Well hello there, Reader!
It’s that special 💝 filled day, you know the one. I’m talking about Valentine’s Day.
And in the week leading up to the day of love, sales of chocolates and flowers have been massive. But what about…
Books?
Yep, you heard me correctly.
Over 2.2 billion books are sold each year worldwide. And of those billions, 25% were Romance books. That number jumps to 40% if you’re just counting books within genre fiction.
Crazy right? 🙀
And that’s only counting stories that would be shelved in Romance or its subcategories. It doesn’t count stories in genre fiction “with romantic elements” such as Rick Riordan & Mark Oshiro’s The Sun and The Star.
So why has Romance always gotten the snub despite the clear BILLIONS it brings in each year for authors and publishers, both traditional and indie?
The ugly truth?
Because they were traditionally stories written for women by women authors. And historically, the industry and society as a whole have done their damnedest to dismiss the accomplishments and desires of femalekind.
But times they are a-changing and you can be a part of that, Reader.
Maybe you’ve always harbored a secret desire to pen your own love story.
And whether you want to write Classic, Contemporary, or Queer Romance, you need to have these 5 ingredients to brew ⚗️ your love story.
The 5 Ingredients You Need to Brew for the Perfect Love Story:
1) The Incomplete Character
Your Legendary Character needs to be an incomplete person who is missing some important piece of themselves. A character who can only become a whole person because of The Foil.
2) The Foil
Every Legendary Character needs a cute and charming counterpart to foil the status quo of their current day-to-day life. Or maybe your Legendary Character is the roguish Loki type and their Foil is the serious stoic type such as in Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.
3) The Meet Cute
The Legendary Character and Foil need to meet in a crazy and memorable way. The sort of thing that usually becomes part of the story’s pitch.
4) The Complication
The thing that’s keeping them from finding their “Happily Ever After,” while at the same time continuing to throw them into close proximity. Maybe it’s their workplace hierarchy, the threat of deportation, or societal prejudice, but something is wrenching these two would-be lovers apart while also shoving them together in the story.
5) The Grand Gesture
A big grand gesture the Legendary Character makes to prove themselves to the Foil and obtain their Happily Ever After. Maybe it’s interrupting the wedding to confess their feelings, forsaking one’s family to run away together, or reigniting the Foil’s heart with their magic after near-death. Whatever the action, it’s gotta be big, shocking, and dramatic enough to leave the Foil and readers breathless.
Now aside from these 5, the other important thing to consider when brewing your love story is how high you intend to set the burner on that tame to explicit scale with your story’s intimate content. In Romance, this rating is called the Spice Level, and I’ve included it below with TV and age ratings for comparison.
Spice level
Spiciness level
TV rating | Age rating
Sweet
PG 9+
Suitable for anyone over the age of 9. Similar to animated feature films where the lead characters kiss a few times at most.
Example: Hori-san to Miyamura-kun (Horimiya) by Hiroki “Hero” Adachi
(Considered one of the Top 25 Romance anime of all time)
Zesty
TV14 Teen 14+
Kissing, touching, romantic and sexual language, are all commonplace. If there is a sex scene it’s handled behind closed doors, “fade to black”, or in a very romantic way where only the character’s emotional state is described. However, as a point of reference, Vampire Diaries was TV14 and so is most anime that isn’t intended for very young children, so Zesty covers a wide range of Romance stories.
Example: Heartstopper (Heartstopper) by Alice Oseman
Spicy
TV16 Older Teen 16+
The bedroom door may be open during those spicy romance scenes, however the language tends to focus more on the character’s emotional and romantic feelings than their physical ones. Also, scenes will still cut away or fade out at various points. Most books by Romantasy authors such as Sarah J. Maas or Rebecca Yarros fall into this category though they edge into Ghost Pepper territory.
Example: Predestined by Kat Vancil
Ghost Pepper
MA Adult 18+
You don’t just open that closed bedroom door, you pat the bed beside the characters and give us a front-row seat to all the hot smexy action. Basically, if you’re writing erotica or anything that’s one step adjacent to it, you’ll probably find yourself here. This one usually comes with that “Mature”, “Explicit” or “Parental Advisory” warning. And if it includes illustrations like manga or light novels it might even be packaged in plastic wrap too.
Example: Therapy Game & Therapy Game Restart by Meguru Hinohara
Well, Reader I hope this little primer on Romance helps you brew your own love story this Palentine’s Day 💘
Your cohort in storytelling,
Kat Vancil
🐱
PS 👉 Looking for a new read this Valentine’s/Palentine’s Day? Then here’s a bouquet of 14 Queer Romances from across the genres and around the world just for you!
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Finley K. James
Indie author bring heart, heat, and second chances
I'm an 80-year-old woman in the body of a not-so-80-years-old woman. I write stories that bring heart and heat to the pages. My newsletter covers updates about my life, my writing, and book and song recommendations. |
