How to Plot a Romance Novel

"'Romance novel' can mean a 50,000-word category romance that focuses primarily on the romance and usually involves few subplots, or a 100,000-word (or more) single-title novel that encompasses a wide spectrum of story and plot not necessarily dependent on the central romance," says Sheri McGregor, author of "Under One Roof," to be released in summer 2000.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Spiral Notebooks
• Writing Pens
• Personal Computers

1. Keep in mind that plot consists of linked events carrying your reader to your story's resolution.

2. Generate plot by forcing your characters to face adversity.

3. Outline a series of events, each influenced by the preceding and influencing the subsequent.

4. Put characters in conflict to move the plot forward, including only characters and events that move the story to resolution.

5. Entice your reader deeper into the story by foreshadowing - weaving elements of later events into earlier parts of the story.

6. Use subplots and plot twists sparingly.

7. Know your market. Write only that which contributes to the romance within the story.

8. Make your leading characters believable and sympathetic according to the demands of the plot.

9. Resolve crisis and conflict to end your plot.

10. Come to a resolution true to the elements of the plot.

Tips & Warnings

• "A romance novel focuses on the romance. That means that even if you're writing a bigger book, subplots and secondary characters' dilemmas and actions often somehow feed into the conflicts of your hero and heroine," says Sheri McGregor, author of "Dream Catcher."
• "The point of a romance novel is the story's central romance and the ups and downs that befall the couple along the road to the happy ending," McGregor says.
• "Romance readers want to identify with the characters and get caught up in their feelings and emotions as they relate to what's going on around them. Don't get so carried away with plot that you forget a romance novel is about the characters," McGregor advises.