Romance short fiction is defined as romance stories under 50.000 words, such as micro fiction, flash fiction, short stories, novelettes, and novellas. (Any romance story that is over 50.000 words is considered a full-length novel.)

Romance short fiction follows the romance conventions that novels follow. However, in shorter stories, the plot is simpler with a smaller number of characters and the central conflict is typically satisfactorily resolved within the allocated page time.

Writers often find it difficult to write a satisfactory romance short fiction, and they often make mistakes when they edit short romance fiction manuscript.

Romance plot missing from the manuscript
The main characters’ goals and motivations are not clear
Lack of balance between “show” and “tell”
Lack of pacing

Romance plot missing from the manuscript
One of the most common issues that writers face when they edit romance short fiction is that the romance plot is missing from the manuscript. In these cases, the writer has written only the external plot of the story, or the romance (internal) plot is not adequately developed and integrated with the external plot.

How to edit:
Read your manuscript and determine whether you have included the romance plot in your story. While reading, answer the following questions:

• Does your story focus on the development of the romance relationship between the main characters? 
• Are the external plot and the romance plot adequately developed and integrated throughout the story?
• Is the central conflict satisfactorily resolved and the main characters get together at the end of the story?

If your answers to the above questions are no, then you probably haven’t written the romance plot of your story. At this point, you need to decide if you are satisfied with your story and want to keep it as it is without making any plot or character changes.

If you want to keep your manuscript as it is, then you need to recategorise it in its actual genre so that the right readers find it and enjoy it. You probably need to make some edits to better fit your story within its actual genre.

If you want to write a romance story, then you need to edit your manuscript to fit within the conventions of the romance genre.

All romance stories need to focus on the development of the romantic relationship between the main characters. The external plot and the romance (internal) plot should affect each other throughout the story because the growing feelings that the main characters develop for each other affect their decisions and actions.

The main characters need to overcome various obstacles and challenges and get happily together at the end of the story. 

The main characters’ goals and motivations are not clear
Another common issue that romance writers encounter when they edit romance short fiction is that the main characters’ goals and motivations are not clear. The main characters might not have a goal or a motivation at all, or they are not adequately developed throughout the story.

How to edit:
Read your manuscript and identify the main characters’ goals and motivations.
While reading your story, answer the following questions:

• Do the main characters have important, tangible, and opposing goals that keep them apart throughout the story?
• Are the main characters’ goals and motivations present and adequately developed in the story? 

The main characters’ goals and motivations are typically simpler in romance short fiction, and they can be satisfactorily resolved within the limited page time of a short story or novella. Read the blog article to learn how to effectively edit the main characters of your romance story.

Lack of balance between “show” and “tell”
Another common issue that romance writers deal with when editing romance short fiction is the overuse of “tell” and the lack of balance between “show” and “tell”.

Romance writers usually prefer to “tell” some events of their story since it is a quick way to narrate specific events in as few words as possible because they are more conscious about the word count (versus writers who are writing full-length novels).

While “telling” some scenes is generally fine, writers writing romance short fiction should be careful not to overuse this method, as they might end up with a shorter manuscript with pacing issues.

How to edit: 
Read your manuscript and identify passages where you “tell” and where you “show” the story to the readers. While most people giving advice will probably tell you to “show, don’t tell”, meaning that it’s best to “show” the events that happen to the main characters to your readers, in reality that is not completely true.

On the contrary, it’s all about balance. Both “showing” and “telling” events in a story are needed. “Show” the most important events of your story and “tell” the events that the readers can pass more quickly.

Lack of pacing
Another common issue that romance writers face when editing romance short fiction is the lack of pacing. Writers usually attempt to go through the plot events as quickly as possible without adequately developing the main characters or letting the events of the story develop organically because of the limited word count goal they have in mind or imposed on them ( e.g if they are submitting their story to an anthology or a contest).

How to edit:
Read your romance manuscript and identify instances where the romance relationship between the main characters is not organically developed or certain plot events are rushed.

​The pacing of your story can be as slow or as fast as you want. Make sure to maintain the same level of pacing throughout the whole manuscript.

Edit your romance story so that the romance relationship between the main characters is organically developed, and the ending is emotionally satisfying for the readers.

Next steps
After you have self-edited your romance short fiction to the best of your abilities, the next step is to get help from a professional developmental editor who provides helpful, thoughtful, and honest feedback about the big-picture issues (plot, characters, pacing, point of view, setting, romance genre conventions, show vs tell, dialogue) of your manuscript.

Check out my editing services and fill in this form to discuss how I can help you improve the big-picture issues of your romance manuscript.

