Ten Beats of a Romance: Part Four by Susan May Warren

Welcome to another Manuscript Monday, readers. Susan May Warren's series wraps up today with the final beats of a romance. I've really enjoyed this series, how about you? If you write romance, don't miss her tip near the end of this article. Enjoy!

True Love and Sacrifices*
by Susan May Warren

I love a great romance with a lot of tension and conflict, something with spark and romantic tension. But, if we don’t believe these two are meant for each other, then the fear that they won’t find true love (which is what drives a book) won’t matter. If their happily ever after isn’t at stake, we won’t care if they achieve it.

We must believe that a hero and heroine are perfect for each other.

Beat 8: WHY. Why are these two perfect for each other? The core reason they belong together saves the day. Along the way, you’ll be showing each of them WHY they belong together. But at this key moment, after the breakup, they’ll realize why they belong together, and this is bigger than the WHY NOT of the breakup. You should be building this element as you go, but it rises to the apex at this moment.

Here are three elements that draw people together:

1. Their essential values. We like people who hold our values dear to their hearts. At the end of the day, they need to see the core values of each other and have that draw them to each other.
2. Their vacancies. We like people who “complete” us – who can do the things we can’t do. What can they do for each other that the other can’t do?
3. They make each other better people. We like people who can see the best in us and draw it out. What do they see in each other that they draw out, and how do they become better people when they are together?

The WHY’s are at the core of a person—think of why you love your significant other…they are often the glue that holds you together despite your misunderstandings.

As you write your romance, you’ll give your characters glimpses of those core WHY’s, until you see one that is simply inescapable. When you figure out the WHY, then you have the final major component.

Beat 9: The Big Gesture/Sacrifice: The Hero or Heroine are able to make the Big Gesture/Sacrifice to stay together.

I often talk about finding that thing that your hero can’t do at the beginning of a book…and then showing him overcoming (because of the heroine’s love, or some truth) and doing it at the end.

So—what is the Big Gesture/Sacrifice they make at the end, for love, that they can’t do at the beginning? It might be letting go of something, or doing something brave…

Ask: What can they do at the end of the book they can’t do at the beginning?

Beat 10: Happily Ever After—they find the love they’ve always longed for.

Romances end happily. Something that makes the reader GLAD they just spent two days reading your romance! (as opposed to weeping and throwing the book across the room).

The Notebook works because they are together at the end, even if she is losing her mind. She remembered!

The romance has to have changed them, forever, and made them into better people. Now, I like romances that actually have people ALIVE at the end, so I can have a sort of romantic scene. And I try and find something that epitomizes their romance.

The key is, they have to do something that makes us understand that the romance has impacted them, and they are better off for it.

Now, take the ten components, put them on note cards, and you can move them around to fit your story…what you want, when. Then, write your story summary. No, you don’t have all the layers yet, but you have an idea of where you are going, and all the essential parts.

As you are writing your synopsis, you also have the “checklist” to make sure you have all your elements.

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*Article series first appeared on Book Therapy Voices blog in October, 2010. Used by permission.

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To learn more about Susan, visit her website. Her latest release, Point of No Return, is a romantic suspense. Here's the blurb:

An American boy and a warlord's engaged daughter have disappeared—together—in an Eastern European border country. Only one man can find them in time to prevent an international meltdown—Chet Stryker. But Chet is taken aback when he realizes the boy is the nephew of Mae Lund, Chet's former flame. When Mae insists on rescuing her relative herself, Chet knows he has to protect her from the enemy on their trail. Yet can he protect himself from falling for Mae again?

Ten Beats of a Romance: Part Three by Susan May Warren

Happy Manuscript Monday, dear readers. So far this month, we’ve gone over the first five beats of a romance novel. Susie's back to discuss the next two: The Kiss and The Heartbreak. You have to have both! Read on!

The Kiss and the Heartbreak*
by Susan May Warren

Let's begin today with a discussion on the different types of kisses (it's not what you think *grin*). We'll get to the heartbreak in a moment.

Beat 6: The sexual tension (the Kiss!)

