Abby Green took her love of romance novels and used it to forge a hugely successful career as a writer. After a few years working in the film industry, Abby turned her hand to prose when a friend lent her a guide to writing for Mills & Boon. Abby is now one of only three Irish Mills & Boon authors (the other two being Trish Wylie and Lynne Graham). Mills & Boon, published as Harlequin in America, has over three million readers in the UK annually and accounts for 75% of romance books published in Britain each year. Abby reveals her top tips for writing romance right here on writing.ie…
This might sound silly but you need to start with a love of, or at least a very healthy respect for the romance genre. Writing romance well is incredibly hard and the romance reader is extremely discerning – there’s a lot of competition and very good romance fiction out there!
Research and know the area/genre you want to target. I’ve always loved Harlequin Mills and Boon romances and started reading them when I was a teenager, so when I tried my hand at writing one, it came quite naturally because I had the style of those books in my head.
When I sent in my first three chapters to Mills and Boon I got rejected primarily because I hadn’t done my research well enough. The chapters I sent in were falling between two styles – the modern romance I’m now writing and the slightly more classic, sweeter romance. I had to decide which one I wanted to go for and I chose the modern romance line because that’s where my heart was – they were my favourite stories.
You might find when you sit down to try and write your romance that you balk at writing sex scenes…you need to figure out how far you want to go. Victoria Dahl and Linda Howard are American romance authors who write incredibly hot and sexy romances but you might find yourself cringing at the thought, in which case you’ll perhaps find your niche in the sweeter romances where they shut the bedroom door, so to speak ;)
I love reading Paranormal and Historical romances but I’d never in a million years attempt to write one. The thought of all that research would wear me out! Part of the reason I love reading those books is because someone else has done all the hard work already. But you might love the idea of research and creating a whole new world. Paranormal Romance is huge and writers like Kresley Cole and Gena Showalter are leaders in that genre.
The contemporary romances I write are relatively short – 50/55,000 words. From the first page till the last you have to hook and captivate your reader. Give them a hero they can fall in love with and a heroine they can empathise with. You need a glamorous setting and passion so hot it sizzles. And then you have to create heart-stopping tension that has the reader reading faster and faster to see how on earth these two people can ever be together and be happy. Everyone knows there’s going to be a happy ending but you need to convince the reader that there is some doubt this can happen.
When we speak of conflict in romances we don’t mean fist to fist combat. We mean deep and believable internal conflict. For instance, it’s too easy to have the heroine hate the hero because he ruined her father’s business or vice versa. She has to also hate him because he threatens her on a much deeper and more personal level. Both of your main character’s motivations have to be real and believable, or else your story will fall flat and feel very flimsy. Your reader won’t care what happens to your hero and heroine and neither will you. And believe me – when you’re sweating blood over your keyboard you need to care about your characters.
Beware the convenient plot device which takes your story away from the internal conflict to a more external kind which immediately feels less authentic. I just turned in my 20th book for Mills and Boon – halfway through the story I had the heroine’s house burn down which effectively left her vulnerable to the hero and forced them together. I thought it might work – but everything I wrote after that felt trite and convoluted. I ended up having to delete about 20,000 words and rework it. I’d used the house fire because I wasn’t really sure who my characters were…and I had to find out the hard way!
Find out who publishes the kind of book you want to write. It could be Mills and Boon, or one of its offshoots like MIRA. It could be one of the US publishers like Kensington. Read everything in the genre – educate yourself with what is current. Publishers are looking for new voices all the time, but you need to be original – do the same thing but with a twist. You need to stand out, especially when publishers like Mills and Boon get thousands of manuscripts from aspiring authors every year.
One of the buzz words in romance at the moment is unpredictability. The readers love the tried and tested themes but they also want a frisson of something new and different. Something that’s unpredictable.
Whatever type of romance you’re hoping to write, whether it’s for Mills and Boon modern romance or something completely different – read the new authors for that line. See if you can figure out what set them apart so they were bought. Some new authors for the line of books that I write are Maisey Yates; Lucy Ellis and Natasha Tate.
Research the publishers you’re targeting – do you need an agent to submit to them? Some publishers won’t even look at a manuscript unless it comes via an agent. And others, like Mills and Boon, will look at unsolicited manuscripts.
Avail of the great support networks on the net. The Mills and Boon website has a community section where you can chat to other aspiring authors and find out about competitions etc. Most of the big publishers have similar forums now so there’s tons of support out there to help you on your way.
If at first you don’t succeed do try and try again. If you want to be published badly enough it WILL happen, but it might take time. When you first submit you could be waiting for weeks or even months before you get news, and unfortunately there’s no way around this…it’s a waiting game.
If and when you do get ‘The Call’, it is a magical moment. And then the panic sets in – you have to write another story! There’s a deadline! You will look back fondly on the days and weeks where you had all the time in the world to lovingly craft your book.
Most authors, even the reclusive ones, have a basic website. A presence on the internet is almost unavoidable now for any kind of writer. A good tip is to check out authors you like, there will be plenty of excerpts etc on their websites.
The main thing is to get started – as the romance queen Nora Roberts says “You can fix anything but a blank page”.
Good Luck!
