’t like each other. Somehow they’re forced to spend time together. They gradually fall in love but then they have a big argument and break up. Eventually they come to the conclusion they can’t live apart. They reunite and live happily ever after.

This is a basic romance plot structure. I want to address your immediate instinct which is to roll your eyes and complain, ‘It’s so predictable.’

When it comes to stories, predictability is generally considered a bad thing. Would you read a book if you knew the ending? You said no, right?

Chances are, you’ve read a romance novel. You’re probably thinking about ‘Twilight’ or ‘Cinderella’ right now. What do these two stories have in common?

‘Nothing. One is about vampires and one is about fairy godmothers.’

Wrong. They both end with a romantic happily ever after. You knew (consciously or subconsciously) when you started reading that the girl and boy would end up together. It was predictable. Did it take away from the story?

‘Twilight’ and ‘Cinderella’ follow the same basic plot structure but originality is still achieved through characters and context. Even though they fall into the same genre, these stories attract different audiences. ‘Cinderella’ is for little girls who like dressing up as fairies and princesses. ‘Twilight’ is for edgy teenage girls with weird types. (No judgement.)

One of the benefits of using a basic plot structure to craft your story is ease of writing. Girl meets boy is a good place to start if you’re stuck. And that predictability we were talking about makes it easier to read as well. There’s a clear beginning, middle and end. That makes a story.

You can edit it into a good one later.

Many writers don’t decide to use plot structures but they emerge naturally as the story evolves. The truth is, plot structures are a good place to start if you’re suffering from a bad case of writers’ block.

In the words of Jodi Picoult,

‘You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.’

 Deborah Rose Green is the author of ‘Dragon Pearls’ (2019) and ‘Crown My Heart’ (2020). She’s the Contributing Editor for the ‘Hey Young Writer’ blog and starting her Creative Writing degree in September.

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Walk on By: Secondary Characters

Secondary characters are the seasoning in your story soup.

Who can be secondary characters, or sidekicks? Often, they’re the protagonist’s best friend, but they can also be a family member, co-worker, neighbor, or even a frenemy. Sidekicks give the hero and heroine someone to talk to, someone to confess their feelings to, someone to be honest with. Sidekicks can say things your heroine or hero need to hear. Secondary characters can act as the hero’s conscience. Secondary characters often provide comic relief with quirky characteristics, either physical or in their personality.

If you’re writing a series, a sidekick can be the main character in the next story. Susan May Warren is a master at this. Her series, Global Search and Rescue, starts with friends Jenny, Aria, and Sasha on Mount Denali. They meet Orion, Jake, and Hamilton. Book Two is Aria and Jake caught in a hurricane in Florida, with Jake’s friend and boss Ham Jones, the hero of book Three. Warren’s Christiansen Family and Montana Marshalls series all focus on different family members in each book.

Or the secondary character could be a common character in each story in the series. The coffee shop barista with hair that’s a different color each week. The waitress at the diner who never writes down an order but never mixes them up. Or constantly mixes them up. Gayle Roper’s Seaside Seasons series has a guy with a metal detector on the beach in each book. He often has a word of wisdom to pass on with the buried treasure he finds. J.D. Robb’s In Death series has the candy thief who steals Eve Dallas’s candy no matter where she hides it in her office. Nora Roberts (writing as J.D. Robb) has promised to reveal the candy thief when she ends the series, which I’m happy to say looks like won’t be happening any time soon.

The secondary character can provide what James Scott Bell calls the “man in the mirror” moment. This is when your protagonist looks at their life and who they are, then decides if they’re happy with that or are going to change. The sidekick can give your hero or heroine advice or feedback, facilitating that man in the mirror moment and assisting the change.

In the movie Sleepless in Seattle, Rosie O’Donnell played Becky, Meg Ryan’s character Annie’s best friend and editor. Becky provided a sounding board for Annie to talk to about how crazy her obsession was with Sam, the “Sleepless in Seattle” caller to the Dr. Marcia radio show. When Annie pitched Becky an article about the Dr. Marcia show, Becky (and the viewer) clearly knew Annie was really asking if she should try to find and/or meet Sam.

