How to Write a Romance Novel

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Laura Turner and today I'm going to give you my best advice for how to write a romance novel. So, you want to write a romance novel, but you're not exactly sure where to start. My particular preference for where you should start, you can start anywhere. You can start with a plot, you can start with the world that you're going to put it in. I think you should start first by picking your hero. Figure out who you want to write about and then who is going to be in this world with this hero. Figure out what the hero wants. Figure out what you want, as a writer, and what you love to write about and what you love to see, and that will help you pick out your hero. Second, I think is most important is to plot your outline. Actually make an outline of your chapters, figure out what you want the hero to do, what you want the hero to learn through the novel, and what you want the readers to get out of the end of your novel. So that you're not just sort of writing, episodes that don't connect and working with different characters and all this stuff. Try to actually create an entire book around your one character. So plot your outline. Then number three most important is plan your time. Actually have time each day to sit down and write on this novel because I have known people who have been writing novels for years and years and years and have never finished them. Just simply because they could not plan their time well. So sit down everyday to write. It doesn't matter if it goes in the final draft or not. Just sit down and write a chapter and see how it goes and see where it fits in into the plot, and if you follow the three "P"s: pick the hero, plot the outline, and plan your time, hopefully you can get your novel finished and then you can start rewriting. So good luck."