• Writing Romance: The Top 100 Best Strategies for Writing Romance Stories

  • By: Alessandra Bancroft
  • Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg
  • Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (37 ratings)

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Writing Romance: The Top 100 Best Strategies for Writing Romance Stories  By  cover art

Writing Romance: The Top 100 Best Strategies for Writing Romance Stories

By: Alessandra Bancroft
Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg
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Publisher's summary

Break into the biggest, most lucrative writing genre of them all!

Are you looking to get into publishing and increase your chances of becoming a successful author? Why not start with romance? Romance is the most popular and best-selling genre of all fiction, accounting for the majority of all book royalties in the United States. Anybody can write and publish a romance book with just a good word processor, some great ideas, and some passion! Although the romance writing market competition is fierce, that shouldn't stop you from getting your ideas out to the world!

This book covers an incredible variety of romance writing strategies, techniques, and secrets that can help you climb to the top of the rankings. Even if you already have the next best idea for romance, it is equally as important to write a well-structured, well-planned book! In this helpful guide, you will discover exactly what you need to do, step by step, in order to be successful.

Learn how to take your idea from good to great and start earning royalties now!

Here is a preview of what you'll discover....

  • Things to do to prepare for romance writing
  • How to pick the right subgenre of romance
  • The importance of your setting
  • How to write stunning dialogue and love scenes
  • The five key elements of romance writing
  • The roles of your hero and heroine
  • How to develop unique characters
  • Romance story goals and ideas
  • How to write the ending your readers want
  • Much, much more!

What are you waiting for? If you are still reading this, you are obviously motivated to get all the benefits this book has to offer. Stop thinking and take action.

Get your copy right now!

©2015 Alessandra Bancroft (P)2015 Alessandra Bancroft

What listeners say about Writing Romance: The Top 100 Best Strategies for Writing Romance Stories

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Learn How To Write Romance In A Snap!

Any additional comments?

When the book says that romance is the most lucrative self-publishing genre of them all, they aren't joking. However, like anything else that gets popular, the romance genre is swollen to bursting with half-baked, or downright bad novels.

Don't nip your reputation in the bud by pushing out a piss-poor project. This book is currently teaching me how to write my first romance novel and it really couldn't be easier!

So whether you just want to impress your friends, or whether you want to become an award winning author, resources like this are here for you!

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Good Reference for Anyone Writing Romance

What made the experience of listening to Writing Romance: The Top 100 Best Strategies for Writing Romance Stories the most enjoyable?

The common sense tips on writing a romance novel are wonderful. Ms. Bancroft explained things like the 5 essential elements of a romance book and how to be sure your book actually is one. There is a fine line between romance and other genres these days and this book explains the sub genres in the world of romance in an easy and informative way.

Who was your favorite character and why?

There are no characters as this is a non fiction book.

What does Dara Rosenberg bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Ms. Rosenberg has a wonderful voice with great inflection. She made the spoken word sound interesting and easy to understand.

What’s an idea from the book that you will remember?

I hope I remember everything. The book had so many good pointers about becoming a romance writer or about perfecting what you already have done. I believe I liked the questions you should ask yourself concerning character development because they can definitely make sure you develop a believable and real character.

Any additional comments?

This book should be available to every romance writer out there because of its great tips. It gives you everything from plots and plot twists to character development and how to write an acceptable sex scene. It has everything any writer needs to know about writing romance.

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10 people found this helpful

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Want to write romance? Try this!

Would you listen to Writing Romance: The Top 100 Best Strategies for Writing Romance Stories again? Why?

yes

Any additional comments?

I would listen to this book again because it teaches you many tips on how to write a romance book or novel. Whether your new or old to writing, this will give you some great writing tips for romance. If you have any questions, this book is the answer for you. Try it out and find your story plot errors you might have.

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Conquer the art of writing romance

Everyone loves a good romance novel (whether they want to admit it or not), but writing once can be quite difficult. Learn to develop strong characters, backstories, settings and plots in a way that speaks to readers and drastically increases your chances of getting published. From step one to completion of the book, you'll learn how to write excellent dialogue, the 5 elements of romance writing and much more. This is a must-have for all romance writers looking to break away from the norm and into the lucrative market of romance writing.

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I Am Ready to Write My Historical Romance

If you could sum up Writing Romance: The Top 100 Best Strategies for Writing Romance Stories in three words, what would they be?

Informative: There are so many important details when writing a romance story.

Sincere: I use this word because every word that was said in this book was truly meant by the author.

Knowledgeable: The author of "Writing Romance" has to have written many books, because every aspect of her style is included in this book.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Writing Romance: The Top 100 Best Strategies for Writing Romance Stories?