Sometimes a secondary character will walk into your story and try to steal the scene. Be careful to keep the spotlight where it belongs: on your main characters. If your secondary character turns into a scene stealer, give them a stern talking to, then consider offering them their own future story. That will usually convince them to play nicely for the rest of your current project.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Romancing Your Story

The Romance Promise

Every book written begins with a promise. No matter if it is fiction or nonfiction, there is a promise of what the reader can expect to find in the book.

As a reader, how would you feel if you picked up a diet book expecting tips on losing weight along with recipes for healthy food only to find tips for making candy and recipes for delicious cakes and pies? As the reader, you would be disappointed because it wasn’t what was promised in the description.

The same is true for fiction. Every genre makes a specific promise.

Romance promises the reader a love story. Be it a historical, contemporary, secular, Christian, traditionally or independently published, when a reader buys a book in the romance category, they expect two people to fall in love.

Romance is a broad category in fiction and readers base their expectations of what the book is about on the back cover blurb and publisher. Knowing the market is critical in understanding the promise you are making to the reader.

As the reader begins the first page, she/he is ready to go on the journey with the two main characters. We root for the characters to overcome the obstacles standing in their way and enjoy watching their trust grow and turn to love. When all seems lost, we are eager to cheer for them when their love prevails, and the story ends with the expected happily ever after (HEA).

While attending a secular romance writers group meeting, I listened to some of those attending discuss how the HEA was outdated. Some seemed to think that it should be changed to “happily for now.” I can only speak for myself, but I’d be disappointed if the book I’d invested my time in ended with a “you’ll do until somebody better comes along.”

As a reader, if I’m looking for something clean or Christian, I’m not going to be happy if I stumble into a book with language that I find unacceptable or explicit sex scenes.

With traditionally published books, finding yourself in an unexpected genre isn’t as likely since editors and marketing are careful about the books they publish. Unfortunately, that isn’t necessarily true in independently published romances.

I talked to a local reading group member who told me about a book selection they’d made because the writer was a local Christian romance writer. She shared that she was shocked at some of the language used and the explicit sex scenes written among scripture verses. She said she would never buy a book by that author again. She went on to say she felt cheated.

It was a clear example of a writer having broken her promise to the reader.

Readers need to know they can trust us to deliver a satisfying love story within their chosen romance category. When we break that promise, we disappoint and probably lose a reader. As authors, we don’t want to give readers a reason not to buy our books. When you make the reader a promise, be sure you keep it.

Happy Writing!

Award-winning writer, Rose Gardner’s journey toward publication has come in two phases. During the early years, she was a finalist in thirteen contests and won her category in seven, was a 2007 RWA Golden Heart finalist in the Long Contemporary Category, and 2nd runner up in the 2008 Harlequin Super Romance Conflict of Interest Contest. After a break from writing, she returned to writing with a renewed focus on clean, contemporary heartwarming stories about love, hope, healing, and the power of forgiveness. She has won or placed in several contests for unpublished writers since 2017 as she works toward publication. You can find out more about Rose at her website mrosegardner.com or on social media at Facebook at MRoseGardner/, Twitter MaryGardner6, Instagram mrosegardner/ 

Categories
Romancing Your Story

How Do You Write Characters of the Opposite Gender Realistically?

This was a question I saw in the Twitter writing community and realized it is a challenge, especially in a romance story. As a woman, how do I effectively write my male protagonist realistically in my historical romance stories?

Until seeing this question on Twitter, I hadn’t really thought about it. However, I spend quite a bit of time planning my characters—getting to know them—before beginning my story. I create their back stories as well, because my stories are character driven so I want to know my main characters inside and out. I think that’s a great start.

Also, in my neighborhood, my sister and I were the only girls for a long time and we had the biggest yard. Therefore we played a lot of kickball and wiffleball with boys. I had lots of boys as friends. I think spending time with boys as I was growing up allowed me to understand them and get a pretty good idea of how they act and react to different things.

It also helps to watch and observe people. I enjoy people watching. It’s an activity you can do just about anywhere.

I am part of a small critique group, and the first summer I was part of the group, there was a gentleman in the group. I submitted chapters of my historical romance story each time we met. Often when we met to offer feedback, this gentleman would remark how impressed and surprised he was at how authentically I portrayed my male protagonist. He remarked on my male protagonist’s dialogue lines as well as his reactions toward the female protagonist.

My husband and I have been married for 26 years, which I believe also gives me a good sense of how a man acts and reacts. It also has given me insight into the differences between men and women as God designed us. As we spend time with those of the opposite gender, talk with them, listen to them, and observe them we get a pretty good idea of how to write the characters of our opposite gender in our stories.