This is my favorite part. (Ok, I like the dialogue leading up to it too!) But, a great romance has at least two great kisses—sometimes three. (If you’re writing for ABA, you might have more than a kiss.)

Kiss One: An introductory I-didn’t-mean-to; did-we-just-do-that? kiss
Kiss Two: An I-really-want-to-kiss-you-now-and-I’m-going-to kiss
Kiss Three: An I-love-you-and-I-mean-it kiss

If you have to, the last two can be combined.

Of course, before the First Kiss you want to build desire, an awareness of each other, an agreement that they aren’t repulsed by each other and even a hope that maybe, oh, no, really, oh, I shouldn’t think that but YES, I want to kiss him!

That often happens before the Intro kiss. But you can have an intro kiss where it takes them off guard that they then ponder later, and decide they like it. A lot.

Between the Intro kiss and the I-really-want-to-kiss-you kiss, there is wooing and sparks and some whys (we’ll get to that), until they realize their heart is engaged. And this kiss means something.

Often, after that, we might have the Black Moment, but it could also happen before this kiss and the second kiss could be combined with the end.

The Introductory kiss should occur before or at the halfway point of the book.

The second kiss occurs in the last quarter of the book. Usually.

In one of my books, my hero and heroine are pretending to be engaged. Which causes them to be in romantic situations. They have a FAKE kiss halfway through the book…that leads to real attraction.

The Second kiss occurs at the end. (unless they absolutely demand another one…! ) (which they might).

As far as kissing rules—just write the kiss you are comfortable with. I have a would-my-mother-read-this? rule and that seems to work fine for me. *grin*

Beat 7: The Breakup: The biggest WHY NOT rises to push them apart. Every romance has a Breakup—or a Black Moment. That reason why they can’t be together. Without it, we have no triumphant run into each other’s arms! We have no giant sign of happiness.

We have no conflict, tension and late-night reading!

YOU MUST HURT YOUR CHARACTERS and make them BREAK UP!! I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, really.

I know there are a few novelists who don’t want to be mean to your characters—but if you don’t, then they don’t ponder their existence, hit their knees, find the truth and change into better people. And we want better people, right?

Just say, as you’re typing…this is for your own good, I promise!!

As you’re sketching our your Black Moments/Epiphany and how to create, pick the biggest WHY NOT. It is this element that causes them to break up. (Find more on this at Book Therapy archives: The Black Moment archived posts.

In one of my books, my hero’s mission is going to get an untrained person hurt. And, he can’t fall for her, so he stages a breakup. This fight embarrasses and hurts her, and she believes all his feelings for her were just an act (like the feelings of her ex-non-boyfriend-turned-future-brother-in-law) which gets at her core issues that she’s a “leftover.” And then she does something that makes him think she can’t be trusted (his why not).

Ask: What makes your hero/heroine break up? (don’t worry, you can change it later—right now you are just brainstorming). Ideally, the breakup also be tied in with her greatest fear.

The breakup is essential to a romance, because we want true love to win. If love isn’t at stake, there is no fear of losing, no turning of pages. But, there should be a good reason for them to be together, which leads us to next week’s blog: why do they love each other?

See you next week.

