I was recently asked for references on how to plot a romance. As someone who’s been writing in the genre for years and reading as many books on the craft of writing as I can, I had very few recommendations for romance-specific craft books.
It’s not that romance writers don’t share how they create their stories—they are some of the most generous people with their time and knowledge. It’s just that writing romance isn’t all that different from writing any other genre of fiction (aside; perhaps, for literary fiction which doesn’t have to follow any rules).
In all genres of popular fiction, some form of story structure is used and nearly all are built on the structure of Freytag’s Pyramid.
Of course, each genre has its basic rules that are specific to that genre—Sci fi has to contain tech that hasn’t been invented yet, fantasy has creatures that don’t exist in reality (as far as we know for certain), mystery must solve some sort of quandary, and romance must contain two (or more) protagonists and the book ends with either a Happily Ever After (HEA) or a Happily For Now (HFN) where the protagonists make a commitment to each other.
While adhering to these standards, an author can plot their book anyway that makes sense to them.
Some start with a situation or a what-if—this will usually end up with a plot-based book. Other authors start with a character or two and grow from there resulting in a character driven book. Most romances are character driven, but not all because there are romantic suspense novels, romantic mystery, and romantic sci fi which may focus as much on the plot as the characters. Remember, all you need to classify a book as a romance is that HEA or HFN.
And then there are the plotters and pantsers. Some authors will meticulously plot out their entire story and character arcs before they begin writing the book. Others start with an idea, start typing, and see where it leads them. Then, once they’re finished writing the book, the editing process ensures that they hit all the major turning points at about the right point in the book and the characters are fully developed people with an understandable arc.
Most authors fall somewhere along the continuum between plotter and pantser.
So, with all this in mind, what is a new romance author to do?
Read. Read lots of novels in the subgenre you want to write because you need to be well versed in the expectations of that genre. And you need to read a lot of books on writing—everything from Lisa Cron’s books (Wired for Story is the first one) to those by Donald Maass (Writing the Breakout Novel). I’ve also learned a lot from specific craft books like Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Debra Dixon, The Power of Point of View by Alicia Rasley, and Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne & Dave King.
So, dear reader, that is how you plot a romance novel.