If the characters that you write of the opposite gender seem unrealistic or react to a particular situation in a strange way, take some time to observe the opposite gender, especially as they interact with someone of your gender. Also, talk with someone of the opposite gender, maybe share what you’ve written with them, and allow them to give you some thoughts and ideas.

However, I strongly encourage you to dig deep and develop your characters’ personalities, the family they grew up in, their back stories, their strengths and weaknesses, their needs and desires – everything you can think of to create a deep well-rounded character – as this will help you to write your characters, of both the same gender as you and the opposite gender as you, effectively and realistically. Spend time writing down everything you know about your character; creating your character, before inserting them into your story.

Kelly F. Barr lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She is married and has three sons. She writes historical romance. She has also been a blogger for ten years, and every Friday, you can find her Flash Fiction stories posted for your reading pleasure. She loves her family, including the family dog, books, walks, and chai lattes.

You can find her online at:

Website: https://kellyfbarr.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kellyb_26

Facebook: Kelly F. Barr, Writer

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Tension is Necessary in Romance Fiction.

If you are writing a clean or Christian romance, you still need to build tension in your story. Depending on the story you are telling, the tension may or may not begin with a denial of attraction. Perhaps they will experience an initial dislike for the other person or have accepted that they are “just friends.”

Romances, by their nature, promise a love story with a satisfying happily-ever-after ending. Your characters must find a way past the denial stage and realize there is more to their relationship. This is a critical turning point in the story.

Foundation for growth

The first look or the first physical contact may cause butterflies, but there needs to be more of a foundation for a relationship to grow. For some characters, it will be a wish or a desire for affection. Maybe a dream of having a happily-ever-after, no matter how unlikely it seems with the person they feel attracted to. 

The wishing for a relationship must turn to your characters to wanting to spend time together, even if one or both are still in denial. They need to begin looking forward to seeing each other. Maybe external circumstances draw them together, which results in them becoming more comfortable with each other.

That doesn’t mean they are suddenly emotionally on the same page. They may have intense disagreements about something in the story. Perhaps one wants to sell a ranch, and the other wants to keep it, but neither is willing to walk away. So builds the push and pull of their relationship. 

As they learn more about each other, they learn to coexist in their story world. Your characters develop a daily routine, whether they are sharing the same space, as in the ranch example, or regularly seeing each other over a common situation. 

It’s at this stage, that each partner will begin to accept and even appreciate the strengths in the other person. Appreciation is vital in building a relationship. Without it, one or both have no reason to stay connected to the other person. 

They begin to ask the what-if question and begin to imagine what it might be like to be in a real romantic relationship. Maybe one or both of your characters start to wonder what a kiss feel like, or perhaps experience an encounter that makes them feel accepted and connected in a new way. They begin to toy with the idea that maybe it could work. However, if our characters come together too quickly, there will not be tension.

In Susan May Warren’s book How To Write A Brilliant Romance, she says, “The pull toward each other, is just one half of sexual tension. We also need the push away from each other or the fear of loss.” 

The fear of loss

An internal obstacle causes the fear of loss. The internal wounds of one or both characters may lead them to believe the risk is too high. The fear of losing the other person if their most guarded internal wound is exposed. One character may summon the courage to ask what the other person fears. Or even more powerful to risk rejection and ask them to stay. 

The internal wound cannot remain a secret from the other person if their relationship is to be realized. Each character must feel their love interest will accept the broken parts of them and all. They will be loved for who they are and will be there for them in times of hardship. Only then can they become more intimate with each other, both physically and emotionally, and have their wish for the happily-ever-after become real.

If you want to dive deeper into creating emotional tension, I’d like to suggest the following books:

  • Writing A Romance Novel for Dummies by Leslie Wainger
  • How to Write a Brilliant Romance by Susan May warren
  • The Story Equation by Susan May Warren
  • The Writers Journey by Christopher Vogler
  • The Virgin’s Promise by Kim Hudson
  • The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Mass
  • Troubleshooting Your Novel by Steven James

Rose Gardner’s writing journey has come in two phases. The first was focused on contemporary category romance. After a break, she returned to writing contemporary heartwarming stories about love, hope, healing and the power of forgiveness. During the first phase of her writing she was a finalist in thirteen contests and won her category in seven including a 2007 RWA Golden Heart finalist in the Long Contemporary Category, and 2nd runner up in the Harlequin Super Romance Conflict of Interest Contest in 2008. More recently she won 1st place in the Blue Seal Award for General/ Contemporary/ Romance Novels at OHCWC 2017.