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*Article series first appeared on Book Therapy Voices blog in October, 2010. Used by permission.

~~~~~

To learn more about Susan, visit her website. Her latest release, Point of No Return, is a romantic suspense. Here's the blurb:

An American boy and a warlord's engaged daughter have disappeared—together—in an Eastern European border country. Only one man can find them in time to prevent an international meltdown—Chet Stryker. But Chet is taken aback when he realizes the boy is the nephew of Mae Lund, Chet's former flame. When Mae insists on rescuing her relative herself, Chet knows he has to protect her from the enemy on their trail. Yet can he protect himself from falling for Mae again?

Ten Beats of a Romance: Part Two by Susan May Warren

Happy Manuscript Monday and Happy Valentine's Day, dear readers. This craft-focused day we'll continue our series on writing romance with Susan May Warren. Today's topic, creating a good fight.

Adding Sparks to your Romance*
by Susan May Warren

We’re talking this month about the 10 beats in a romance – those ten elements that help us craft and structure our romance. Today, we’ll build to Beat 5: Sparks!

A great romance has a lot of Sparks! I love a book or movie with great dialogue. It’s that spark between the hero and heroine that makes us fall in love with them.

You want to build in some witty conversation, and especially FIGHTS! A great fight causes great tension.

My two favorite scenes in While You Were Sleeping are the couch scene and the walk home/leaning scene. But have great dialogue where they share their hearts. Often this happens when they are in a fight…so, think of a place where your hero/heroine could have ONE great fight—go write it in!

One writer recently asked, “On fights: what do you suggest to make fights not contrived, and not about one being childish, or about a simple misunderstanding?”

God question! A fight might start with a misunderstanding (as most fights do!) but in the end, they are often about core values—what they believe about each other, or things they need to confront. A good fight should make each of them think about who they are and cause some shift toward change in their lives (as do all good fights). A fight built on a misunderstanding at its core is frustrating for the reader. And although we’ll buy it for a while, as they get deeper into their relationship, it needs to be a real core issue that holds them apart.

“So how do we keep the reader from getting frustrated? I guess I’m asking how to make it a good fight without confusion the reader?”

Let’s take You’ve Got Mail—it’s basically built on “miscommunication.” But as we go deeper, we realize that he has unraveled her entire life, and she might not forgive him once she finds out who he is… so he has to woo her in the flesh to get her to overcome the “little misunderstanding.”

Get at the core of their misunderstanding and make that be the WHY NOT—not the miscommunication. The biggest fight, the one that keeps them apart, should be about core values.

“Is there a way to make the fight not sound too cheesy or too the other way, if there is one?”

You need to make it real. Which means you need a fight that is sort of…well, not childish, but not mean either. Here’s what I do—I weave into the fight, peeling back the layers until I get to the core. I also fight dirty—I use sarcasm, name calling, I will even throw things (all things I would never do in real life. *grin*)

I might reveal the fight in little bits—but the BIG fight is the one where I go for the jugular. It’s actually sort of therapeutic, now that I think about it. I love a great story fight! In a great fight, I don’t finish sentences, I cut people off, I assume things, I basically throw out everything I’ve ever told my children about fighting, and let my character misbehave.

A good fight scene reveals the core of the character…the issues they’ve been dancing around. He sees her core but she believes she’s hiding something, so he calls her out on all of her stuff. Then she reveals what she sees in him. A good fight scene really has to get straight to the core, revelatory issues. Otherwise it’s boring and you lose the good stuff in between.

You want to have it all hang out, right there, bleeding. Ugly. So they can take a good look at them and grow from it.

This is just my opinion, but polite fights (unless it is sub-texting) are cheesy fights.

You want them to say something really sharp, profound. Which means it might get rough out there. And most of all, NO APOLOGIZING!!!! Don’t pull your punches!

If she calls him a jerk, let it hang out there. Don’t write that she feels bad and says “I shouldn’t have said that.” And let the argument be sub-texted so we see they are really fighting about falling in love, not the fact that she lied to him about her identity.

You might have her think later, “I shouldn’t have said that” but at the time, don’t. It lessens the energy of the fight. I see SO many people pull back from that great, painful moment—if it needs to be said—say it!

I love it when I read a great piece of dialogue and I think—AH! I can’t believe she said that! He so deserved it!

So, build in a great fight, or a series of good fights/conflict between the heroine and heroine, and you’ll have a story with spark!

Next week we’ll finish up with the last four beats!

*Article series first appeared on Book Therapy Voices blog in October, 2010. Used by permission.

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To learn more about Susan, visit her website. Her latest release, Point of No Return, is a romantic suspense. Here's the blurb:

