You are a romance writer wishing to plan and write a romance series. You have a great idea with a compelling main character and some major plot events figured out, but you don’t know how to plan and outline your romance series.

This blog article identifies the three types of fiction series, and it analyses the story structure in a romance (dynamic) series to effectively help you plan the romance story structure of your series.
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Types of fiction series
Romance story structure in a dynamic series
Possible romance beat sheet for a trilogy series

Types of fiction series
Static Series
The first type of fiction series is called a static series or a standalone series. The books of a static series often share a common feature, such as taking place in the same location (e.g small town) or the same group of people ( e.g family members, coworkers).

Each book focuses on the development of the romantic relationship between the main characters, and each story ends with a happy ending. While characters from previous books in the series may appear in minor roles, the series can be read in any order without the reader missing important information about the characters and plot.

This type of series is very popular in contemporary romance stories (workplace romance, sports romance, small town).

Anthology series
The second type of fiction series is called an anthology series. An anthology series typically consists of a collection of short stories or novellas by multiple writers, which are connected by a common theme ( e.g holiday romance) or setting (e.g same school, same town), but they don’t share the same storyline.

Each story focuses on the development of the romantic relationship of new characters and has a happy ending. The stories can be read in any order.

Dynamic series
The third type of series is called a dynamic series.  A dynamic series follows the same group of main characters through an overarching storyline that connects all books of the series. 

The focus of the series is the development of the romantic relationship of the main characters while they work together to achieve a major goal throughout the series.

The books of this series need to be read in sequential order. This type of series is very popular in YA (Young Adult) romance, romantasy and fantasy romance books.

Please note that the books that belong in the static or anthology series can be planned and written in a similar manner as standalone books. Please visit my resources library if you are looking for useful blog articles that will help you plan, write and edit a standalone romance book.

This blog article will focus on explaining how to plan and write a dynamic romance series (connecting books in a series).
 
Romance story structure in a dynamic series
You have decided to write a storyline that spans multiple books and want to write a well-structured series with a solid beginning, middle, and end.

The best way to do that is to plan the structure of your romance series and track your story’s romance beats. Start by planning the 5 major romance beats of your romance series’ structure, the emotional arc of your main characters and any significant changes in your world.

These are the 5 major romance beats of a romance series:
1) Meet Cute (10%)
This is the first major romance beat. It is the inciting incident that happens to the main character and introduces them to a new world. It is often called the “meet cute” because the main characters meet for the first time, or they appear on the page for the first time together.

2) No Way 2 (20%)
The second major romance beat occurs at the beginning of Act 2, when the main character decides to leave the status quo and enter a new world.  

In this beat, the main characters repeat their belief (internally or externally) that they will not fall in love with each other. They are reluctant to spend time together and to fall in love because of their internal conflict, but they are thrown into situations where they are stuck together, and they gradually become emotionally and physically closer.

Midpoint of Love (50%)
The third major romance beat occurs in the middle, and it changes the direction of the story.

In this beat, the main characters are no longer denying their feelings for each other. They are willing to internally change and (falsely) believe that they will be able to overcome the internal challenges (internal conflict) and external obstacles (external conflict) that are keeping them apart and have their happily ever after.

Retreat (75%)
The fourth major romance beat occurs at the lowest point of the romance story.

In this romance beat, the main characters choose fear instead of love, and they break up or separate because they believe they will emotionally hurt themselves or the other person. Their doubts and fears make them retreat from what they really want, and they believe that their internal conflict is becoming true.

Catharsis (80%)
The fifth major romance beat occurs at the beginning of Act 3, where the main character chooses love and happiness this time.

​The main character learns the theme of the story and successfully overcomes their internal conflict. They come up with a plan, often with the help of friends and family,  and they are willing to fix things the right way and get back together with their loved one.

Possible romance beat sheet for a trilogy series
Most romance writers who choose to write a dynamic series write a trilogy (three books in a series).

This is a romance beat sheet for a trilogy series:
Book 1 = Series Act 1, Romance beats: Meet Cute
Book 2 = Series Act 2, Romance beats: No Way 2, Midpoint of Love, Retreat
Book 3 = Series Act 3, Romance beats: Catharsis

Feel free to experiment with the five major romance beats and adjust them to fit your series. Use the series structure outlined above as a guideline to help you plan and track the major events of your romance series. Don’t follow rigid guidelines or exact percentages. Do what you see best to create a compelling story. 

Figure out the major romance beats your romance series first, and then plan and outline the 15 romance beats for each book in the series to create a complete and compelling story with a beginning, middle and end.

