Reviews for Writing romances

The average rating for Writing romances based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-10-07 00:00:00 Michael Walls What an interesting read! Although this is an older book (from the late 90s), the chapters basically amount to essays on various subjects of the romance genre -- each written by experts in the field such as Debbie Macomber and Christina Dodd. Especially fun reads were the chapters in part four -- more specifically, "Writing the Historical -- Then and Now," by Jennifer Blake, "Writing the Short Contemporary Romance," by Helen R. Meyers, and "Writing the Young Adult Romance," by Sherry Garland. (I'd love to see an update by Sherry Garland on this chapter, with the development of recent vampire/werewolf stories!) Besides these great reads, there's some good advice that still holds true today no matter what type of fiction writer you are. If you're serious about writing romances, this is a must-have book and I highly recommend it!

Review # 2 was written on 2019-07-09 00:00:00 Brandon Kennedy A handy book with good general advice as well as specifics on publishing and writing and researching within a specific genre. The problem is that it's more than 20 years old, and MUCH has changed since then, from research to publishing to feminist expectations and social mores. (There are several references to the internet that are laughable now-- this newfangled electronic networking phenomenon that is affecting how research and other tasks can be done. "If you have a computer and a modem," hahaha.) As a result some chapters and sections are just skippable; we don't need an in medias res glimpse into the demise of the small bookstore (RIP), and the nitty-gritty about beginning research has changed, though it is still essential to know how to use a library. Some chapters are packed full of useful information, such as "The life and times of a manuscript," which is by a novel editor for a major publishing house, but it's hard to know how much the process of publishing and even the jobs and publishing options have changed. A history lesson on the development of the historical romance is great, but it stops, rather disconcertingly, around the apex of Fabio's career. What happened next? What do readers want now? I'd love to see a revised and updated version of this essay and this entire book. The structure, with essays by different authors, means that there is useful advice and the unique perspectives of many successful authors to be found here. It also means that it's not as practical to browse it as a how-to book. Unlike "Writing the Romance Novel" by Leigh Michaels, this book doesn't dwell on the craft of creative writing so much as offer some hard-won perspective on writing and publishing as an industry and romance as a market-driven genre. There are some great nuggets of craft guidance as well, particularly in the interweaving of action and character to create the romantic suspense genre, everyone insisting that you must research, research, research.