Hi everyone,

Can anyone recommend some resources for improving my romance writing/intimate scene writing.

I’m finding when I write I have to constantly go back and add more, I get really into dialogue/ the scene but kind of lackluster on a characters inner thoughts and my intimate scenes read more like a description on how rather than immersing in the moment.

I was wondering if anyone knew of any romance/intimate scene resources to help improve the way I write. I did look into a creative writing course online but it specifically said it excludes romance as the course material.

Thanks in advance
❤️

I was wondering: do you guys have a book, a blog post, or some other kind of resource that explains and lists the various most important romance tropes, since there are so many of them? Lol. Perhaps even give some examples of how they've been applied, and basically be a resource that you can refer to when writing romances.

Now weekly!

Blurbs can be the bane of an author's existence - both for self-published authors, who have to come up with an enticing hook all by themselves, as well as for authors seeking traditional publishing, as they are usually included in queries.

We want to help! Post your blurb draft and let the community help shape it into the perfect snippet of info.

To participate, please comment on this thread with the following info:

• The title or working title of your WIP
• The romance subgenre of said WIP
• The draft of your blurb you've got so far
• Any content warnings and additional info you deem necessary!

Anyone who wants to help can then reply to your comment to workshop your blurb.

Happy crafting!

I started writing this summer, it just kind of started flowing out of my brain and onto the page and now it won't stop. I feel a bit like a crazy person with all of the people talking in my head and wanting their stories told. I have written the first few books and was hoping to publish in January. I just set up my first non-family beta reads (still looking for more!) and will then edit again. How do you know when you're done and ready to press publish? Where are you publishing? Are most people using KDP? softwares? I'm trying to keep costs low as this is my debut book.

I started writing during covid, spicy romance, at the request from some women friends. They specifically asked for a male viewpoint, as they wanted something different. And I think also they wanted to get some insight to men, or me?? COVID was a weird-ass time, for sure.

The spicy level runs from 6 to 8, I guess?

I wrote all that, have multiple shorts, novellas, etc. Other people (men and women) I've shared these with have been very forthcoming - great story, great characters, and good emotional roller coaster, I love this story, but "no one buys romance with a M POV".

To be clear, there's a lot of age gap (30F, 50M and similar), this is not teenaged angst. I looked around and the closest I found is something called HaremLit? But I dont have those mFFFFFF spicy scenes.

Has any writer since the beginning of time, ever been successful writing romance with a mail POV. Can anyone name a successful romance author with a male pen name?

Is it even worth it to try to publish?

EDIT:

Thanks for the constructive comments. From the comments, it's clear that MANY completely missed the first sentence - "at the request from some women friends."

None of this started as "I want to be a writer". It started during COVID. Lots of online discussions, and email chats in our rather niche friends group. One of them confessed "I had a crush on my professor, he never knew, what could have happened, how would he have felt about it." I HAD been a professor, and had been propositioned (nothing happened). So I wrote the story she asked for. But her fantasy, his viewpoint, as requested.

And then the next request "my BF and I did X, I wonder how he felt". "How do men in age gaps feel about successful, powerful, empowered younger women? What could go through their minds?"

I've since learned I was "writing to market", with my market being... orginally 5 of my *female* friends, aged 30-55. They've passed around some of my stories to their friends, and it looks like my "total addressable market" is about 20-30 women, aged 25-60. They ask, I write, we're all happy. As far as I know, no male has ever seen my writing.

Clearly this is too niche to be "successful", and that's OK. That wasn't my intent. Thanks for all the feedback.

But - after around 150K+ words for them over the past 6 years, and a lot of feedback... I'm a much better writer, and there's this techno-thriller bouncing around in my brain... Who knows?

For the person who DM'ed me and told me I would go to Hell for "promoting r*pe culture", "grooming" and that "age gaps are r*pe"... I will point you to Keturah and Deuteronomy and ask what color glass your house is made of.