The most memorable moments from "Writing Romance" is when the narrator spoke of character conflict and romantic goals. I have been wanting to write a short story built on a romance that begins during World War II. I realized that my conflict is external, and the story will center on forbidden love. I also liked when the information on naming your characters, and how you should use names common to that place and time.

What about Dara Rosenberg’s performance did you like?

I really enjoyed when Dara Rosenberg gave examples to explain her information, but I really enjoyed her using the movie "Shrek" to explain the heroine/hero and the protagonist.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Unfortunately, I needed to split "Writing Romance" into 2 sittings for it was 3 hours long.

Any additional comments?

I am just so excited to know what I need in order to begin my first short story. As I listened, I could picture my story playing out in my mind.

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Pretty good for an overview of how to write a novel/story

This was a good overview into general
story writing or novel writing with some romance tips thrown into the mix.

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Make Your Romance Stories Sparkle!

Sometimes it's hard to find inspiration and instruction on how to make your stories sound just right. Romance can be difficult because it requires bringing out the real feelings of people and putting them on paper so that they make readers feel that same way. I like this booik because it is very insightful and helpful in this area. If writing romance is your thing, this is the book to choose!

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Finally ready to start my Romance novel!!!

If writing romance stories is something you have always been passionate about, but have never found the best way to start you can’t go wrong with this book! There are so many different strategies included in this book, all you need after finishing this book is the drive to begin your own story! This book will not just help you with writing a romance story, but it can open your mind to create stories you never imagined possible. I am ready to begin my journey towards writing my best-selling romance novel, and couldn’t be more excited after what this audiobook has opened my mind to!

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Super helpful for anyone writing romance stories!

This audio is really great and filled with tons of ideas. It really got my brain going with all the possibilities! Not only where there lots of tips for writing better, but also great tips for setting up your work station, getting in the flow state to write along with a variety of plot ideas and strategies for producing higher quality content. Great narrator as well. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to explore romance writing!

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Is it worth it?

Not ever bit of advise offered here is terrible. In fact, I'd argue most of it isn't; strictly speaking, terrible. But some of these lines are atrocious.

"A leading hero might isolate the heroine from friends and family if he is over protective of her" (paraphrasing here).
Please tell me this line isn't responsible for all the terrible 'alpha male' male leads I've seen cropping up in romance stories lately. And for the record, even if someone thinks they're just being over protective, isolating your lover from family and friends is one of the first signs of abuse / manipulation. Don't do it and don't let people do it to you either. That goes for real life as much as it does for your writing. Now if that line was followed by any mention of how toxic that behavior is I'd let it slide, unfortunately it was just one of many more wholly questionable pieces of advice.

Other questionable examples paraphrased from memory:
In the five ground rules for writing romance, it is stated that a love story must contain one hero and one heroine. It then later has to walk back that statement when the lgbtq+ genre is mentioned (seemingly only in passing) in a later chapter. If you know that romances can and often do function just fine while completely ignoring the 1 man + 1 woman rule why bother making it a ground rule in the first place? It's a waste of time. And before anyone parrots the whole "well it takes two to tango" line, yes, it generally takes at least two entities to write a romance about, and even an absolute novice to the genre knows that so why bother making it a rule at all? Why bother stating it?

"Don't give the hero too many feminine traits, otherwise they might not be the right kind of hero and you'll lose your audience." It was at this point I knew I wasn't going to finish the book. If this book was written or updated in a time recent enough to tell its audience to watch a youtube video for further advice on a subject, then it's recent enough to know what kind of ridiculous and defunct thinking that 'advice' is. Especially at a time where a whole host of so called 'female traits' are simply traits humans with basic decency have.

Other things of note:
The book warns to try to refrain from using cliches and then goes on to use cliches in all its examples.
A fair chunk of time is devoted to things like eating blue berries and fish for better mental performance. While I don't take umbrage with the idea of eating healthily for better performance, I do think a book supposedly about writing a fairly specific genre should have devoted more time to the subject matter at hand and not the same "clean your room, go outside, eat your veggies" mantra normally found in self help books and wellness blogs.
Did I mention that the book refers readers to a youtube video for follow up advice? To be fair I have found better and more specific advice on youtube than what I got out of this book but I don't think that's a mark in its favor.

Final thoughts:
It is possible that it comes up past the point where I turned the audiobook off but I'm a little concerned that the best piece of writing advice I've ever heard didn't seem to get a passing mention.
That advice being that a believable and engaging romance starts with believable and engaging characters.

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