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Does Romance Really Mean “Happily Ever After”?

As a little girl I was enthralled with the classic Disney tales of princesses finding their “Prince Charming” and living happily ever after—Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty. As a teenager I devoured Harlequin romance books and larger romance novels, each ending with the man and woman madly in love and the assumption that they lived “happily ever after”.

Therefore, like most girls, I dreamed of finding and falling in love with an incredibly romantic man, marrying, and living happily ever after. Now let’s pause a moment here to talk about what this idea of “happily ever after” is. When you watch the Disney princess movies or read the romance novels, there may or may not be any real tensions or problems between the man and woman that have to be worked through for them to continue having a “happy” relationship. Often, their relationship appears perfect—not a care or problem in the world. Is this idea of “happily ever after” realistic? Of course not.

Are we doing our readers a disservice if we paint this kind of perfect romance? My opinion is “yes”. I remember being quite upset when I realized that Disney princesses’ “happily ever after” doesn’t exist in the real world. To achieve happily ever after requires hard work from both the man and woman in the relationship because men and women are different. God created them to think, feel, and communicate differently, and that can present struggles and problems they must learn to talk about and work through in order to have a “happily ever after”.

Will including such problems in our romance stories, even before marriage, make our stories less, or lose readers? I think, by showing characters that face real-life struggles, our stories become richer and more relatable. Depending on how you choose to show how your characters work out such struggles, you may even be helping your reader with a struggle in their own relationship by showing them a possible solution they may not have thought about. Including such problems in our characters’ relationships can not only make our characters stronger, but strengthen the story as a whole.

As a romance writer, I have had several ladies say to me, “Why are the relationships in romance stories always so perfect? Why do they have to always have a happy ending? Real life isn’t like that. Just once I’d like to read a story that doesn’t end with “happily ever after”.

Does that mean you have to end your romance novel without a wedding or the happy couple walking into the sunset hand-in-hand? Not necessarily, but it could offer you a new option for some good tension or conflict in your novel. Or maybe, the boy doesn’t get the girl the reader thought he’d get at the beginning of the book. Maybe, he finds one that’s a better match, showing that not every relationship works out or ends in marriage.

Readers may find such a story refreshing.

Kelly F. Barr lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She is married and has three sons. She writes historical romance. She has also been a blogger for ten years, and every Friday, you can find her Flash Fiction stories posted for your reading pleasure. She loves her family, including the family dog, books, walks, and chai lattes.

You can find her online at:

Website: https://kellyfbarr.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kellyb_26

Facebook: Kelly F. Barr, Writer

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Writing Romance in the #MeToo Era

Once upon a time a romance novel plot included a heroine who wanted the hero to kiss her, but she had to pretend not to want that. She had to object. She had to act surprised. That was a reflection of the times. Women were expected to protest to protect both their virtue and their reputation. Women who wanted physical touch were wanton.

Those standards and mores faded in the late 20th century when women could actually enjoy a toe-curling kiss in romance novels (and in real life), along with other physical expressions of love.

But now we’re in the 21st century with sexual harassment, assault, rape, consent, dubious consent, and #MeToo stories in the news every week. Gone are the days when a hero can force a kiss—much less himself—on a heroine in a romance novel.

So how does the current day romance writer handle physical affection in our stories? If our hero has to stop and ask permission to kiss the heroine, it slows the story and action. Especially if then he asks if he can touch her “here?” “How about there?” And it’s not realistic for the female protagonist to instigate every caress, kiss, or cuddle either.

So what’s a romance writer to do?

Well, I have some suggestions.

First, get very good at writing visual signs of attraction.

Your hero needs to be able to tell the heroine is attracted to him. Study body language and non-verbal cues.

He can do things like move in for a kiss, then pause, raise his brows in a question. She smiles back as an invitation.

Movies and television are great tutors for this kind of thing, because they’re a visual medium. Watch your favorite rom com and take notes. How does she show her interest? How does he make his move without being creepy? Is it clear that she welcomes his move? How does she convey that to him?

