Anna Burke will be joining the WA this week to teach about the beats of a romance novel. Structure is important in any novel, but the beats of a romance are different from the journeys and plot points of other works. After all, a romance should have, at the very least, a meet-cute and a first kiss. In many romance stories, the darkest moment of the book is when the couple seems to be broken up for good and the reader holds their breath waiting for the reconciliation. And while some people may say romances are formulaic, we say that the characters and the settings and the obstacles make up the flesh and bones of the story, while the structure is the skeleton. Your characters will be different, their obstacles will be different. That’s what makes the heart of a romance story. For more information on structuring your romance, check out Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes, one of our favorite sources on writing romance.
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