Does my writing fit in the romance genre?

Are you writing a novel and unsure of if it fits into the romance genre? Well here's a checklist to help you out!

One of the hardest things to do as a writer is figure out what genre your writing belongs in. Some genres are pretty simple, while others not so much. The romance genre seems to be the latter with a intricate set of rules that seem to live in the gray between what is acceptable and not. So how does one find out if their book falls into the romance genre? Simple, you just have to ask yourself the following questions: Does my book end with a happily ever after, do the characters that are intended to be a couple interact for more than 90% of the book, does my book have any cheating/abuse in it, does my book have fake conflict, does my book use pregnancy as a basis for love, does my book have the ugly duckling syndrome, does my book have insta-love, and does my book have an unrealistic love triangle? Let’s start with the first one, does my book have a happily ever after… This might seem obvious, but the answer to this question HAS to be yes. This is probably the only set in stone rule to have your book be considered part of the romance genre. If you don’t follow anything else in this blog post, you have to at least adhere by this rule. No matter what you write, if you want your book to be considered part of the romance genre it must have a happily ever after. Now that happily ever after doesn’t always have to be the fairy tale marriage. But it does have to end with the couple getting together in some way that satisfies the reader. If your book does not do this, it is not a romance.

Next we have, do my characters interact for more than 90% of the book… Let’s just take a look at the genre. It’s romance. You can’t really have a romance if the characters aren’t together to make that romance happen. Now, some romance novels get around this by separating the couple and then using flashbacks to when they were together. This is a fine work around for the rule, but if the characters aren’t together and aren’t remembering fond times together, then how are they supposed to fall in love? Now I’m going to lump the next couple together because while they aren’t necessarily rules that need to be followed, it’s in your best interest to do so if you want your book to sell well. Does my book have any cheating/abuse in it? The answer should be no. NEVER romanticize abuse and never allow your MC to take back someone who has cheated (yes there is the sub-genre second chances but that should never be used for cheating or abuse). It’s 2019, abusing your partner or cheating on them should never be considered romantic, it’s unforgivable. If that seems like a romantic thing to you or you could personally take back a person who has done that to you…I’m at a loss for words. Write it if you want, but don’t expect your book to sell well. Does my book have fake conflict? Again, just don’t do it. No miscommunications or reading something wrong that tears the couple apart. Readers are tired of conflict that could be solved with a simple conversation. If the couple can’t talk about a simple misunderstanding like adults then they shouldn’t be in love. Does my book use pregnancy as a basis for love? Again, just no. NEVER use a child for the basis of love. If the only thing holding the couple together is a child between them, they should not be together at all. Does my book have the ugly duckling syndrome? What I mean by this is does your book have one ugly partner and one wildly attractive partner and is the whole premise of the book revolving around the conflict of “why would so-and-so like me? I’m so ugly.” If it does, then just stop writing it. This use to be a huge theme romanticized back in the day but now it’s overplayed and nobody believes it. Attraction is on an equal level. There has to be some sort of mutual physical attraction or the relationship won’t progress naturally. A work around this is having one clean-up nicely and then the other realizes their attraction at that point. But they shouldn’t be lusting for the ugly person if they are on a different attraction level. I know that sounds horrible but that’s just how it works in real life and if the one character is constantly saying how ugly they are, it makes the romance harder to believe. Does my book have insta-love? Another one you should just stop right now. Insta-lust is totally a thing, but insta-love is not. The love in your romance writing should grow organically. They can want to jump each other’s bones from the minute they saw one another, but they shouldn’t fall in love that fast. Lastly, does my book have an unrealistic love triangle? What I mean by that is does my one character have to choose between a total sweetheart and total jerk. If the jerk just treats the character like garbage all the time they wouldn’t fall in love with them. So trying to write your book saying that they can’t choose is dumb because the choice is obvious and your readers are not going to be surprised or care when they do pick the nice one – and if they pick the jerk expect a lot of bad reviews.

Bonus tip: This is a tip personally from me. Writing romance seems easy, but it can be truly challenging because you have to make sure the book is romance forward. It can have exciting plots, sub genres, and what have you. But the book needs to be primarily about the romance. So my tip is: Every scene should further their romance in some way. If a scene doesn’t make the characters fall more in love or test their love, then it should be cut from the book.

Romance readers are here for the romance. Not the fight scenes, not the long explanations of landscape, not the side characters. They don’t want trauma, unrealistic love, or fake conflict. They are here for the romance between the two MCs and nothing else. They want to feel good, they want to love with the love between those characters. As long as you remember this and you follow the guidelines above (at a minimum adhering to the “happily ever after rule”), you’ll be able to label your book as part of the romance genre.

So tell me, does your writing fall into the romance genre? What rules do you agree or disagree with? Do you have rules of your own that I didn’t list?