How to Write An Erotic Romance

Long gone are the days when romance novels were read and written by spinsters and little old ladies in shawls. The romance market is now ruled by lusty erotic romances. Characters range from vampires and dominatrixes to medieval warriors and quick-witted modern businesswomen. The erotic love scenes are longer and hotter than ever before, more XXX than PG. Erotic romance publishers are always on the lookout for new writers.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Ditch the old-fashioned romance plots. Misunderstandings, damsels in distress and virginal schoolteachers are things of the past. Erotic romance plots must have sex as a plot element. For example, the heroine may be a respected businesswoman during the day but secretly run a BDSM dungeon at night. Let your imagination run wild and fashion heroes and heroines with a bold pedigree.
2. Get to know your characters. Write bios for them before you begin the first chapter. Define everything from what they do for living to what they eat for breakfast. Let your hero and heroine dictate the plot, not vice versa.
3. Write creative and explicit sex scenes. They can be as hot and crazy and erotic as you want. A glimpse at the book descriptions and jacket blurbs of recent Harlequin and Ellora's Cave titles alone will leave the more sedate readers gasping for breath. Sci-fi love triangles with shape shifters in lust, BDSM, swashbuckling pirates with captive mistresses--no scenario is too kinky for the plethora of erotic romance publishers.
4. Study the market. You can use resources like the romance authors magazine Romantic Times, Publishers Weekly and check out websites like theromancestudio.com for reviews of print and electronic books.
5. Outline your novel. You don't need to follow it to a tee. As you write, you may find that the characters spin the story into a different direction, and that's all right. It might be better than what you had planned.
6. Revise and rewrite until you are satisfied with your story. You may want to hire a proofreader or editor if to check for grammatical errors and format if your eyes get tired from all that rewriting.