Additional resources
What is romance short fiction and 5 reasons to write one
What is a romance story and how to write one
How to edit the big-picture issues of your romance story
How to self-edit your romance story from start to finish
How to effectively edit the main characters of your romance story

Do you prefer writing short stories or do you like writing full-length novels? Some writers prefer to write full-length romance novels so that they have the page space to develop the romantic relationship between their main characters.
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Other writers prefer writing shorter stories (e.g short stories, novellas) to focus on the development of the romantic relationship between the main characters without including minor characters or subplots. 

While romance writers usually write full-length novels, they also consider and experiment with shorter pieces of writing.

What is a romance short fiction
Length of short fiction
5 reasons to write shorter romance stories

What is a romance short fiction
Shorter romance stories follow the rules that full-length romance stories have:

• The romance story focuses on the development of the romance relationship between the main characters
• The main characters have  a conflict that is keeping them from being together until the end of the story
• The main characters get together at the end of the story (happy ending)

However, shorter romance stories have some significant differences from full-length romance stories (novels). Shorter romance stories usually consist of a small number of characters, and they typically focus on the main characters of the story without exploring other minor characters. 

Also, shorter romance stories (ranging from 100 words to 40.000 words) follow the 3-act structure with a beginning, middle and end, but they do not have a complex plot or subplots.They usually describe major events in the main character’s life that can be resolved within the allotted page space.

​The plot events drive the story forward and show the progress of the romantic relationship of the main characters.

The main characters in shorter romance stories have a conflict that keeps them apart until the end of the story. The conflict is not complex and can be believably resolved within the allotted page space.

In shorter romance stories, there is no room for large descriptions of the backstories of main characters or detailed descriptions of setting that are usually found in full-length novels. Depending on the length of the story, shorter romance stories take place in 1-2 main locations.

Length of short fiction
There are many different forms of short fiction, such as micro fiction, flash fiction, short stories, novelettes and novellas.

Although there is not a definitive guide about the length of these shorter fiction stories,  I present to you the average length of  different forms of short fiction:

• Micro fiction: under 500 words
• Flash fiction: 500-1000 words
• Short story: 1000-7500 words
• Novelette: 7500-17.500 words
• Novella: 17.500-40.000 words

Anything longer than 40.000-50.000 words is typically considered a novel, although a 50.000 novel is considered to be short.

Romance novels are typically around 70.000 words -100.000 words, depending on the romance subgenre. Read the blog article How long should a romance novel be to learn more information about the word count of romance novels and why it matters.

5 reasons to write shorter romance stories
1) Test out new ideas 
Writing shorter romance stories helps writers safely try new things and sharpen their storytelling skills. Writers can try writing a few scenes to try out new plot or character ideas and experiment with new romance subgenres and tropes to see if the story works before committing to writing a full-length novel. 

2) Write shorter fiction as a prequel to a series
Writers often write novellas as prequels to a series to introduce the main characters and the world to the readers. Writers often want to establish the main character’s backstory, introduce the world or the story problem that the main characters will have to solve in the series.

Writers might offer the novella for free or for a discounted price as a way to introduce a new series to the readers and to convince them to buy the next books (full-length novels) in the series.

3) Newsletter magnets
Writers write shorter stories intended for newsletter magnets to show readers a sample of their writing skills and their writing style and to convince them to buy their full-length novels.

This can be a great way for readers to learn about new writers and stories before deciding to buy one (or more) of the writer’s full-length novels.

4) Writing for anthologies 
Writers are often invited to write short stories for anthologies. Anthologies usually follow a specific theme (e.g Christmas) or setting (e.g small town). The writer needs to read carefully and follow the specific guidelines to be considered for submission to particular magazines or publishers.

Publishers also invite different writers to participate in anthologies with specific themes (anthologies with a Christmas theme are a great example), and it is a great way for writers to reach a wider audience. Writers can also create and publish their own anthology. 

5) Participate in a short story contest
Participating in a short story contest can help you exercise your creative muscles, sharpen your writing skills, take a break from your current writing project and have fun while writing a flash fiction or short story.

​Some contests offer a significant cash prize for winners and/or offer to publish the winners’ stories in particular magazines. Make sure to check the credibility of the contest and its rules and guidelines for submission before joining the contest.

Conclusion
Writing romance short fiction is a great way for writers to sharpen their writing skills, experiment with new plot or character ideas in new genres or tropes and introduce their stories to new readers.

Have you tried writing short fiction? Do you prefer writing shorter romance stories or do you like writing full-length novels? Comment below!