In one of my favorite movies, Notting Hill, Anna and Will are clearly attracted to each other. They engage in flirty banter. They laugh together (she throws popcorn at him in a movie while he’s wearing his SCUBA goggles). She invites him “up,” after a movie date. Then in a classic plot twist, her boyfriend arrives on scene. Will exits, stage left, with the trash. The next time we see Anna and Will together, she’s single. (Thank goodness, or we wouldn’t like her at all.) In this instance, they both debate making the first move, but are unsure. It’s played out clearly onscreen. When Anna tiptoes downstairs, Will thinks it’s his idiot roommate and groans, then says, (more or less), “Bugger off. Go away.” When Anna replies, “Okay,” Will quickly recants. Anna perches on the edge of the couch where he planned on sleeping. You can imagine, as does the viewer, (most of) what happens next.

 Even though Notting Hill is more than a few years old, it does a great job showing the dance of consent. Probably because Anna is a celebrity, but that doesn’t make it any less of a tutorial for the contemporary writer now. Maybe more so.

In Susan Mallery’s current release, Meant To Be Yours, when the hero, Jasper, moves to kiss Renee, he says, “I may be reading this all wrong …” as he puts his hands on her waist and pulls her close. This gives Renee time to back away, if she doesn’t want him to kiss her. We know she does, so this works great to show her consent.

Of course, historical romance writers have a bit more leeway, because of the conventions of the times. But still, they’re writing for contemporary readers with contemporary sensibilities and would be wise to keep all this in mind.

A rake can be a rake, but he should still be a gentleman.

A lesson for all the eras.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever after. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. Carrie and her Stud Muffin live in Central California with their cat and dog and within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Twitter: CarriePadgett

Instagram: carpadwriter

Facebook: WriterCarriePadgett

Amazon Author Page: Carrie Padgett

Categories
Romancing Your Story

“Setting” the Romance

What do you think about when you think of romance? Oh sure, there are the typical things like boy meets girl, a dinner date or dinner and a movie. You may fantasize about what the hero or the lady look like, their personalities, their similarities and differences. As a writer, you’ll be thinking about how they’ll meet and what kind(s) of conflict will affect their relationship, as well as how they will overcome these conflicts to come together in a forever love.

But have you ever considered how your setting can enhance the romance? Consider this—when you think about what kind of romance you’d like, don’t you envision where the romance will take place? And you probably envision more than one setting for more than one date.

Building a description of the setting can help create romance.

Imagine: dinner at a top-notch seafood restaurant on the pier at a table by a window with a view of the moonlight shining upon the ocean. That view is enticing, so much so that after dinner, the lady and her date wander down to the beach, remove their shoes, and walk barefoot and hand-in-hand on the beach near the water’s edge. They feel a strong chemistry between them and little sparks shoot through their hands and up their arms at the physical contact of holding hands. They continue to take turns talking about themselves—getting to know one another.

Eventually, they know they have to go back the way they came. He has to drive her home. The night won’t last forever, but neither of them wants it to end. They look up at the bright, full moon and comment on the beauty of it as it shines upon the water. They breathe in the cool, salty air, then the hero turns to the lady, comments on her beauty and brushes some loose strands of hair from her face, places his hand on her cheek, then lowers his lips to hers for their first kiss.

You can take it from there, but do you see how the beach, the ocean, the moon and moonlight all add to the romance of the scene? You can take any scene you want, envision it in your mind and bring it to life in a way that enhances the romance or even causes the romance between your hero and lady to begin. Your settings can play an important role in your story. Don’t neglect them.

Some stories include a setting so well developed it almost becomes a character in the story. Be sure to use your settings to enhance the attraction, the feelings, the romance of your romantic stories.

Kelly F. Barr lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She is married and has three sons. She writes historical romance. She has also been a blogger for ten years, and every Friday, you can find her Flash Fiction stories posted for your reading pleasure. She loves her family, including the family dog, books, walks, and chai lattes.

You can find her online at:

Website: https://kellyfbarr.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kellyb_26

Facebook: Kelly F. Barr, Writer

Categories
Romancing Your Story

First, They Meet

The fact that you are writing a romance it’s a given that your hero and heroine have to meet each other.  The romantic relationship can’t begin until they do.

