Not Just a Load of
Hearts and Flowers
By Mary Cook
What makes a romance? It's not just hearts and flowers and living happily ever
after.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary definition of romance includes "a love
affair" and "a literary genre with romantic love or highly imaginative
unrealistic episodes forming the central theme."
For the writer's purpose, it's probably safe to say that romantic fiction is a
fictional work about a love affair. But it's advisable to study the
contributors' guidelines for this genre very carefully as some editors are quite
specific, if not downright fussy, about what constitutes a romance.
The Smaller Picture
A lot of writers find they don't have the staying power to write a
full-length novel. But you can always look at the smaller picture. There are
plenty of markets for romantic short stories. Study the magazines both in print
and online.
Forget the love stories of twenty years ago or more. Today's trend in women's
magazines is for real-life situations that deal with the trauma of messy
divorce, life-threatening illness, and warts-and-all relationships. A modern
romantic short story is just as likely to be about dirty laundry as about hearts
and flowers. Couples are as likely to meet in the supermarket as at a romantic
ball.
You can combine romance with any other genre, such as crime, humor,
supernatural, fantasy or historical. But unless you're targeting the
fantasy/paranormal markets, believable is better.
Find Your Market
Before you start plotting, you need to decide which publication you're writing
for. Here are some suggestions:
Espresso Fiction
http://www.espressofiction.com/information_writers.php
all genres of short
fiction
Conversely Magazine
http://www.conversely.com/Masth/submi.shtml
short fiction dealing with romantic relationships
Two's Company
Perhaps the most convenient thing about writing short romantic fiction is that
you only have two main characters to think about. Give them names, families, and
a history.
Remember: romance is not just for the young. Old folks are at least as romantic
as their grandchildren.
If your story is to take off, your characters must be strongly developed and
speak believable dialogue. If you don't believe in your characters, how can you
expect your readers to?
Whether you create your characters first or formulate a plot first is up to you.
But you need to know everything there is to know about your main characters,
even if that knowledge has no direct bearing on the plot. Do they have a
favorite color? What sort of food do they like? Where do they take their
vacation?
Do you love them or hate them?
Indifferent? That's not an option. These people are your offspring, your own
precious creation. Whatever your source of inspiration for these delightful,
horrible, wholly human individuals, you are their parent-- never forget it.
After all, you gave birth to them. (Yes, gentlemen, you too!)
Your Wildest Fantasies
Put yourself in the place of the hero or heroine and give your fantasies free
rein. But keep it clean, unless you're writing for the purely "adult" market.
Kisses and cuddles are acceptable-- anything more explicit should take place
behind closed doors.
The Settings
How and where do your characters meet or interact? Possibilities include a blind
date in a pub, an unseemly scuffle on the street, in a hospital waiting room or
a retirement home.
Sometimes a setting can "lift" a run-of-the mill story and turn it into
something out of the ordinary. For example, your characters can meet in an air
raid shelter in World War II, on a tropical beach, or stranded in an airport
departures lounge.
The Good News Is…
News stories can be a valuable source of plots. For example, I read a newspaper
story about a nurse who fell in love with a patient. Having given him her heart,
she went on to give him her kidney, thereby saving his life. That has got to be
one of the most moving love stories of all time-- and one that could almost have
started life as fiction.
You can take inspiration from true-life stories in women's magazines and in
tabloid newspapers and their supplements. And don't forget the agony columns for
a source of raw emotion and angst. The advice given by the agony aunt or uncle
can provide a springboard from which you develop and conclude your story.
What a Plot I've Got!
You can do worse than look to the traditional parlor game of Consequences as a
basis for your plot.
Make a list of women's names and one of men's names, a list of possible
scenarios, a list of lines of dialogue to be spoken by the woman and another of
dialogue for the man, and then a list of ideas for the possible outcome or
"consequence."
That takes care of "who" and "where" and it also takes care of the resolution.
But as an experienced writer will tell you, a romantic short story needs
emotional conflict and that's the bit that's missing.
So add a list of problems the couple might encounter. They could include
parental disapproval, a clash of cultures, a wide age gap, illness, hostile
step-families, or initial dislike of one main character by the other.
Pick and Mix
Now take an item from each list and put them in order. You don't necessarily
have to begin at the beginning. Some of the most successful short stories are
written partly in flashback.
Pick and mix likely and unlikely characters, dialogue, and settings until you
have the bare bones of a story. Flesh it out and you're onto a saleable winner.
Resolution
If you stick to your game plan it won't be long before you can write a
satisfactory conclusion to your game of Consequences. Ideally, it will be: "The
consequence was the writer and the bank manager lived happily ever after."
Mary Cook is a UK-based freelance writer and former newspaper reporter.
Her articles, poems, and short stories have appeared in numerous publications,
both in print and online. Her main writing interests are humor, horror, and the
craft and business of writing.
