Romance Writing I is a 10-week workshop, which includes lectures, exercises, and the critiquing of student projects. It’s for beginners or anyone who wants to brush up on the fundamentals. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
What’s more addictive than romance? Perhaps romance novels. They account for a hefty portion of all fiction paperback sales, with many millions of readers worldwide experiencing the thrills and heartbreaks of these ever-appealing stories. The field is more wide-open than ever, embracing romance in all its multifarious forms.
To write successful romance novels, you must marry the skills of a fiction writer with a thorough understanding of the genre. Here you will learn about the various types of romance novels and their special requirements, as well as fiction craft and how to market your work.
Whether you seek to write historical or contemporary, sassy or suspenseful, we’ll show you how to write romance novels readers will fall in love with.
Notes
- The “romance” genre does not refer to any fictional work that contains romance; rather, it refers to novels where everything revolves around the love story.
- You may also work on a “romance” novel in a Fiction I or (at the advanced level) Novel II First Draft or Novel II Critique, or one of our other genre courses: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Mystery.
- If you’re working on a YA novel, you may take a Fiction/Novel course, or a “genre” course, or you may take a Children’s Book course, where the full spectrum of children’s books will be covered.
This course gives you a firm grounding in the basics of the romance genre, and gets you writing a romance novel. Course components:
- Lectures
- Writing exercises
- Workshopping of student projects (each student presenting work two times)
Week 1
- Introduction to Romance Writing: What is a romance novel? Types of romance novels. How to choose a type. Studying romance novels.
Week 2
- Character: The heroic couple. The heroine. The hero. Character descriptions. Creating characters. Bringing characters to life.
Week 3
- Conflict: Romance plots. Problems and solutions. Planning a plot. Cause and effect.
Week 4
- Love: The developing relationship. Lust vs. love. Pulling the couple together and keeping them apart. Love scenes. Sexual tension. Finding the right resolution.
Week 5
- Storytelling: Starting a story. Scenes and chapters. Story elements—narrative, flashback, suspense, pacing, foreshadowing, the switch.
Week 6
- Point of View: Point of view types—first person and various types of third person. Which POV to use. Choosing the POV character. The author's voice.
Week 7
- Dialogue: The benefit of dialogue. How dialogue is real but not real. Handling dialogue. Dialogue mechanics.
Week 8
- Setting: How to choose a setting. Political correctness. Research.
Week 9
- Revision: Reviewing your work. Tips for revision. Diagnosing romance novel “problems."
Week 10
- The Business: The ins and outs of publishing. Self-publishing. The submission process. Agents and editors.
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
About
- The Online classes bring students from all over the globe to Gotham—New York City’s most famous writing school.
- The Online classes happen asynchronously—not in “real time.” You can participate in class any time, day or night, but the classes advance week-by-week, and certain things should be accomplished within that week-long session.
- You can take an Online writing class from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. The majority of our Online students are located in the U.S. but we also draw students from practically every country in the world.
- Tech support will be available.
- Aside from the convenience of time and location, you have a record of everything that transpires in class, which you can print out and keep for future reference. (The material is text and image, not video.)
