Romancing the Beat is a story structure guide for romance writers written by Gwen Hayes. It is intended to help romance writers structure and outline their romance books.

The story beats of the Romancing the Beat help romance writers craft the romance arc of their story and keep the readers interested in reading a story with a satisfying ending.
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The book is ideal for romance writers with all kinds of writing processes, such as pantsers, plotters and plantsers, who wish to write and improve the romantic elements of their story. The story structure guide is divided in 4 phases, and each phase takes about 25% of the story.


Romancing the beat structure
Phase 1:Setup
The first phase takes about 20-25% of the story, and it introduces the main characters and the world.

Introduce Your Main Characters

• Introduce the main character(s) to the readers in a way that makes them interesting and compelling. 
• Show how your character’s normal life looks like, but throw a hint of trouble to make the story more interesting.
• Introduce your main character’s external goal (it can be something they want or something they think they want).
• Introduce or hint at your main character’s internal flaw.

Meet Cute

• The main characters meet for the first time, or they are on the page for the first time together. Their meeting can be the inciting incident of the story (not always).
• The pov character has internal thoughts and is physically attracted to the other character. The description of the attractiveness will depend on the genre and the heat level of your story.
• The meet-cute will demonstrate how the external goals and internal flaws introduced in the previous beat are in opposition. Although the pov character is physically attracted to the other character, they emotionally reject them.

No Way 1

• This beat demonstrates the argument the main character(s) makes against falling in love out loud or to their friend, coworkers or family or in internal thoughts.
• The main character(s) states that they will never fall in love and especially with the particular character they met in the previous beat.
• Provide the reader more information (e.g backstory) as to why the main character(s) does not want to fall in love.

Adhesion Plot Thrust

• This is the final beat before Act 2.
•  Introduce additional external goals or tropes that provide opportunities for the main characters to be together even if they don’t want to e.g secluded in  rain with no electricity, pretend relationships, forced to cooperate for a common goal, marriage of convenience. 
• The main characters are miserable together and cannot walk away from each other now.

Phase 2: Falling in Love
This is the second phase of the story and takes about 25% of the book. In phase 2, show that your main characters are meant to be together, even if they can’t see it yet.

The main characters are going back and forth, getting one step closer and then backing away. Show that they are a better person by being with the other character.

No Way 2

• The main character(s) have stated in No Way 1 that they will not fall in love with the particular character. In this beat, restate the character’s belief that they are right about love and the reasons for not falling into it.
• Include more backstory to make readers understand the main character’s internal flaw and the reasons they deny love.
• The main characters are stuck together for some reason (see Adhesion  Plot Thrust). Although they want to avoid temptation,  show them that the other character is perfect for them.

Inkling This Could Work

• Focus on attacking your main character’s internal flaw that they stated in No Way 1 and No Way 2.
• Increase your attacks, give them something to start having doubts about their statement in No Way 1 and No Way 2.
• Make the characters come emotionally closer to each other. You can do this by including an intimate moment, sharing secrets or truths or witnessing the character do something that goes against the picture the main character drew about them in their head.

Deepening Desire

• Your characters are falling in love with each other and no longer deny that they are physically attracted to each other.
• Show internal thoughts that it is hard for them to fight their feelings for the other character. 
• Depending on the heat level of your story, decide how the characters will act upon their feelings in a physical way. You can include lingering gazes and sweet moments.

 
Maybe This Will Work 

• You are nearing the halfway point of your story.
• Depending on the heat level of your story, decide how intimate you want your main characters to be.
• Your characters need to be more emotionally vulnerable by the end of this beat.

Midpoint of Love

• You are at the 50% mark of your story. This beat is a false high where the main character (s) thinks that they can get what they want.
• The main character(s) might reveal their true thoughts and feelings to a friend or internally think about how right it feels to be with the other character.

Phase 3: Retreating from Love  
This is the third phase and takes about 25% of the story. Although the main character(s) realises that they can fall in love, they are stubborn and don’t want to change and overcome their internal flaw.

Challenge your main character(s), push them and attack their soft spots. Exploit their internal flaw mentioned in the No Way beats. Provide them with reasons to doubt their decision in the previous beats to give love a chance.

Inkling of Doubt 

• Things feel great for your main character(s= because they just had their false high moment and they are starting to contemplate the idea that they can fall in love with someone else.
• In this beat, you are going to make them doubt their decision to open their heart to someone else and remind them of their internal flaw. Make it harder and harder for them to completely let themselves fall in love, and attack them using their internal flaw. 

Deepening Doubt 

• The intimacy between the main characters is increased, but they are doubting their relationship because of the doubts you planted in the previous beat.
•  Make your main character(s) have an internal dilemma about their relationship, even though they might not admit it to each other.

