Romance writing....

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I have been writing a Romance novel, and posting it on fiction press. I was wondering if anyone had any tips for a thirteen year old girl?

*feeling incredibly nosy - not very interested in romance*

First - age. You may be able to imagine/intuit/empath what would go on in the hearts and minds of people who are much older than you, but then you may not. If you think you can't, stay close to what you know. [This is useless advice if your already established main characters are in their thirties (and have to be for the story). In which case you should probably just make the best of it and see if it works.]

If you haven't done so already: read something by Jane Austen. It's romantic comedy, but it's the very best there is.

Maybe you could create a nice Aspie? Stereotype-bashing is always welcome...

Keep trying. If the first story doesn't go well, the second may.

*sneaks out again*

Ok... but why would they have to be in the thrities, also, I really would like an aspie, but I don't know how to write aspie characters. or aspie romance...

But ShadesofMe, you ARE an aspie, right? Just draw on your personal experiences and feelings. That is often much easier and truer in the long run than completely inventing a character that you have not invested yourself in.

HMM... I guess that would work...I'll try it

yeah I believe in all my fellow aspies I think you can DO it

I'm not particularly a fan of "Romance" novels. Mainly because they're formula. If you really want to be a writer, you're about the right age to start. But notice I said start. Think moderate success by the time your 25. But that's only if you keep at it.

Learn to get your own ideas....to outline them....(not the same thing at all as a school outline) learn how to do narration, speeches, and description. Learn what people expect (you have to do a lot of reading of other people and analyzing for yourself, and then, you sit down and start to write. And the first original stuff you do is going to be bloody awful. But you keep at it. And pretty soon, you'll get to a point where, instead of wondering what you should do, you'll have solved the problem.
1. The main character in a novel must change
2. If you write a novel where you're major character loses....you won't get much of an audience.
3. Does that mean you can never kill your main character? No. She who dies for her ideals has not lost.
And your story needs to make some point, and you must decide what that point is, before you start writing.

Writing has three stages.
1. You get the idea and you sit down and write it out in three pages or less...."this is a story about....and tell yourself what happens.

2. You sit down with your three pages and you block out scenes that contribute to your point. You also take out stuff that doesn't work. That's a learning experience.

3. You sit down and do the dramatization of what you've outlined. You'll find that saves a lot of having to waste time writing stuff that doesn't fit, thus you don't have to tear it out later.

A story has a structure, there are books on that, I'm not going to bother with that here.....but most of all, you can't leave anything in that doesn't contribute.

A story has an organizing theme....one I once heard, which I don't agree with, but it's a good example, "Marcy wants to be a famous dancer like her mother, she has the muscles, she has the discipline, she's not hard to look at, but she's deaf, and she can't hear the music.

That kind of a theme is called "what does the character want, and what is standing in their way."

There's more, but this is too long already.

Oh, yeah, it took me 40 years to learn a lot of that stuff the hard way. I wish I had started when I was 13. If you have the courage to sit at your table and write, whether you're writing what you think is good or bad, and then to go back and edit without mercy, you'll be a good writer.

Good luck.
Beentheredonethat.

I'm writing a couple of romance novels myself.

My best advice is to get out a bunch of Mills & Boons (though they may be a little rauncy if you're 13?) and read them. They're very, very formulaic. They also seem to LOVE the use of hyperbole and strings of adjectives in a row, and very contrived settings.

BUT... there's also very, very good money to be made in romance literature, which is the only reason I'm doing it.

First and foremost I'm a journalist and serious writer. I just like the idea of the money you can make from writing such tripe.

It also helps if you know how to write a good sex scene. I learned something about sex scenes a number of years ago. I wanted to write an original one, so I worked on it for a week or two, and then showed it to a girl who I knew read that stuff. (I'm a guy). She read it, put the paper down, and said "it doesn't turn me on." So I said, okay, I'll bring it back next week. And I went home and wrote all the formula stuff that I had read over the years, and my own reaction to it was "how boring." But then I took it back to her, and she read it again, and she said "why did you bother with all the work you did the first time? This works, it's a turn on, so what if it's formula, you want to sell the book or not?.

