Planning and outlining any new romance story has a mixture of excitement and overwhelm for most romance writers.
You might wonder how to get started – what will expand that first idea you had for your new romance novel.
I was struggling with this too, until I starting asking myself what I liked most about reading romance novels. I realized it was the main character’s emotional journey – how they changed and grew that I find most compelling.
My favourite scenes when I read a romance novel, are the hero and heroine’s emotional character arc and how each of the main character’s change as a result of the romance relationship.
This focus on the deep emotional journey, is really what makes romance novels unique.
To expand that first spark of an idea into a focussed and captivating opening scene, there are 6 steps to take that will help you get a clear vision of the emotional journey your main characters need to go on to create a satisfying read.
From Idea to Building a Framework for the Emotional Journey of Your Characters
Romance novels, because of the focus on the deep emotional journey each main character must go on, is a form of storytelling that isn’t really about the plot. It’s about the characters. It’s about how they respond in certain situations.
Something about the hero or heroine makes us as readers fall in love with them and connect with them on an emotional level. So how do we develop the opening scenes in a new romance that will captivate new readers?
Here’s 6 ideas that might help…
1.Explore and Expand a simple story idea that excites you and is as unique as you are. This is the fun part! You get to choose any type of story situation, type of character or setting – in any romance subgenre, time-frame or story world. And the great thing is all you need is a simple idea to get started.
Your goal here: to create a framework around your characters and the world they are in and then to give them the freedom to show their deep character traits, beliefs and growth within the borders of that framework. This is where you get to plan story like you’re playing in the sandbox…
To help expand your story idea, trying playing the “what if” game with your characters and situations. For example, a few months I ago I was browsing through old musicals on YouTube, and came across 7 Brides for 7 Brothers.
This sparked my imagination, and I asked myself: what if there were 7 brothers, whose parents had just died, and they moved to the foothills west of Calgary to start ranching? From there I had the idea to set the first book in this series of stand alone novels in the early 1900s. And the story has kindof taken a life of it’s own from there(still working on it). So ask yourself your own what if questions. You might be surprised by the ideas you get 😉
2.Focus on only ONE Character to start with. Of course, there will be two main characters in any romance novel, but it’s helpful to start with the Main character. Many times, this is the heroine. If you ask yourself questions about what her background is and try to see the world through her eyes, step into her shoes and fall in love with the hero at the same time she does.
When you start with the heroine, you will get to the heart of your romance story as fast as possible. Dig deeper into the heroine’s personality and background, so that you know how she’ll act and react when the hero comes along and starts challenging her. Ask her soul search questions about how she sees the world around her and her place in the world. Ask her questions about her ordinary life, and about her dreams and about those things that she’s scared of.
It helps if you can find photos of actors/actresses, so you can see your characters ‘come to life.’ I did this as I’ve been writing this Western Romance in Scrivener – here’s a blogpost w/ screenshots of how I add pictures of characters and setting to inspire my writing. Having those pictures, has really me to imagine more details of what my characters look like.
3.Give your Main Character, one limiting belief that they need to overcome. As you start to dig into her background and how your heroine sees the world, you’ll start to what she fears and what holds her back from moving toward her dreams.
As you look into your heroine’s past, choose one event which shapes the way she thinks about her life today. This is the wound she’s carrying and the source of her continuing pain.
It’s critical that the profile you create for your main character, is believable and understandable for your readers. The answers to the questions, will determine the decisions she’ll make during the story. It also, be a roadmap as to how her worldview will shift from the start to the finish of the story and how her romance with the hero will develop.
Give your heroine one main limiting belief – a wound from her past – that shapes how she lives her life today.
How does she stop that pain from happening again? By creating protective barriers, which creates the one rule she lives her life by – which is her limiting belief that becomes the major relationship barrier between the heroine and the hero.
As you develop the opening chapters of your story, it’s important to develop the internal conflict which will keep the heroine and the hero apart. As the characters enter the story, they will already have all these limiting beliefs in place, protecting themselves from pain. Then as the story continues, these limiting beliefs that the heroine has, will be challenged and overcome with the help of the hero.
In a romance, you need to especially dig deeper to understand the emotional internal conflicts – and often there are several layers to these beliefs – which you will show at the crisis points in the story.
4.Give Your Main Character ONE reason why she believes there’s she’s between a rock and a hard place when the story opens. Usually, this will be the one thing that your heroine wants at that moment, but feels that there’s no way she can accomplish it. Combine this frustrated dream that your heroine has, with the story idea to make your heroine come alive in that story situation.
It’s important in a romance, that the Heroine and Hero have a all-consuming short term goal as the story begins. It needs to be something that the reader can relate to and is easy to understand. And the stakes for reaching that goal, must be set high so that the reader is made to care about what happens.
When your readers sympathizes with your character and is empathetic to their situation and whether the main character reaches her goal, they will be drawn in to the story. This strong emotional appeal in romance stories, is what attracts readers of romance.
5.Create a Heroine or Hero who is going to challenge the main character and fall in love with who she/he really is.
It’s your main character who has the biggest character change throughout their journey in the story. Once you have a powerful belief for your main character, you can think about the other main character in this romance – your Hero.
As your story begins, you will have ‘big picture’ ideas of who your main characters are. You want to have just enough information about who your main characters are, to bring them off the page and into the story. You want them talking and challenging each other about what matters to them. The stronger the Heroine is, the stronger the hero needs to be. He needs to be equal to her in every way in order for the story to be compelling.
Also, if the Heroine has been betrayed in the past, the Hero needs to be really authentic and honest from the start. If you have one lie at the start of the story(unless there’s a powerful motivation), then the Heroine won’t trust him.
So, here’s where you brainstorm a few ways that your Hero will challenge the internal conflict that your Heroine is wearing as her armour.
6. Merge your story idea with your main character idea and get your main character onto the page and into the story world as soon as you can. This is a good place to try free writing. Just brainstorm and write down as many ideas as you can of how the story should go. Get the feel of whether this character is someone you really like and want to spend time with – for the next couple of weeks or months as you write the story. If you really like your main character, then develop them further after you’ve written your opening scenes. Of course, if you don’t like them – start from scratch or revise your character until you do like them.
It is here in your opening scenes, where you use your main character’s emotional conflict to sketch out the rest of the story.
When planning the critical opening scenes of your romance novel, use your main characters to drive the transformation, even though you haven’t written a word of the novel yet.
So, I hope you find these steps helpful as you begin your romance. Most of all, have fun brainstorming and sketching out your main characters and the setting of your romance novel. It is a little like playing in the sandbox 😉
What are your tips for writing the opening scenes for your romance? I’d love to hear your thoughts. It would be awesome to learn from each other 😉