Retreat

• Your main character(s) has been making 2 steps back and one step forward. Attack them with their doubts and make them believe that their worst nightmare (internal flaw) is becoming true.
• In this beat, the main character(s) internally or externally realise that what they fear becomes true and choose to retreat to protect themselves from getting hurt.

 
Shields up

•  The main character (s) believes that their internal flaw becomes true (internal flaw foretold in the No Way beats).

Break Up

• The main character(s) broke up in the previous scene, and this is the reaction scene from the other character or they break up in this scene. 
• They choose fear instead of love.
• Your main character(s) chooses to hold onto their internal flaws instead of opening their hearts and completely falling in love.

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Phase 4:Fighting for Love
This is the fourth phase and takes about 25% of the story. This is the last phase of the romance arc. The main characters realise that they are perfect for each other and want to get back together.

Dark Night of the Soul 

• This is the lowest point of the story where the main character(s) hit rock bottom. The main characters have just broken up, and they feel terrible about it, although they thought this was the right decision and that they would feel good about it.
• Everything reminds them of the other character, and their friends tell them that they made a stupid decision. 
• This is the beat where the main character(s) mourn their choice to breakup.

Catharsis

• The main character(s) has realized that they have chosen fear, and to be miserable so far.
•  They have had advice from their friends and they have realised that they need to overcome their internal flaw and choose love this time.
•  This is the beat where they have their aha moment. They have overcome their internal flaw and realise that they are willing to win their love back.

Grand Gesture

• The main character(s) performs a grand gesture to show their love.
• One or both main characters might need to perform a grand gesture.
•  For the grand gesture to work, there needs to be some risk involved for the main character(s). They need to be brave and willing to risk losing the one thing they need to become whole-hearted. It’s all or nothing. It’s life or (literal or metaphorical) death for the main character.
• This is the beat where the main characters get their happy ending.

What Whole Hearted Looks Like 

• The closing image serves as a mirror image and a contrast that shows where the main character(s) was at the beginning of the story and where they are now. 
• The readers see that the main characters have kissed and made up, and how their whole-hearted life looks like.

Epilogue

• An epilogue is optional, but most romance stories include one.
• Show a glimpse into the future of your main character’s life.

Final Thoughts 
Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes is a story structure guide that helps romance writers write compelling love stories.
Have you used this guide to structure your romance stories? Comment below!

Additional resources
How to write a romance novel in 5 simple steps
How to write a novel using the 3-act structure
How to self-edit your romance novel
Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes

Romance is one of the most popular fiction genres, and it has many subgenres such as contemporary romance, historical romance, paranormal romance, romantic suspense and YA (Young Adult) romance.

There are two important rules that romance novels should have: the romantic relationship between the main characters should be at the center of the story, and romance stories have a happy ending where the main characters end up together at the end of the story.
Let your novel rest
Read through your manuscript
Don’t implement all the changes at the same time
Questions to ask yourself
Repeat: read the manuscript for sentence-level errors
Next steps 

Let your novel rest
Congratulations on finishing the first draft of your novel. That’s already a great achievement. The first step of self-editing your novel is to leave it rest for a few weeks. I ideally recommend letting your novel rest for at least one month.

This will allow you to put distance between you and your story and “forget” your novel. You will be able to see your manuscript as a reader rather than a writer and be able to approach it with critical and objective eyes during the editing stage. 

You probably want to start editing your novel as soon as you finish writing the first draft but....wait. If you don’t have a hard deadline imposed by an agent or publisher, wait at least one month before starting to edit your manuscript.

What to do in the meantime? While waiting for the time to pass, you can take up a new hobby or fill your time  with other things you love, such as:

• reading  romance books 
• reading craft books
• watch your favourite TV show
•  go for a walk
• spend some time with friends and family
• start writing another book

Read through your manuscript 
 A month has passed, and you are now ready to start editing your romance novel. Follow the steps below while reading your story:

• Print your manuscript. Printing your story at the editing stage will allow you to look at your story from a different perspective, slow down your reading pace and improve your ability to look for structural issues.
• Read your manuscript within 2-3 days. At the first read through, you are looking to improve the big-picture elements of your story, such as theme, character development, plot and structure, setting, point of view, pacing, genre conventions and dialogue. Use various pens and highlighters to create a colour-coding system  (where each big-picture element represents a different colour) to write down effective notes within the manuscript document.
• While reading, you can also make an outline of your story (if you don’t have one) in an Excel spreadsheet and include important information about each scene: word count, pov character, characters present, setting, main story events, notes/reactions/things to improve.
• Note down everything you want to remember about your characters, plot and setting. Create character profiles, setting sheets, and note down the major plot points of your story if that helps you stay organised and take effective notes.

