What Makes a Compelling Romance Novel

What Makes a Compelling Romance Novel What Makes a Compelling Romance Novel? Ann Leslie Tuttle worked at Harlequin Books - a division of HarperCollins - for over 20 years, most recently as a Senior Editor. During her tenure, she acquired and edited NYT and USA Today bestselling authors in romance, women's fiction, and mystery, including Sylvia Day, Julia London, Lisa Renee Jones, and Hank Phillippi Ryan.If you know how a story will end, why would you want to read the book? That’s the question that romance writers constantly struggle to answer. Readers come to the genre knowing they will (almost) always get a happy ending in which the protagonists find and profess their love.To entice readers, writers must therefore deliver a fresh premise with strong, evocative prose and pacing that gets to the heart of the story - usually beginning with the protagonists meeting in the first chapter. These will be the elements that usually prompt someone to pick up the book and start reading. Most importantly, the writer’s crafting of the two main characters and their emotional journeys is what will keep the reader hooked.Having been an editor working on romance titles for well over 20 years, I’ve seen both debut and experienced authors struggle to create compelling characters whose emotional push-and-pull is strong enough to sustain the length of the story. Over the years, I’ve pulled together my own list of trouble spots - and ways to surmount them - that I’d like to share with you now. See what makes a compelling romance novel here! Trouble Spot #1: CharacterizationThe best lesson I ever received in characterization was at a writers’ conference, where an author who was pitching me told me that she wrote horoscopes for a living. The writer took that skill and developed such detailed horoscopes for the hero and heroine in her story that she knew precisely who they were regarding their tastes and personalities, what obstacles they faced, what had occurred in their past or backstory, etc.While I wouldn’t recommend that every romance writer start building astrological charts, I would encourage you to make sure you really know who your protagonists are. Delve deeply into their stories so that they’re not just one-dimensional stereotypes. Indeed, the more (believable) hardships they’ve endured in the past, the more material you will have to mine.Keep in mind that while stories featuring large families are popular with readers, it can often be a challenge to write about a presumably tortured hero who comes from such a loving, happy home. But if he’s served in the military or lost a close friend in a childhood accident, he may have other emotional reserves upon which you can draw. id=attachment_15175 style="width: 910px" class="wp-caption aligncenter">"Oh, Mr. Darcy!" (image: BBC)In the end, it’s all about the emotional conflict our romantic leads must surmount that makes their story so compellingThe emotional conflict is not to be confused with the external one. The external conflict usually revolves around an issue of miscommunication, perhaps differing career and money goals - or if you want to kick it up a notch, an external threat. (This is particularly effective when one of the main characters is on the run, or in hiding.)For example, the heroine might have left town eight years ago, believing her high school boyfriend didn’t love her simply because he never got her note or phone call - this is the external conflict they must resolve if they want to patch things up. Or maybe the protagonists believe they can’t be together because one lives on the East Coast and the other on the West Coast. These kinds of conflicts can usually be o vercome by a heartfelt conversation or compromise, but it sometimes involves uncovering the main players in a global threat and taking them down.A strong emotional conflict boils down to either a question of trust or fear. For instance, if your hero lost his first wife to cancer, it’s understandable that he won’t want to run the risk of ever experiencing that all-consuming pain again. Or if the heroine shared her deepest secret with an ex who betrayed her trust, she’s probably reluctant to open up to a new partner.In each of these emotionally fraught cases, the conflict is deep and will require some growth on the part of your hero and heroine to recognize that, despite high stakes involved, love is worth putting oneself on the line.Even if one of your characters first realizes and even confesses their love, the resolution of the conflict should take up most of the book (Elizabeth and Darcy, anyone?). If you’ve created a conflict that is sufficiently compe lling, there should not be an instance where both the protagonists confess their love, only to be driven apart again by some external threat or unsolved thread.Yes, readers may know how your story ends. But with multi-faceted protagonists, emotional appeal, great plotting, and a strong conflict, they will still want to travel with the characters as they overcome each milestone on their journey to finding love.For more help with writing great romance, you can also take inspiration from any of the books on these lists:The 10 Best Historical Romance Novels Like OutlanderThe 25 Best Romance Authors and Their Must-Reads30+ Best Young Adult Romance Books That You Can't Miss Out On40+ Paranormal Romance Books with BiteWhat are some of your experiences writing romances? Share your thoughts in the comments below!