Heartfelt storytelling is easier when you know some good romance writing strategies. Let's look at crafting romantic narratives and strategies for emotional writing.

Romance Writing Strategies

How do you start crafting your romantic narrative? Three big things to consider in heartfelt storytelling and romantic writing strategies are:

• Subgenre
• Relationship dynamic
• Other characters

Subgenre

Within the world of romantic writing, a strategy that you should start with is selecting the right subgenre for you. In theory, you could have any subgenre in romance, but the most commonly used ones are:

• Fantasy
• Supernatural
• Historical
• Contemporary

Some of these may overlap in some cases. Fantasy revolves around themes like magic and fantastical creatures with elements that don't exist in the world as we know it. The supernatural is similar but more related to ghosts and otherworldly spiritual beings. Historical is when your heartfelt story takes place in the past (with accurate elements of that time frame). Contemporary is set in the modern day with elements that are realistic to current life.

There's no wrong subgenre to pick when crafting romantic narratives. But those four tend to be the most common. Other considerations of the genre include whether there will be comedic elements or if it will be entirely serious. Really, your romance novel could cross over with any other genre.

Relationship Dynamic

When it comes to crafting romantic narratives, you need to focus on the dynamic between the two protagonists. Some things to consider include:

• How do your characters feel when they first meet? Is it love at first sight? Were they friends who felt for each other? Did they go from enemies to lovers?
• What kind of conflict is there? There has to be some obstacle to the two being happy, or maybe even an obstacle to the two being together in the first place. Are they far apart? Will society let them be together?
• How do the other characters feel about the two protagonists' relationship?

Answering these questions will help you form an image of your characters.

Other Characters

There's probably going to be other people in the story, right? The secondary characters behind your two leads can help tell your story. When thinking about romance writing strategies, one that is popular is to have a character or characters stand in the way of your two protagonists being together. You can use other characters as part of your strategy for emotional writing, as they can interfere with the relationship. At the same time, you could have side characters who are helpful and help the two protagonists be together.

Strategies for Emotional Writing

A difficult part of heartfelt storytelling is provoking the type of emotion you want the reader to feel. Here are some strategies for emotional writing:

• Be very descriptive. You want your reader to be transported to your setting and be able to see the characters. Descriptive language helps to transport the reader into the story.
• Create relatable characters that your reader cares about. When crafting romantic narratives, you need your readers to care about the protagonists in order for them to get invested in their relationship. Make your characters feel human and relatable so that the reader can see some of themselves in them.
• Build the atmosphere. When it comes to romance writing strategies, it's worth putting the time into setting the atmosphere. Whether you are trying to set up a sense of passion or get across the angst of separation, you want your readers to feel like they are experiencing the same emotions as the characters.
• Think about the pacing of your book. There will be times when things need to move fast, but there are also times when it's necessary to slow everything down. Don't be afraid to let big emotional scenes breathe. You can afford to slow things down after a really hectic passage. In fact, it's better to have a few slow sections than to have the story be completely frantic the whole way through because your reader may not be able to keep up.
• Good dialogue is as much about what is said as what is not said. So, think about leaving some of the speech out and getting the message across another way.

Heartfelt Storytelling Questions to Answer

For crafting romance narratives, there are two big questions you need to ask yourself.

• Will there be a happy ending?
• How will intimacy be presented?

Different romance writing strategies will provide different answers to these questions.

A Happy Ending vs. a Tragic One

How will the romance end? Will it be a Romeo and Juliet-style tragedy where the two main characters are unable to be together? Or will you go with a more pleasant, happy ending where your two lovers get to spend the rest of their lives with each other? There is no universal right or wrong answer. The right ending depends on your specific story.

And there is a level of nuance to things when it comes to the ending of these stories. You could have an ending where the romance doesn't work out itself, but the protagonists find fulfillment in another way and gain a new lease on life. At the same time, you could have an ending where the two main characters do get to be together, but it's bittersweet because they lose something in the process.

The ending of the story may come naturally as you write it, but you do have to ask yourself if it's necessary to the story that your main characters get to stay together or if they have to go their separate ways for the story to work. In heartfelt storytelling, sometimes, the ending that seems the most natural is the best.

The Intimacy Question

When there's romance, there tends to be some kind of physical intimacy. It's a perfectly natural part of the human experience. But depending on your target audience, the way you portray the scenes or suggest intimacy may differ.

If you are writing a very adult book in the genre of erotica, then you are likely going to be much more descriptive with the physical interactions. However, if the sexual scenes aren't as much of a focus and the main story is the emotional relationship of the characters, then you won't go into as much detail. There's also a matter of who your target audience is and what their expectations and tastes are.

There's nothing wrong with having physical intimacy represented in your book, so you can decide for yourself how much you leave up to your reader's imaginations (or how much you let your imagination run wild in the writing!).

Final Words

The right romance writing strategies will help you on your way to heartfelt storytelling. If you're struggling to get started, Dibbly Create is a brilliant tool for idea generation. And if you need help writing your book, we have the freelancers for you.