I once heard an author of another genre say that in a romance, the characters always meet by physically running into each other. While we know that’s not true, I’ve seen the technique used many times.  It’s called a “cute meet.” Some authors not only feel it’s necessary, but are highly skilled at introducing their hero and heroine in unique, memorable, or sometimes funny ways.  

Maybe their characters physically run into each other. Perhaps the hero/heroine find themselves booked into the same cabin and it’s the only cabin available, or the heroine’s best friend gives her the keys to her family’s vacation home and the hero (the best friend’s brother) shows up to use the home at the same time. Maybe, the hero and heroine inherit the same house, ranch, or business with the stipulation they must work/live there for a certain period to claim their inheritance.

These all are openings I’ve seen. However, they don’t represent all types of romances. The romances in which best friends fall in love don’t have the same initial meet. There seems to be a different kind of first meeting in reunion romances where the hero and heroine were teenage friends or lovers years before the story opens. Perhaps one of your lead characters are hard working single parent striving to raise their child, or your hero or heroine believe they are too busy with their career for a romantic relationship.

No matter the circumstances, the first meeting is more than a physical greeting between the hero and heroine. It is the first milestone you, as the author, must reach. The reader expects that the initial encounter between the hero and heroine will happen within the first chapter. It represents the first spark of attraction or perhaps the first confrontation between the two characters.

When a reader picks up a romance novel, they are already accepting the promise that not only will the characters meet, but they are eager to go on their journey to find love. If you need to make them wait for a few pages, be sure you are layering in the hero and heroine’s character traits and hint at their internal and external motivation or conflict by having at least one scene in each character’s point of view. In those first pages, you also promise your reader the story will be funny, suspenseful, or filled with angst from past hurts that the hero or heroine must overcome to find love. 

From page one, the reader begins to root for the hero and heroine’s happily ever after. Don’t let the hero and heroine’s first meeting become a disappointment to your reader.

Rose Gardner’s writing journey has come in two phases. The first was focused on contemporary category romance. After a break, she returned to writing contemporary heartwarming stories about love, hope, healing and the power of forgiveness. During the first phase of her writing she was a finalist in thirteen contests and won her category in seven including a 2007 RWA Golden Heart finalist in the Long Contemporary Category, and 2nd runner up in the Harlequin Super Romance Conflict of Interest Contest in 2008. More recently she won 1st place in the Blue Seal Award for General/ Contemporary/ Romance Novels at OHCWC 2017.

Categories
Romancing Your Story

A Romance by Any Other Name

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other word would smell as sweet …

Or, to paraphrase William Shakespeare, a romance by any other name would read as sweet. Or would it?

Not only is the romance genre full of sub-genres (romantic suspense, spicy, historical, contemporary, Inspirational, paranormal, erotic, fantasy, time travel, Gothic, Regency, LGBTQ, romantic comedy, and so on), but we also have the tropes, defined as commonly used (some would argue over-used) themes.

Friends to lovers. Enemies to lovers. One-night stand to true love. Secret babies. Soul mates. Second chance loves. Reunited lovers. Love triangles.

Tropes are used because they’ve proven their worth. They’re popular and they work.

Some classic friends to lovers stories would include Emma by Jane Austen and the movie When Harry Met Sally. Enemies to lovers’ stories are The Taming of the Shrew by our Mr. Shakespeare and Pride and Prejudice by Miss Austen, and I’d include the Katherine Heigl movie 27 Dresses.

The best second chance at love book I’ve read is The Five Stages of Falling in Love by Rachel Higginson. It’s the story of a young widow and mother of three finding love again and is framed by the five stages of grief. Second Chance Summer by Jill Shalvis (the title is a pretty good clue to its trope), is another good second chance book.

Secret romance and fake romance are tried and true tropes in Hollywood. The Sandra Bullock/Ryan Reynolds movie The Proposal is an excellent example of the fake romance, with a nod to enemies to lovers.

But why do genre, sub-genre, and trope matter?

  • They help you stay focused on the story you started out telling
  • They help you formulate your pitch and query
  • They help your editor/agent/reader know what to expect when they read your work

I’m sure I’m not the only reader who picked up a book based on the back-cover blurb expecting one kind of story then discovering that what was between the covers was an entirely different kind of story. Or started a book that promised to be a feel-good, funny romp that took a dramatic and unexpected dark turn.

