Jim,
Another one of the genres I write is Romance/Women's Fiction/Erotica, and one of the main problems I have is coming up with enough conflict or problems/obstacles for my characters to go through without relying on supernatural elements. For some reason, I can't take that small kernel of initial or main conflict and break it or send it into other smaller levels of conflict. I can do this with Urban Fantasy and some Paranormal Romance, but excluding a romantic sub-plot, UF is different. In UF, most of the time, my villains or antagonists are personified. Sure, the character may go through some internal conflict but most conflict is external. For example, in order from preventing ABC from happening, we have to make sure XYZ does or doesn't happen. I don't want to say that it's easier for me, but I am able to do the "This-happens-because-this-happened" thing more than in Romance/Women's Fiction/Erotica.
I was just wondering if you have any suggestions that could help me out.
Should I try personifying an antagonist thus writing Romantic Suspense instead? I don't mind writing Romantic Suspense but I think I would find it more difficult to write, at least in my opinion.
Do you think that maybe this could be a sign that I'm either a) not ready to write a romance or b) it's just not a genre that holds interest to me in writing as it use to, as far as it being a main plot instead of a sub-plot or side-plot?(This also is said as that Urban Fantasy is more of an interest to me now, and therefore, I'm more of a Fantasy writer). I do like reading romances, women's fiction, and erotica/erotic romance (that don't carry a paranormal/fantasy main plot or sub-plot), however, I feel like I want to write in those genres, specifically romance and erotica/erotic romance because those were the first genres I read and wrote. Don't get me wrong, I do have an interest, like I said, but I don't feel it's as great as it used to be. The only reason I'm not entirely relying on this as my answer is that I had trouble forming conflict and etc. even when those were my only genres.
Do you have any advice for forming conflict, and I whether or not I should wait until I'm fully interested in the genre(romance, women's fiction, erotica, and etc. without any kind of supernatural element involved) again?
Thanks in advance.