But the cardinal rule is that the audience has to care about your character. Who is the audience for a romance novel (I'm not being catty, I'm trying to show you something about target audience). The answer is, that they are women in there early 20s, most of whom are married, most of whom have had sex and found it to be very unromantic and unsatisifying (it doesn't have to be, but you've got to work pretty hard with your partner to make it as much of a turn on as it can be....and I'm well aware that I'm talking to a 13 year-old, so don't go experimenting with it until you're 18 and on the pill, and you really know who you're with pretty well....I mean that you're safe in more ways than one), but you're writing for women who don't have much excitement in their lives. Whose reaction to their own experiences has been "is that all there is?" So you have to provide them with something more. Possibly with a man they hate to begin with but who, through a number of plot twists and turns, becomes madly passionately involved with them, and sweeps them off their feet, and takes them to bed and to the height of several orgasims. It doesn't happen that way in real life. There has to be a relationship, and it takes a lot of work, and a lot of frank talk with your partner, but if you're writing Romance literature, you're not writing reality anyway. Life isn't like that. There are very few men (no matter how cool they look) who are good lovers the first time out. And besides, in life, if a woman is smart, she's not looking for a one-night stand. I disagree with the previous poster about language, though. Language should be tight. Some of the romance authors are lousy writers, and some of the editors don't know what they're doing. Something that is written tightly written with simple words, written without a lot of pretense is easier to read. Also, you have to learn to write a "page turner," which is something to make your audience turn the page. You have a lot of studying to do, specifically, who your audience is, and what they want. And remember (something that a lot of first time writers don't understand) paper is expensive. Study the structure, and write it to the page length you see in a standard romance novel. Some publishing houses also have guide lines...the big ones do, anyway, and they'll send them to you if you find an editor who wants to encourage new talent. They know what the formula is, they have it written out, and all you have to do is drop your characters into it. If you can't get it, you're going to have to buy 25 romance novels (it would make me sick) and figure out how the formula works. I had a friend (I've long lost touch with her) who sat down and figured out how it was done, and wrote an essey on it, and then she wrote several books, and took the money and ran. But she didn't get rich. Write because you want to, and if you get recognized, that's good too.

But take it from someone who has been writing for about 40 years. An fiction, no matter what it is, is VERY HARD WORK. The question is whether you, as a 13 year-old have the fortitude to sit in your chair at your desk, and do the work. No one I know who turns out professional work just sits down and does it in their spare time. You have to make it your life for awhile. And the only way you will make it into some publishing houses writing group is by being better than everyone else!


btdt

Beentheredonethat - Agreed on language. The books, if you read them (I did what your friend did and went to the library several weeks in a row, until I'd read their entire collection) are utter tripe for the most part. The language used is never up to scratch in terms of what would normally be accepted by a publishing house; it's simple, over the top, and often quite laughable. Buuut... the books aren't really written for the story; the women don't read them for the fantastic plot-line, they read them for the emotive language and the sex scenes. Which gives you license to play with words a little more than you normally would, and be more ridiculous in your descriptions.

Put it this way: I've been published since I was 12, and as such have a fair idea of what 'publishing standard' work is. Romance literature really is an entity unto itself - the vast majority is far below publishing par for the rest of the literary world, but if it does the trick (i.e. it's readable, you have a solid character, good descriptions, and it's a bit raunchy) then you're sorted and there is money to be made.

Lots of my friends ask me why I'd stoop to such a low level of writing.... the simple answer is there's money to be made, and it doesn't require quite as much effort as anything else.

Erm, how much like, sex and stuff are you putting in this, if you're thirteen? Do you have the experience to write about it (one hopes not if you're thirteen)? If you do, how do you think everyone will react to its inclusion? Better yet, how will people react if you DON'T put it in?

That would be my biggest question... writing it properly sort of requires a bit of experience to some degree, and I wouldn't really recommend doing that if you're just 13.

There are some sub-genres within the romance genre that don't require sex...

Is your romance novel intended to be funny or dramatic?

Stick with what you know, at thirteen it is first crush, summer romance, and it has all the feeling, but does not go anywhere, first kiss and not a great one, just an exchange of I like you too.The road starts somewhere.

Their is a whole field of young girl not so little anymore, looking out. It is the beginner steps, meet boy, have doubts, maybe, doing a few things together, talking, the hard stuff to start with.

Boys are going to have the same problem, so how to get him talking, sports, hobbies, a social starter kit. It is a very short term thing for language changes quickly, a year old bit of slang can become quickly dated. Locations sell, California is a dream for a Nebraska girl. So describe the beach, something of how great the life is, I know, lie, but set and setting count. Read travel stuff.

There is a reason I was there, went to visit my aunt, for a week, Big Sur, and there was this boy. He ignored me, met later, talked, she goes home all a flutter because he said she was alright, he did not say he liked her, but that is what she heard. Play with the feelings you feel, it happens to other thirteen year olds.

What you have is a point of view, a snapshot of now. As the old folks said, adult romance is formula. Young love has wings.

No one seems to notice as kids grow up, still think of her as ten, someday will have to tell her of the birds and bees. Kids are kids, but with the internet. What they know, what they think, is only known to kids of their time.

I would say avoid adult stuff, it will rot you brain, plenty of time for that later. You are a moment in time, use it, and you will understand your own time better.

I have the other problem, I am writing about thirteen, from a long way away. My last is eighteen, and was a different person every year. Even what I learned from her is dated.

The changes are total, twelve is someone's kid, thirteen is going to marry someone. Puberty its not a short term event, it is a time of change and feeling. You have a natural market position. Old enough to notice boys, to young to date, but having strong and new feelings.

Write, Write, Write, get the garbage out and the good stuff will flow.

I should also point out that the more of this you put out on the web, the less and less likely it is to be published. Very few people will want to publish something that was already free on the net.