Don’t implement all the changes at the same time
You have noted down the changes you wish to make about the big-picture elements of your story. Now, it’s time to make a plan on how to implement these changes. Don’t try to fix all the big-picture elements of your story at the same time. You will be doing multiple rounds of editing, and you will look at different big-picture elements of your story each time.

Make a plan on which big-picture elements you will address in each round of editing. Start by looking at the big-picture elements of your story that can be grouped and addressed in the same round of editing.

For example, many new writers drag or rush some events of their story and the pacing is affected. Fixing the structure and putting the events where they should be also fixes the pacing of the story. If you want to learn more about the structure of a romance novel, read how to write a romance novel using the 3-act structure. 

Questions to ask yourself
Below you can see some questions about the big-picture elements of your story that will help you brainstorm and revise your manuscript. Look at the questions and note down the answers in your writing software or a notebook to make sure that you have a compelling romance story with a solid plot and well-rounded characters.  

Theme 

• What is the message that you want your romance story to convey to the readers?
• Is the theme linked to the main character and the plot of the story?
• Do the main characters emotionally change at the end of the story as a result of their love? 

Characters

• Does your main character(s) have clear goals and believable motivations throughout the story? What is the internal and external conflict of the main character(s)? What are the consequences if the character(s) don’t reach their goals?
• Do the minor characters and villains serve a purpose? 
• Who are the pov characters of the story? Are all the pov characters necessary for the story?
• Is the switch between the multiple points of view clear with no confusing head-hopping?

 Plot and structure

•  Can you identify the plot points of the 3-act structure in your story?
• What is the central conflict of the story?
• Does the plot move forward in each chapter (cause and effect)?
• Do the subplots serve the main story (romance story between the main characters)? 
• Does the story resolve in a way that communicates the theme and provides a satisfying resolution to the readers?

Setting

• Where does your story take place (country, city, apartment, workplace)?
• When does your story take place (time period, season)?
• Is the setting of the story believable or plausible? 
• Is the world of the story immersive and consistent?
• Do you integrate the details of setting into the story action? Do you provide the reason a particular setting element matters to the main character and the story?

Romance conventions

• Is the development of the romance relationship between the main characters at the center stage of the story?
•   Does the story have a happy ending where the main characters get together at the end of the story?
•  Are the tropes combined in unexpected and fresh ways to make the story interesting and engaging? 
• Do the tropes contribute to increasing the emotional or physical intimacy between the main characters? Do they challenge the main characters to grow emotionally? Do they drive the story forward and increase the conflict of the story? 
• Is the physical attraction between the two main characters apparent? Do the sex scenes serve to further the development of the love relationship, increase the tension and drive the plot forward?​​​

Repeat: read the manuscript for sentence-level errors
Once you finish implementing the big-picture elements of your story, it is time to repeat the process for the sentence-level errors.  Follow the steps below while reading your story:

• Let your story rest for at least 2 weeks.
• Print the new draft of your manuscript, read it from beginning to end in a few days, and take notes in each scene about the sentence-level changes you wish to make. Use multiple pens and highlighters to create a colour-coding system.
• Group similar sentence-level errors in one round of editing and make a plan on how to fix them (how many rounds of editing you will need, how much time it will take you).

Possible sentence-level errors include:

• info-duping
• show vs tell
• word choice (consistent style, redundancies, confusing or unnecessary words)
• sentence structure and flow
• spelling
• grammar
•  syntax 
•  punctuation

Next steps 
After you have been through multiple rounds of editing and improved the big-picture storytelling elements and sentence-level errors of your manuscript, it’s time to get feedback from other people.

​Give your manuscript to beta readers and developmental editors to get honest and constructive feedback about your story. If you want to learn more about hiring beta readers and developmental editors, read how to find the right editor for your story.

Who is a beta reader?
A beta reader is an avid reader who is familiar with the rules and tropes of a particular genre. They provide honest and constructive feedback in a reader’s report about the big-picture elements of a story, such as plot and structure, character development, pacing, point of view and genre conventions. 

Beta readers are the first people to read a completed manuscript. Writers should seek beta readers after finishing self-editing their manuscript, but before giving it to professional developmental editors. If you want to learn more, read about beta reading.

Who is a developmental editor?
A developmental editor is the first editor writers should look for after implementing the feedback they get from beta readers. 

The developmental editor addresses the manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses and provides honest and constructive feedback about the story structure, character development, point of view, pacing, setting, genre conventions, scene vs narrative summary (show vs tell)  and dialogue of the story.

The developmental editor provides margin comments in the manuscript document and an editorial report to further guide the author. If you want to learn more, read about developmental editing.

Additional resources
How to write a romance novel in 5 steps
How to write in the romance genre and the main characters 
How to write a romance novel using the 3-act structure
What is the beta reading service?
What is the developmental editing service?
How to find the right editor for your story