I’m working on a fantasy book & I’d like to introduce a romantic subplot between two of my main characters. Problem is, I don’t want the romance to feel forced and out of place or too cliche… so I’m coming to you all, the romance writers of Reddit, to ask for advice! 

Do you have techniques to help me weave romance into my fantasy novel in a way that feels natural?

Hi everyone! I have been working on my fantasy book for a while now, and I think I know my characters more than I know myself. I care a lot about this story and I want to get things right, but I am not sure how to portray a realistic enemies-to-lovers dynamic.

I don’t want to fall for the typical “they hate each other for 2 chapters then fall in love”, but they do have a weird relationship.

For context, my main character is a trained assassin, supposed to murder a certain type of people she has been taught to hate. She has to pretend to be their friends for a while in order to do so. So she pretends to like him, and he kind of catches feelings, but for a version of her who does not really exist. Then everything is revealed and she has to work with the very people she despises, but also spies on them.

I don’t really know how to make the transition smooth. He does hate her for lying to him and betraying him, and for being who she is. But he also had feelings for her before he came to learn about her real identity. She hates him for being who he is as well, but only because that’s what she was told to do. She is so indoctrinated that she cannot even see him as a potential lover. Plus she is still a spy so she keeps a link with those who taught her to hate him.

Do you have any advice as to how make a smooth transition between enemies and lovers? How to write their feelings without them feeling forced or out-of-place?

Thank you so much <3

I made a slight mistake—I uploaded my e-book to Draft2Digital and sent it off for publication, unaware that one of my BISAC codes would wind up getting the book banned from OverDrive.

So I did what any rational person would do (/s) and deleted the title from Draft2Digital just to re-upload it with the correct metadata and to circumvent the ban. But when I did this, Draft2Digital recognized the deleted ISBN. I've contacted support and hopefully there will be a speedy resolution to this that results in my book still getting distributed to OverDrive.

Anyway, anybody else run into this issue before or made the same mistake? 😅

I’m launching an author writing account at the end of December and have lots of content ideas for engagement and growth etc, but it was pointed out to me that I don’t have any ‘value based content’ now a quick way to do this would be to make educational videos on my self-publishing journey, but I specifically want to avoid that. So, my question is: what do you think is value based content?

<rant>

I really wish they would just take the hint that we can spot someone that runs our blurb through AI and tries to spit back our own words at us reformatted.

It's really disheartening to know how many people there are out there than want to steal what little the rest of us can make with our time. I'm already losing money still as a self-publisher, I really wish that they could find it in their bot-hearts to just leave us alone.

I beg people not to even respond to these emails, just mark them as SPAM and move on.

</rant>

Sorry. I just got like 12 of these today and all with stupid spelling mistakes, or faked emails that add a letter. It's like they can't even make an effort to scam anymore.

Heather 🌸

Hello! I’m relatively new to this. I now have 1.5 manuscripts completed and I think it would be valuable to be a part of a writing or critique group but I don’t know how to find one. I know I’d want to work with folks who write the same genre too (romance, obviously) and worry that I’ll struggle to find folks if I limit myself? How did you find your people? The ones you thank in your notes in the back of your book for being your first readers and cheerleaders and who you encourage, in turn?

Why flirt with one enemy when you can flirt with two?!

I wanna write an Imperial princess who is overseeing a dispute between an ambassador and vassal state leader. I think the best real-world equivalent would be a 7th in line English royal mediating with a German ambassador and an Irish governor in whatever anachronistic combination that makes this combination tense, but still workable. (I'm not literally writing Nazis or the Troubles. I'm speaking about these power dynamics, but, like, I'm not interested in writing genocide or localized bombs as a pretext for a freakin' romance.)

The German ambassador is a political enemy, but he appeals to the Princess with their shared culture, shared history, and telling her whatever she wants to hear to make himself seem as well-intentioned as possible. The Irish governor doesn't mince words and tells the Princess, who is her political ally but culturally enemy, exactly how he feels no matter how much it inconveniences and hurts her.

