The lovely Christine Bryant, The Day Dreamer, has graciously allowed me to guest post over on her blog on such an embarrassing topic as romance. Oh great, now I'm blushing.
Four Hot Tips for Sweet Romance
(even if it’s just a subplot)
At the LDStorymakers Conference in May 2011 Sarah M. Eden (Courting Miss Lancanster) presented on romance in novels. A lot of what I am going to share with you today came from her. If you ever get the chance to take a class from her (like say next years LDStorymaker’s Conference), DO! She’s hilarious and comes highly recommended.
Romance: The Basics:
Girl meets Boy. Eventually they fall in love and have a happy ending. (At least modern readers insist upon a happy ending. Perhaps there are too many unhappy endings in our own lives right now that we don’t want to read about them in our spare time.)
The Story Question: Will they end up together?
Story Answer: Yes! Always, yes.
This is what stretches the romance writer’s imagination: figuring out how to make your love story original when it has the same story question and answer as everyone else’s.
If this is not your STORY question, but one of the elements to your book, then you would not fall under the genre of romance, but that’s cool. All the info below is just as relevant to romantic subplots.
I've always wondered what makes a romance a romance. Off to go read the other tips. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I'd love to go to the LDSStorymakers conference some day. I just need to live a little closer . . .
I love Sarah Eden! I was sitting in the front row of that class too!!! Holy cow maybe we talked and didn't know it?
ReplyDeleteI wish I could put Sarah in my pocket and carry her around to cheer me up when I'm feeling sad :)
Sarah rocks! Her books are delightful (I'm so crushing on Adam), and she's hilarious as a speaker and her class was great.
ReplyDeleteI was there! I wish I'd known more people. We were in the same dang class.
*heads over to Christine's blog*
I sat near the back in that class but I LOVED it!! She is such an amazing presenter. Hilariousness.
ReplyDeleteAnd I probably walked right by you and didn't even know it. ;)
LOVE your pic.
ReplyDeleteSO funny that I posted a blog on editing, and have like half the number of comments than normal, lol.
I wrote another post about THAT, which I'll do next week.
I took her class :D
It was SO much fun, and probably my favorite from the conference, she's SO hysterical.
Those are fabulous tips, Shelly! Even if a book is not Romance (by definition of its genre), there's always going to be element of romance in most stories. I love how your first tip-- Just because they're both hot, doesn't mean they should fall in love with each other purely on looks alone. That's shallow and lame. I like characters to undergo conflicts, experiences together, and obstacles to show that they do have a connection other than physical attraction.
ReplyDelete;)
Really great ideas for improving the romance subplots in my stories.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I did a guess post with her too ( : This is me going to stalk your guest blog post now...
ReplyDeleteP.s. Love your blog!
Mine's definitely a romance :-) I love writing 'em!
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