Additional resources
How long should a romance novel be
What is a romance story and how to write one
How to choose a story idea for your romance story
8 romance subgenres to explore this year
8 popular tropes to explore this year

One of the most important aspects is self-editing the big-picture elements of your romance series. After finishing writing all the books, you need to self-edit the big-picture elements that cover the whole series to make sure you have written a compelling romance story with engaging characters.

Read your series and take notes
Story structure
Characters
Theme
Setting and worldbuilding
Romance genre conventions
Next steps

Read your series and take notes
Read your entire romance series from start to finish. While reading, take notes in the margins of the manuscript documents and/or in a separate notebook about the big-picture elements you want to revise, such as the story structure, main characters, theme, setting and romance genre conventions. 

If it’s helpful, create a series outline in an Excel spreadsheet to write down your notes and ideas in a more organised way. Your series outline can include the chapter number, pov character, timeline, location, on-scene characters, and any other notes or thoughts about a particular scene. Your series outline can be as detailed as you want. 

You can also create or update your series bible to include updated information about your characters and create or update your master timeline to include updated information about the story’s events, and maintain consistency throughout the series.

Story structure
One of the most important elements that you need to self-edit is the story structure of your romance series. Identify the major romance beats of your series and the major romance beats for each book of the series.

If you have trouble identifying the major romance beats for the whole series or individual books, then you need to revise your series to make your romance beats clearer and stronger.

Look at your notes and write down which scenes you need to revise to make your romance story structure clearer, stronger and more compelling to the readers. If you want to learn more information, read how to outline the major plot points of your romance story.

Also, make sure that your major romance beats move the plot forward and that your story includes only the necessary plot events.

A lot of beginner writers make the mistake of including unnecessary plot events in the first book of their series to force important plot events in later books of the series.

Look at your notes and/or manuscript and note down which scenes you need to revise to include only the necessary plot events that move the plot forward.

Characters
Another important element of your romance series that you need to self-edit is your main characters. Make sure that your main characters have a clear and compelling goal, believable motivation, and (internal and external) conflict throughout the series and that their actions are driven by their GMC (goal, motivation, conflict).

Another person (romance interest or antagonist) who has an equal and opposite goal creates the central conflict of the story, prevents the main character from easily achieving their goal, and creates tension that moves the plot forward. 

When editing your series, note down what (internal conflict) or who (external conflict) is preventing the main character from achieving their goal (e.g what or who is preventing the main couple from being together?).

Look at your notes and determine which scenes need to be revised for a clearer GMC and a stronger central conflict.

Theme
Another important element of your romance series that you need to self-edit is the theme. Generally, the theme for romance stories is that love wins over all obstacles. Romance readers expect that the main characters overcome all their flaws (internal conflict) and obstacles (external conflict)  thrown at them throughout the series and live happily together.

Do the main characters overcome the internal and external challenges, emotionally change throughout the series (learn the theme by the end of the story) and live happily together? Look at your notes and revise your series accordingly. 

Setting and worldbuilding
Another important element of your romance series that you need to self-edit is the setting and the worldbuilding. Look at your notes and make sure that the setting of your story is clear, fleshed out, believable, and consistent throughout the series.

Make sure that the setting is linked to the story action and the main characters. Show how the pov character notices, experiences, or describes a particular setting and what information it reveals about their personality. 

Look at your notes and revise any scenes with inconsistencies regarding the setting and worldbuilding of your series. 

Also, a common mistake writers make regarding setting is to spend too much page time describing unnecessary or irrelevant information, such as the politics and society of the world or specific locations (info dumping).

Note down the scenes where info-dumping happens and revise them to include only the most relevant and important information in each scene.

Romance genre conventions
Another important element that you need to self-edit is the romance genre conventions. To make sure you are writing a romance series, the development of the romance relationship between the main characters needs to be at the centre of your story, and the story needs to have a happy ending where the main couple ends up together. If your series doesn’t follow these 2 romance rules, then you need to revise your romance series accordingly to include them.

Also, make sure that the romance tropes used in the romance series are combined in fresh and unexpected ways to create an engaging story and contribute to the emotional and physical intimacy of the main characters. 

The physical attraction between the main characters needs to be apparent throughout the story, and the intimacy scenes need to serve the development of their romantic relationship and move the plot forward.

Also, a common mistake writers make regarding genre conventions is the lack of romantic tension and pacing. It usually happens because the main characters fall in love too quickly without sufficient emotional development, or the romantic tension is dragged out by subplots that overshadow the central story.