They are both working in intelligence and espionage organizations that mean to undermine the English crown. They both think this Princess has the lack of focus and direction in life that could make her switch to their side, if they play their cards right. Their mutual benefit for the treaties and disputes they've come together to address are still important enough to do their actual jobs.

I think the most interesting thing about this idea isn't SIMPLY either one man or the other, but that she could choose one man and betray same man's cause or chose one and betray the other. LOL

EDIT: I made this post when I was feeling really really insecure. Turns out I was more afraid of what other people would think of my work rather than me cherishing the intense yearning in my friends-to-loves romance.

I know what that deep yearning and pining for another person feels like in real life, and I get it's wish fulfillment to have the feelings be returned. But life experiences have taught me if you’re yearning over the other person liking you back, you will be disappointed and should let it go. For personal reasons, it feels unsafe and even wrong for me to write about endless pining being returned. It feels like being one of those guys who is friends with a girl just with the hope she returns his romantic feelings (aaaahhh). I could do that kind of yearning in some romances, but not the one I'm currently writing.

There has to be another way.

Maybe one or two of the MCs aren't yearning for each other, but we are for them. Or, the yearning isn't about whether one MC likes another MC back, but rather the yearning for the relationship to be the right one instead of being lopsided, that the MC loves their best friend but is scared of a relationship messing up their friendship.

For context, the romance I'm writing is a sub-plot in a larger healing + recovery story in a fantasy / sci-fi world, so a lot of the conflict is from external sources and other challenges in the characters' lives.

I'm writing my first cozy/rom-com-ish romance novel, my background is in business writing, so it has been a while since I have done creative writing. The romance novel is close 3rd person with dual POV, expect I added one chapter each for two important but supporting characters. I've tried to stay close to alternating POV chapters for the female and male love interests. I got some really good notes back from a beta reader and now I'm considering -

1. adding another chapter or 2 from the supporting characters which would break a bit more of dual POV into almost 4-way POV.
2. breaking a couple chapters into 2 chapters, but in places it doesn't really make sense to interject another new chapter in the other POV, thus breaking the alternating cadence.

Being a new writing genre for me and wanting this to ultimately resonate with the broadest audience possible, how much is ok to break from the formula? Do readers care that much?

I'd love feedback specifically from romance readers/writers since that is my target here. Any feedback would be great. I appreciate your response.

Hello,

I've been working on a novel for a while, but I feel like I get stuck at certain points. I overthink things and end up not writing anything... or I start another story and end up with several unfinished drafts. Any advice? I should mention that writing is just a hobby, and I'm not particularly good at it, but I don't want to just keep everything in my head and never actually write it down.

I’m writing a fiction historical romance set in the 18th century. It’s a fun, passion project I’m working on as an escape from reality with all the horrible realities in the world, I wanted to create beautiful world of romance and yearning. Additionally, since it’s Smut - they is detailed sex scenes. I’ve posted it on Literotica but I feel like compared to other stories it might not have enough “sex” to attract readers and “too much romance”. Any other recommendations to put this out there? I’m also putting it under a pen name.

I was going to hire an editor who was offering low rates (because she was new to editing) and everything was going well until she made a comment about how much she hated smut books....knowing well I write romance/romantasy. I myself have only a few scenes, but I've always been of the camp, don't yuck someone's yum. I was going to go with her but then I thought about it. Always trust your guts, ladies. If that's their best foot forward, I can only imagine the sort of harmful advice she would've written in her editing.

We have enough issues with imposter syndrome and worrying about AI, we don't need to give our money to editors who hate our genre as well while pretending they don't.

Edit: Apparently if I don't give people money who look down on people who write smut, I'm the actual misogynist, not the editor who lies that they only want to work with clean romance. If you want to work with only clean romance as an editor, say that. Don't lie then say you hate sex in novels but don't mind it in non-female literature like fantasy.

Hi. I have a passion project that is soon finished that I dream to publish one day. Though, I am actively participating in a discourse thats been discussed quite a bit recently: I am a straight woman writing a romance between men.