An American boy and a warlord's engaged daughter have disappeared—together—in an Eastern European border country. Only one man can find them in time to prevent an international meltdown—Chet Stryker. But Chet is taken aback when he realizes the boy is the nephew of Mae Lund, Chet's former flame. When Mae insists on rescuing her relative herself, Chet knows he has to protect her from the enemy on their trail. Yet can he protect himself from falling for Mae again?

Ten Beats of a Romance: Part One by Susan May Warren

Happy Manuscript Monday, everyone! It's February, the month of Valentine's Day and what better way to celebrate than with a series on writing romance? Susan May Warren is here all month to share her series on the Ten Beats of Romance. This series is helpful for writers of romance, or if you include a secondary romantic thread in your novel, or if you just want to better understand this genre. Read on!

Ten Beats of a Romance Novel: Part One*
Susan May Warren

Every genre (including romance) has key elements—things that we expect from that type of story. Because of this, people might say a romance is predictable. But the author has license to change up these elements, putting them in a different order.

And of course, they are bringing their own voice to the romance—telling it in a way only they know how. That is why we enjoy remakes of old films—because even though it is the same story, it has a different take, and we love that—and frankly, we love seeing the new voice applied to the old structure!

Every romance, regardless of the order these components fall in, has the same ten components. For our series, we’ll call them beats.

Let’s start with the first component:

Beat 1: Boy Meets Girl: In this component, there is an event, goal or circumstance that occurs to bring our hero and heroine together. Usually this happens in the first chapter, but it definitely needs to happen by chapter three. In Titanic, the ship brings the hero and heroine together.

As you sketch out your novel, start by defining that Boy Meets Girl moment. Once you have your Boy meets Girl moment, you can move on to the next beat:

Beat 2: Interest/Need: Something about their own situation makes their heart vulnerable to romance.

In Titanic, Rose hates her life, feels suffocated and longs for freedom and adventure. Jack is a vagabond, and when he sees this beautiful woman who loves him, he is affirmed. She believes in him!

It’s very important for you to figure out what it is about your characters that make them ready or vulnerable to romance. Often this element is revealed though a conversation they have with their friends. Or is a part of inciting incident.

Remember, right now, you’re just building the components—you can move them around to fit the story.

Which brings us to the next beat…

Beat 3: Why Not: These are the obstacles between the hero and heroine that conspire to separate them.

I break these down into two different structures—why/why not, and why not/why.
The why not/why is when the obstacles appear first, and the why (they need to be together, which we’ll get to in a moment) appears second.

Or, you may have a why/why not book where they fall in love first…and then realize why they can’t be together.

Again, these are just components you need to have—they can occur in different orders.

Here’s an example of a Why Not: Sleepless in Seattle: She lives in Baltimore, he lives in Seattle!

The key is, you MUST have why nots in a romance. Because without the WHY NOT, there is no conflict and the story is…boring. Or not a story.

So—as you’re building your story think about the WHY NOT that you will keep them apart.

We’re going to skip over the WHY right now (but we’ll be coming back to it) and move onto the next component:

Beat 4: Wooing: Events or situations that allow the hero and heroine to fall in love. This is the fun stuff—all those “dates” or events they have that make them fall for each other. As we get deeper into building our romance, we’ll talk about the nature and purpose of each of these wooing dates, but for now, let’s just identify them.

One of my favorite is in While you Were Sleeping—moving the sofa!

It’s important to create scenes that will engage the reader—something sweet, and things the reader would like to do. You can be creative about the wooing moment—I’ve had motorcycle rides, hockey, a trip to the library, a snowmobile ride…think outside the box. Where would you like to go?

For every romance, I try and plot at least ONE great date scene, and a couple smaller scenes.

Ask: Do you have any wooing scenes?

These are the first four beats of a great romance. But they are just the beginning. Next week, we’ll talk about the element that makes a romance great: SPARKS!

*Article series first appeared on Book Therapy Voices blog in October, 2010. Used by permission.

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To learn more about Susan, visit her website. Her latest release, Point of No Return, is a romantic suspense. Here's the blurb:

An American boy and a warlord's engaged daughter have disappeared—together—in an Eastern European border country. Only one man can find them in time to prevent an international meltdown—Chet Stryker. But Chet is taken aback when he realizes the boy is the nephew of Mae Lund, Chet's former flame. When Mae insists on rescuing her relative herself, Chet knows he has to protect her from the enemy on their trail. Yet can he protect himself from falling for Mae again?