Did the author lose their way? Did they not know the story they were telling? I’m not sure. But having a firm grasp of their genre and trope may have prevented the bait and switch.

My Work in Progress (WIP) has a secret baby trope. I know some readers hate and refuse to read secret baby stories. They think the woman has no excuse for not telling the man he’s going to be a father. Ignoring the fact that we’re talking about fiction, not real life, I spent a lot of time thinking and brainstorming about how to answer that objection.

It finally came to me, as all my most brilliant ideas do, while out walking. My protagonist, Frankie, was born to an unwed mother who constantly told Frankie she’d ruined her mother’s life by being conceived. When Frankie got pregnant, she refused to ruin her boyfriend’s life with an unplanned pregnancy and sent him off to college without her, had the baby, and gave her up for adoption. My story begins twenty years later when the daughter’s adoptive parents have died, Frankie has given her a job to keep a roof over her head, and no one knows their biological relationship. Then the father comes back to town.

Genre: Contemporary

Trope: Secret baby

Take a minute to think about your WIP. Assuming you have your genre dialed in, what trope does your manuscript fit most closely? I’m not saying you need to change anything in your story, just that knowing your trope may be helpful as you craft your story, your pitch, your synopsis, and your query.

Because your story, that beautiful rose, deserves a description that raises it above the wildflowers.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever after. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. Carrie and her Stud Muffin live in Central California with their cat and dog and within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Twitter: CarriePadgett
Instagram: carpadwriter
Facebook: WriterCarriePadgett
Amazon Author Page: Carrie Padgett

Categories
Screenwriting

What Matters Most

If you’ve been reading my column for any amount of time, you know it’s no secret that I am a hopeless romantic and enjoy reading and writing romantic plots. This genre of writing (romance), whether in books or films, can be rather difficult for writers.

Because everyone has a different definition of romance, this makes it particularly difficult for me as a guy. Whilst most guys view themselves as romantic, we can often reveal our selfish shallow desires.

I share this because I often hear my guy friends talking about their dreams of love—I mean lust—at first sight. For the women reading this, it’s true most men view love and romance from a physical viewpoint. I certainly did while in college. However, in my 20s I read a book that broadened my view and understanding of love. Gary Chapman’s Five Love Languages helped me to see other ways love is expressed:

  1. Words of affirmation
  2. Acts of service
  3. Quality time
  4. Gifts
  5. Physical touch

When I was younger, I only understood the expression of physical touch as love. Back then my favorite genre for a movie was action/adventure. But, as I grew up and started dating, I became more of a hopeless romantic.  Who can’t relate to wanting unconditional love and acceptance?

Perhaps that’s why a good romance movie connects with us deeply and longer than the quick fix thrill of an action movie. If a writer can pluck the emotional strings of the audiences’ heart, they can fulfill an essential need for life—love.

ROMANCE?

Webster’s defines romance as “a love story especially in the form of a novel, or a class of such literature.” Personally, I take the subject of love seriously. I don’t find it as something to make fun of or take lightly.

I’m not trying to romanticize the idea of being loved or giving love, I just believe that many of us overuse the term, applying it to movies that are not truly romances. In Story, Robert McKee shares, “By cleverly delaying the lovers’ meeting to climax, these films avoid the prickly issues of modern love by replacing the difficulty of love with the difficulty of meeting. These aren’t love stories but stories of longing, as talk about and desire for love fills the scenes, leaving genuine acts of love and their often troubling consequences to happen in an off-screen future.”

Again, we all have different beliefs about love; my faith shapes most of my thoughts on the subject. It also influences the type of movies I spend my money to view. Some of my favorite romances are below.

With all the junk Hollywood puts out about love, I believe these four movies actually hold a lot of truth. They each show that love may not be easy, but it’s always worth fighting for.

Fight for it!

Last year during the process of rewriting a screenplay, I wrote a scene where my protagonist asks for relationship advice from his mentor. His answer even made my heart skip a beat. “Sometimes you have to fight for love and sometimes love is a fight. Either way, it’s worth it.”

If it’s true that life imitates art, there is always a moment when you know you’re in love—the same thought applies to romantic movies, they have a moment when we see the love between two characters and our hearts melt.

As you write out your romantic stories, keep in mind how you define love and work that concept into the structure of your story. It can manifest in many different ways:

  1. Tender words.
  2. The ultimate sacrifice.
  3. A long pursuit or service.
  4. A well-chosen gift
  5. An intimate touch.

