Reddit reviews Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels (How to Write Kissing Books Book 1)
We found 10 Reddit comments about Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels (How to Write Kissing Books Book 1). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Check out Gwen Hayes's book on romance beats. Worth every penny. Not much out there on romance writing beats.
https://www.amazon.com/Romancing-Beat-Structure-Romance-Kissing-ebook/dp/B01DSJSURY?ie=UTF8&keywords=gwen%20hayes&qid=1464139967&ref_=sr_1_1&s=digital-text&sr=1-1
Also, for good feedback, check out Michael Anderle's Facebook Group at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/781495321956934/834263983346734/?notif_t=group_activity&notif_id=1464062128021251
and his forum at http://20booksto50k.com/forum/
I've certainly found myself surprised to realize how many erotica and even romance writers are guys hiding behind a female pen name. No need to feel left out.
I know there are plenty of guys that read romances, but at the end of the day, the majority of romances -- and erotic romances -- are consumed by women. So you'll likely be best served to write to that expectation, even if you write from the narrative perspective of the male main character. Take that for what it is worth. There is no single true female perspective but something like this will not fly with a predominately female romance reader. Plenty of men have managed to pull off female characters to not have to beat a dead horse about the topic, but here is a good discussion thread, if you are so inclined to read it. (Side note, you might enjoy watching the Vaginal Fantasy screencast; it's a few semi-celebrity women discussing a book-of-the-month erotic romance and their discussions might be relevant to your interests, plus very entertaining to watch.)
You are probably best served by checking out a few of the "top" erotic romances that are in your erotic romance niche (there are plenty of niches, similar to erotica) and dissect them like you have to write a book report on how they work. How does the author build tension between the characters? How does the relationship grow and change over the course of the book? What are the re-occurring similarities between these top selling books that your readers are expecting from your book?
There are a few books and websites that describe in detail how to write romances.
Try some of these resources:
This book is invaluable for me. If you read it, you'll notice that a lot of what I said is a summary of this, because it's just so damn on point. She goes into all the parts a bit more in-depth. That should definitely help!
There's actually a post on the sidebar, second one down. It's not as detailed as it could be, but it gives a good primer in Romance.
And thanks for the callout /u/YourSmutSucks.
Here's the thing about Romance, there's a lot of good information in this subreddit, in other subreddits, and on the Internet. But the key, is that just because you call something romance, doesn't make it romance.
If you want to get a good foundation for genre writing in general, start with Storygrid by Shawn Coyne (his website has all the information in the book for free and the podcast is great).
Then look up Romancing the Beat. Just released and it's probably one of the best, if not the best Romance structure books out there.
I own each one of those books and I would only cosign on the Amy Cooper and the Emily Baker. I also got a lot of helpful info from Unsilenced's first book.
For Erotica in general - I would also skip the Susie Bright. Instead I would go with Stacia Kane Be A Sex Writing Strumpet. Also this website also helped me helped me think stories through.
I would suggest you start learning story structure and outlining early. Dan Wells is an awesome free source - through his youtube videos, and Dwight V Swain Techniques of the Selling Writer. Also Gwen Hayes Romancing the Beat.
As a writer I would keep reading additional sources, once you find a story structure that you like - as in 3 part or 4 part, then find an ultimate resource for this.
When I first started I didn't really understand pinch points so I read a book on screenwriting that helped.
Yeah this is way too mysterious... to the point of I don't know what's going on.
Most romance blurbs are like:
Paragraph 1: Main Character #1--who they are, what's their external struggle, what's their problem why they can't find/want love, their role in the plot, etc.
Paragraph 2: Repeat for other main character.
Paragraph 3: Why they are coming together/forced to spend time together/inciting incident. Why they are resisting each other.
Read any romance blurb. They're pretty much all like this.
Also read Romancing the Beat for a quick, easy way to understand the romantic character arc that your book needs in order for you to correctly label it a "Romance."
If your story is just a cast of characters running around fucking and giving into/resisting temptation--even if there is love and emotion--it's not a romance and you'll get run out of town on a rail.
"I guess I need to figure out just how seksi-time I'm going to make my romance novels. Are erotic romances where it's at? Or should I aim for straight up romance (i.e. less graphic seksi times, less seksi times in general)?"
Romance is wide-open (er, so to speak) in terms of how sexy you make it, but there's something that many erotic authors discover when they start writing romance: romance readers have their own expectations, and it's important to meet those expectations when you write romance. Pick up a copy of -- at least -- Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes. (And there are a lot of resources about romance floating around the Net.) Romance readers are more interested in the developing relationship between well-written characters -- the chase -- than the capture: "seksi times". Doesn't mean that erotic is right out the door: you just have to make it part of the story rather than the whole story.
Buy this book.
Update (for my own satisfaction):
Hit 3.4K on the first few scenes of a possible romance novel. I also completed a first draft of an outline using Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes, which I am sure I saw recommended somwhere here on EA and it was a massive help.