If you want to learn more information about outlining the romance beats of your story, read How to write a novel using Romancing the Beat. 

Conclusion
This blog article analyses the three types of fiction series: static series, anthology series, and dynamic series and explains the major romance beats for a romance series.

Read How to Plan and Write a Romance Series, Part 2 (coming soon) to learn more information about planning the main characters, the setting and worldbuilding and the romance genre conventions of a romance series and making a writing plan that will successfully help you write your books.

Additional resources
How to write a novel using the 3-act structure
How to write a novel using Romancing the Beat
How to outline the 5 major plot points of your romance story
How to edit the most common big-picture issues in a romance series

Many romance writers prefer writing romance series where they can expand their plot and characters within several books. Planning, writing and editing a romance series is hard work, and romance writers often need to improve a lot of big-picture storytelling issues during the editing stage.

This blog article will help you identify the 4 most common developmental editing issues that romance writers need to edit in their romance series (and you probably need too!) with tips on how to edit them.

Lack of GMC (goal, motivation, conflict)
Lack of romantic tension and pacing
Info-dumping
Unnecessary plot events

Lack of GMC (goal, motivation, conflict)
A common developmental editing issue that romance writers face when editing their romance series is that the main characters often lack a clear and compelling goal, motivation, and (internal and external) conflict.

The writer often has a clear picture of the main characters’ GMC in their mind, but the writer’s intentions are not clearly presented in the manuscript. As a result, the motivation (reasons) the goal is important to the main characters is not clear to the readers, or the conflict might not be important or big enough to sustain the whole story.

Editing tip: After writing the first draft of the manuscript, read the entire story and note down the main characters’ GMC as it actually appears in the story.

Compare your notes with your intentions about the main characters’ GMC during the planning stage (outlines, character profiles).

Write down the updated GMC of the main characters in your notebook or your writing software, and make a plan on how you will strengthen the GMC of your main characters.

Make sure that your revisions reflect a clear and compelling GMC, and the main characters’ actions are driven by their GMC.

Lack of romantic tension and pacing
Another common developmental editing issue is the lack of romantic tension and pacing. The lack of romantic tension happens for two reasons.

The first reason is that the main characters fall in love too quickly without sufficient emotional development.

The second reason is that the romantic tension is dragged out (especially in the second act) by subplots that overshadow the central story (the development of the romantic relationship between the main characters).

Both reasons affect the pacing of the story, where the plot events happen too quickly or too slowly.

Editing tip: After writing the first draft of the manuscript, read the entire story and note down scenes where the development of the romantic relationship progresses too quickly or too slowly, and the emphasis is given on the subplots or the minor characters of the story.

Make a plan and revise the necessary scenes to improve development of the romantic relationship, the emotional development of the main characters and the pacing of the story.

Info-dumping
Another common developmental editing issue is info-dumping. Info-dumping occurs when the writer spends too much page time describing unnecessary or irrelevant information to the readers.

For example, the writer spends too much page time describing every little detail about the character’s personality, appearance and backstory events or spends too much page time describing the politics and society of the world, specific locations, and how magic works (especially in fantasy romance and paranormal manuscripts).

Editing tip: After writing the first draft of the manuscript, read the entire story and note down the instances where a specific scene includes unnecessary or irrelevant information.

Have in mind that specific information might be generally important for the readers to know, but it isn’t relevant or important in a specific scene.

Make a plan and revise each scene to include only the most important and relevant information. Let your readers discover the characters and world of your story organically as they read it.

Unnecessary plot events
Another common developmental editing issue is unnecessary plot events. The writer includes unnecessary scenes in the first book to force important plot events (or plot twists) to subsequent books in the series.

The writer believes that this is the best way to keep the readers’ interest, but they often forget that if the readers don’t find the first book in the series interesting, they won’t bother reading the second one.

Editing tip: After writing the first draft of the manuscript, read the entire manuscript and create an outline by writing down the major plot events of the story. Then, create a rough outline for each book of the series by writing down its major plot events.

Make sure to include interesting plot events in each book of your series. Revise the manuscript accordingly and follow your outline to write the next books.

Conlcusion
The four most common storytelling issues that romance writers make when writing and editing a romance series are lack of GMC (goal, motivation, conflict), a lack of romantic tension and pacing, info-dumping and unnecessary plot events.

After finishing writing the first draft of your manuscript, read the whole story again from start to finish and make a plan to identify and improve these common big-picture issues. Happy writing!

Additional resources
How to self-edit the big-picture elements of your romance story
How to self-edit your romance novel from start to finish
How to effectively edit the main characters of your romance novel
How to outline the 5 major plot points of your romance story