Hi guys. I'm reading "Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies" (WRND) by Victorine Lieske, and wanted to bring you my thoughts as I go through it.
Victorine Lieske is a self-pub writer of romance who capitalized on the indie boom of 2010, so she represents roughly the same generation of success as Theodora Taylor whose book "Seven Figure Fiction" gives you the skinny on the world of online romance writing without hiding anything.
I want to start with something I agree with.
The most precious side of the romantic romance--because I will die on the hill that 'romance' in a classic sense is an adventure book--for me as a writer is that when content creators' work is rapidly devaluing in the deluge of supply, romantic readers are the most reliable audience.
We know, for the fact, that they exist and that they read. A lot. More than the urban fantasy's devotees, more than mystery junkies, and, most certainly, far more than those who dare call themselves sci-fi or anime addicts.
So, yup, I agree with the WRND's main premise: romantic books entering the market, in our case, Wattpad, have an audience.
I also wholeheartedly agree with WRND that a writer shouldn't use this fact alone to drive them to write a romance. To write a romance, just like WRND says, a writer has to love the romantic novels, at least one subgenre of it. They need to burn to write it.
Why?
Because romantic novels are not immune to the oversupply woes. As enthusiastic as the readers of the genre are, they are also well-read in that genre (because they are voracious, remember?), so they are like kids in a candy store.
They only want the best and can detect someone who produces the palpitating hearts, butterflies in the stomach and even the throbbing from a mile off.
Above all, they want sincerity and the commonality of experiences with the writer. They know when we fake it. And they have plenty of other choices.
Next, a couple of foundational things that this dummy disagrees with (and how to do it better...imho).
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