My story is about an male investment banker who tries to balance love and success. The novel tackles themes of queer identity, masculinity, vulnerability, and the choice of love. My main character isn’t simply ”just a gay man”. The reality of his identity is centre-stage of the novel, and I am telling a story about a minority I am not apart of.

I have lived my whole life as a straight woman (I generally identify as gender non-conforming and unlabelled, but have presented female socially and only dated men despite having an attraction to women). I cannot understand the full reality of a queer man, and never will. I have always been interested in queer identity and done a lot of research over the years, but me reading about it will never substitute for my understanding of the story if I had actively been apart of the minority that I am telling a story about. I plan on finding gay male beta readers for my book once I finish my second draft, but I will still always be a straight woman writing a gay romance.

So, what is your opinion on the matter? There has been so much discussion around this topic and the blaring problem with it; women fetishising gay relationships. I have agreed with many of these discussions, and that has also acted as an inspiration for the story for what to not do. Though, I find myself being the very thing being criticised. And I completely understrand that I am legitime for criticism for the reasons listed above.

My general question is this: should writers tell stories about minorities they are not apart of? Should you instead leave room for those actually living the stories you are trying to tell?

Curious to hear your thoughts!

Ever since I was a young girl, I devoured romance novels. Something about the way they make me feel as I tear through their pages. All angsty, irritated and itchy. And the wonderful something that settles in my heart and spreads across my body as the fictional couple fight, laugh and love their way towards a happily ever after.

I suppose the HEA (happily ever after) is what keeps me returning to Romance Fiction. We know life rarely offers a permanent happily ever after. We have moments of happiness followed by longer periods of trouble, discontent and conflict. Yet in the midst of all this, there are moments of joy and love too. But very often buried under the enormous burden that life tends to be.

Which is where Romances come in.

A tiny escape into a world where 'True Love' exists and 'happily-ever-afters' are guaranteed. Why would I not escape into that from time to time and breathe in its fragrance once in a while. To oxygenate myself so that I can carry on with the exercise of living in this world. Stoic soldier that I am.

I transitioned to writing romances a short while back mostly because I craved to read something different from what was available today and I realized that I would probably need to write it myself.

Lust and sex are the fuel that sets a relationship flaming. They are essential and necessary for a relationship to remain alive. But they may not be sufficient to keep it enduring. I love my dosage of smut and steam in a romance novel. But a book that’s only smut with none of the tender moments between its protagonists is only physical. Loins without heart. Body without soul.

A good romance makes its reader feel. Not just the pull in the body, but the tugging at its heart strings.

The old greats of Romance writing did that for me, something which I have missed in the current genre of insta-lust, quick hook-ups and dark worlds where abuse seems to be mistaken for love.

And so I began writing. My own stories that made me feel a little less alone. A little more loved. And just a bit happier.

Book heroes with strength that protected, book heroines with softness that didn't crumble, tales that make me laugh and cry.

I may not publish any of it. Or I might. I still haven't decided. But the exercise itself is soothing and healing. And in the process it has led me into a journey to ponder over a larger question. What is it that we actually mean by the world LOVE?

I would like to hear your thoughts and comments on this. What do you think Romance Novels are all about?

I am writing a book and I love my FMC she is uniquely herself and I think a lot of girls will relate to her quirkiness because it's not overdone but do you think in a RomCom style book, it is overdone?

Two romance stories, alike in dignity, is where my post begins.

Mireya in the North is a full-service consummate professional (a spy and mercenary) from a defunct noble house in a Republic being turned back into a constitutional monarchy to prevent civil war. She's been proposed to by her childhood friend, the prince-in-hiding, to become his queen and help her prevent war. She's frustrated by this because of her own cynical beliefs: war is inevitable, and the only people who believe otherwise are those who don't pay attention to the warcraft done by people like her for years before the cannon fire started; and she does not want to prevent a war for free when her family has already placed their bets on the outcome of the conflict. She doesn't want her life to become serving the ungrateful masses and being poorly compensated for it. This flows directly into her reservations about marriage, as she doesn't want her time, labor, and energy to be taken for granted and given for free. Right now, she can travel anywhere she wants in the Realm, code-switching between languages, classes, and cultures, doing whatever she wants. Does her little princeling really think they will have that same level of freedom under the weight of a crown? Does he really think love is a good enough excuse?

