A Guide to Writing

Romance

[1] Things You Should Include
Readers want romance novels to be a fantasy world where they can experience the thrill of falling in love with a person who isn't perfect. So basically, the person who your MC is falling in love with shouldn't be perfect, they need a balance.

[a] They Need to Embrace Challenges or Activities
For the MC's sake, the lover should do something the MC knows they don't necessarily like but are doing it for them.

[b] Prove They're a Good Caretaker
Taking care of small children or a puppy could be a great example.

[c] Reveal Protective Nature in a Good Light
Notice how I said good light. We do not need some 50 Shades of Grey crap in here. That is crucial for the MC to fall in love with the planned lover. A good example would be softly scolding a small child for doing something potentially dangerous.

[d] Optimistic Outlook
If it's storming outside and everyone's complaining, they should be thinking about how great it is that the garden has water for harvesting.

[e] Reveal Deepening Admiration, Respect, and Love for the MC
If the first time the lover sees the MC, they might think that their overall appearance is plain but as they grow to love them, they'll think their appearance is amazing.

[f] Make them Act with Kindness towards Staff or Working Class
A good example would be giving their secretary time off with plane fare to visit her ailing mother.

[g] Challenge Integrity
The lover has an option to lie about something but would rather tell the truth, maybe even gaining more trust from the MC.

[h] Make Evidence that They are Well-Liked and Well-Respected
If they're not well-liked by others, how are you expecting your MC to like them? A good way to achieve this would be to have someone claim that they're "great listeners."

[i] Social Cause that Genders can Respect
Ex: Maybe they help out at a homeless shelter.

[j] Reveal Usefulness
Whether it's emotional support or just someone they really care about, your MC needs to be able to have gained something from this relationship.

[2] Things You Shouldn't Include
Ok, so basically I've gone into Wattpad clubs and gathered readers' opinions about what they hate in romance books seen on Wattpad. There's no obligation to follow these as they are just opinions from many readers. Please, I've meant no offense in writing these, I only wish to spread the opinions from many readers and myself.

[a] Plain MC
Nobody wants to be reading about an MC that's plain and ordinary. In some cases this would be acceptable, but most of the time there is no character development. If you're going to have a plain MC there HAS to be development in their character or else the reader might get frustrated and quit reading.

[b] The 'Kissing' Cliche
We all know what this cliche is. Don't even try to fool yourself. This is the cliche where the MC and her boyfriend will get into an argument and he'll kiss her to shut her up. Like??? I don't know about you guys but if a guy did something like that I would get even more angry. Like, do you really think that's going to get you out of this situation? Think again. So if you have your MC's boyfriend do this, is she really the type of person who would be ok with that?

[c] Bad Boy
There's a lot of these books on Wattpad and this is when the MC decides to choose the guy who is angry at the world but is a softie for the MC. This guy is the guy who the MC wants to 'fix.' The bad boy will be pretty much whipped for the MC and she'll more than likely be a girl who will accidentally take advantage of that by getting herself kidnapped or something (yes, I've seen it before.)

[d] Every Guy Loves the MC
Ok. Now, how is this even a thing? Yes, I can see love triangle is they're well-written but when you use too many guys or say that the MC, for some "unknown" reason, is wanted by every guy in her school, that's when you have an issue.

[e] No Lives Outside of Relationship
Come on, people. How hard is this to write? All you have to do is have some conflicts outside of the relationship. Like maybe she's struggling at school or work. Maybe there's a family issue that needs to be solved. Your entire book cannot be revolved around this relationship. Readers want at least a little bit of conflict from the outside world. It doesn't even have to be conflict. You could have your MC really obsessed with a swim team or she's too much of a daredevil... maybe she's really obsessed with Tumblr and Netflix marathons... (totally not me.)

[d] No Such Thing as Rejection
Ok now what is up with this? Why are some of the MCs out there incapable of rejecting not a guy? Some of them are clearly not for her so what is the bid deal here? You know, I would actually love a story where the MC chooses the guy that is actually perfect for her instead of the hot guy who's a pain in the butt.