Think of your favorite movies and how they express romance or love. I believe the best romances are more than just funny friend hook up stories, no, they embody a noble cause—love—because that is what matters most.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Getting Inside the Romantic Hero’s Head—Part III

Have you ever wondered what the opposite sex is thinking while you’re thinking? Men, as a rule, think in fewer words, phrases, emotions, than women generally do. The key to dialogue in romance writing is to keep it natural and consistent. #InsideHerosHead #writingromance101 @donnalhsmith @a3writers [bctt tweet=”Have you ever wondered what the opposite sex is thinking while you’re thinking? Men, as a rule, think in fewer words, phrases, emotions, than women generally do. The key to dialogue in romance writing is to keep it natural and consistent. #InsideHerosHead #writingromance101 ” username=”@donnalhsmith @a3writers”]

Continue reading “Getting Inside the Romantic Hero’s Head—Part III”
Categories
Romancing Your Story

Does ‘Sweet’ Mean Boring?

The first reaction I get when I tell another romance writer that I write sweet love stories is often a blank stare, then a small grin and a murmured, “Hmm … is there a market for that?”

The short answer: Yes.

Because sweet doesn’t have to mean boring and flat. There can be plenty of sexual tension in a sweet story. The parameters of what’s acceptable, even in Christian fiction, has widened considerably in the last few years.

I recently read a book by a popular author that left the door wide open during the consummation scene. There was nothing graphic, but also no doubt what was happening. Another of my favorite historical authors took us up to the moment of consummation, slammed the door, then opened it again the next morning to show the reader that the night did not go as expected. (Not coincidentally, both of those books were from the same publisher.)

How do we put passion and tension on the page without graphic descriptions and naming body parts?

It’s all about the feelings. Both physical and emotional.

  • Tummy flutters: yes.
  • Tingling lips: yes.
  • Heightened awareness of the other: sure.
  • Blood rushing: depends on where. 😉
  • Longing for closeness: Yep.
  • Feeling safe or as if coming home: Absolutely!

Let’s dissect a kiss scene.

This is from my novella, BROOKE RUNS AWAY. It takes place near the end but is not the final scene. The plot centers on a reality dating show. We’re in Brooke’s point of view.

I cleared my throat. “You can visit me. I … I’d like that.”

“Really?” He reached for my hand, then pulled me to stand next to him.

His gaze drifted to my lips and my stomach fluttered. (A SMALL PHYSICAL RESPONSE)

We’d laughed. We’d bowled. We’d shared meals and dates.

We’d never kissed. (TAKING A MOMENT TO LET THE TENSION BUILD)

He bent his head and I lifted my mouth to meet his.

Our kiss was soft at first, tentative. (TWO SMALL, LIGHT ADJECTIVES) Then he deepened the contact, pulled me closer, as if after one taste, he had to have more. (A SIMILE TO COMPARE THE KISS TO SOMETHING KNOWN)

I threaded my arms around his neck and met his want with my own. (NOT GRAPHIC, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT SHE MEANS)

After a long moment, we pulled back. He rested his forehead on mine. “Wow.” (A SHORT RESPITE)

I had no breath left, so I smiled. (ANOTHER SMALL PHYSICAL RESPONSE)

His gaze darkened (AGAIN, NOT GRAPHIC, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT HE’S THINKING) and he let go. “Wait here.” He strode back to the house. (WAIT … WHAT?? A COMPLICATION)

I watched Austin’s back disappear through the kitchen door. Was it something I said?

For the first time since we stepped outside, I noticed the camera and its steady red light.

No.

Our conversation, our questions, our kiss … they were private. (UH OH)

My breath caught in my throat and my pulse pounded, urging me to run, run, run. (ANOTHER, STRONGER PHYSICAL RESPONSE) 

Try this exercise on your own.

Dissect some kiss scenes from your favorite books. Figure out what emotions, feelings, and sensations the author conveyed. Then go over your own scenes. What can you add? What can you delete? How can you keep tension on the page?

Because while sweet romance may not “pulse and throb,” it’s never boring.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever after. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. Carrie and her Stud Muffin live in Central California with their cat and dog and within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Twitter: CarriePadgett
Instagram: carpadwriter
Facebook: WriterCarriePadgett
Amazon Author Page: Carrie Padgett