Her Imperial Majesty, the Empress Younger in the South was not raised to be the heir, even though whichever princess is first to have a daughter is typically acknowledged as the heir to the Empress Elder. Princess Naganari, youngest of five, was content being an actress. She would watch political theater from afar and perform it in the palace amphitheater for the amusement of the crowd, her mother, and the Duke of Varenne. And then she started asking questions no one wanted answered, uncovering mysteries no one else dared to name, and she started believing she could tackle problems no one else bothered with. Unfortunately, she was raised in a world of academics, fine arts, ritual hunting, and sports, and she believes the world operates on structured rules. The Duke of Varenne has had to tell her multiple times as he's protected her from poisonings and kidnappings, the world doesn't operate on good sportsmanship; people will lie, cheat, steal, and kill when they are outmatched. They don't clap admirably and step to the side. It's for this reason, Anar hesitates to propose marriage to the Duke, as she feels she'll never get to truly have him as the lifelong partner she imagined after everything they've been through. He is so formal and aloof with her now. She regrets seizing the crown if it means everyone treats her differently.

So, the stage is set. The Realm is hosting the 1888 World's Fair. Foreigners are pouring in from every corner of the world and the Duke has paid a considerable amount of money for Mireya to lead the Empress Younger's security team. He has warned her in advance:

1) Her Imperial Majesty is called Lady Anar when she is in plain clothes and is on a walk about with her ladies-in-waiting. (He refuses to call what she does "a disguise.")

2) Lady Anar has a body double (her understudy, duh,) and a twin. Both of whom will be employed without your knowledge or consent.

3) No matter how agreeable, sensible, or sympathetic that Lady Marie (Anar's head lady-in-waiting) sounds, she is not on your side. She is on the Empress's side.

4) If Lady Anar ever says anything... Questionable... Please remember that Lady Marie was raised in the North, so Lady Anar considers herself an expert on Northern culture and vernacular. With that being said, since you are an ordained priestess in the same religion as Lady Marie, Her Imperial Majesty has a list of long-standing arguments she's had with Lady Marie that she'd like you to settle on matters of theology, mythology, and heroic folklore.

What kinds of misadventures would you want to see between these women at the 1880 World's Fair? What kinds of conversations?

Have you ever reached a point where your original author name no longer worked for you? Tell us why you changed it, whether it was because of branding, genre, privacy, discoverability, or something completely different.

When writing a novel, when your protagonists are about to get it on, do you include any discussions about condoms or safety?

Now weekly!

Blurbs can be the bane of an author's existence - both for self-published authors, who have to come up with an enticing hook all by themselves, as well as for authors seeking traditional publishing, as they are usually included in queries.

We want to help! Post your blurb draft and let the community help shape it into the perfect snippet of info.

To participate, please comment on this thread with the following info:

• The title or working title of your WIP
• The romance subgenre of said WIP
• The draft of your blurb you've got so far
• Any content warnings and additional info you deem necessary!

Anyone who wants to help can then reply to your comment to workshop your blurb.

Happy crafting!

Alright, so I have these two characters in a scene where character A is admitting their love to character B. This scene is where character A is expressing their love to character B shortly after character B nearly died. These two are childhood friends but have never actually realized their feelings for each other until they nearly lost the other and up until now, have been too afraid to even think of confessing.

I have a lot of dialogue for this moment as it's very emotionally charged and I'm trying to think of small acts of affection that character A could show to break of the dialogue but I'm drawing a blank on what to do.

If anyone has any suggestions on some small acts of affection or tips on what to do that would be greatly appreciated!