Look at your notes to determine if the development of the romantic relationship progresses too quickly or too slowly and revise accordingly.

Next steps
After you have self-edited the big-picture elements of your romance series, such as the romance story structure, characters, theme, setting, and romance genre conventions, it’s time to get feedback from a professional editor.

Give your manuscript to a reliable and supportive beta reader and/or developmental editor to provide thoughtful and honest feedback about the big-picture elements of your series. If you want to learn more information, read how to find the right editor for your story.

Additional resources
How to self-edit the big-picture elements of your romance story
How to plan and write a romance series part 1
How to edit the most common mistakes in a romance series
How to avoid editing scams and find a trusted editor

You are a romance writer who wants to plan and write a romance series, but you don’t know how to start. This blog article will help you plan and write the main characters of your romance series, the setting and worldbuilding and the romance genre conventions, brainstorm possible planning steps and create a writing schedule. 
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Main characters 
Setting and worldbuilding
Romance genre conventions
Planning steps
Writing schedule

Main characters 
An important element of a romance series is the main characters’ overall goal, motivation and internal and external conflict (GMC) across the series. The main characters need to have an important and tangible goal they want to achieve by the end of the series. Think about why this goal is important for them, and what will happen if they don’t achieve their goal (motivation).

Also, brainstorm the internal challenges (internal conflict) and external obstacles (external conflict) that prevent them from achieving their goal. The main characters usually make emotional progress and achieve smaller goals at the end of each book, but they also achieve a larger goal at the end of the series.

Romance series usually feature a large cast of secondary characters such as coworkers, friends or family members, who help the main characters achieve their large goal and emotionally change by the end of the series.

Each book in the series shows the gradual emotional development of the main characters who overcome their internal challenges and external obstacles, achieve their large goal, and live happily together at the end of the series. 

Setting and worldbuilding
Another important element of a romance series is setting and worldbuilding. There are many different kinds of settings that you need to decide on before starting to write your romance series.

For example, you need to consider if your series includes real or fictional settings. If it includes real locations or famous landmarks, do research to get your facts right. If your series is based on fictional or lesser-known locations, you can create a map to note down the locations and the distances between the main places. Write down the main locations of the series and any important rooms or objects that play an important role.

You also need to brainstorm and decide the following kinds of settings:

• Macro and micro setting: Where does your series take place (planet, country, city, apartment)?
• Temporal setting: When does your series take place (time period)?
• Seasonal setting: What seasons does your series take place in?

Once you write down the answers to the above questions, you might want to flesh out the worldbuilding elements of your series.Depending on the kind of story you are writing (contemporary, historical, paranormal or fantasy romance), you will want to focus on specific worldbuilding elements.

Make sure to flesh out the most important and relevant aspects of your worldbuilding, such as the government and politics, supernatural species and people, the history of the world, the education of the people or different species, magic, climate, and arts and entertainment.  

Romance genre conventions
A story is considered to belong in the romance genre when it adheres to the 2 following rules:
1) The development of the romantic relationship between the main characters comprises the central focus of the story. 
2) The romance story has an emotionally satisfying happy ending where the main characters get together at the end of the story.

The romance genre is divided into many romance subgenres. Some examples consist of contemporary romance, YA romance, romantic comedy, historical romance, paranormal romance, romantasy, fantasy romance and science fiction romance. If you want to learn more information, please read this blog post about popular romance subgenres.

Romance tropes
A trope is a plot, character or theme that is often used in romance stories. Tropes provide familiarity, satisfaction and anticipation to the readers about how a specific plot or character progresses throughout the story.

Some examples of the most popular romance tropes are:

• age gap
• alpha hero
• arranged marriage
• best friend’s brother/sister
• billionaire/millionaire trope
• childhood sweethearts
• college romance
• enemies/rivals to lovers
• fake relationship/marriage
• fated mates or rejected mates
• forbidden love
• forced proximity
• friends to lovers
• grumpy vs sunshine
• high school romance
• holiday romance
• insta love/ love at first sight
• marriage of convenience
• mistaken identity
• opposites attract
• second chance romance
• shapeshifters
• single parent
• small town romance
• sports romance
• supernatural romance: fae, vampires, werewolves, witches etc
• surprise/accidental pregnancy
• unrequited love
• vacation romance
• workplace romance, boss/employee

Theme in romance stories
Generally, the theme in romance fiction is that “love conquers all”. The main characters in romance stories overcome their internal challenges (internal conflict) and external obstacles (external conflict) and live happily ever after at the end of the story.

Ask yourself what the  “ all” (internal conflict)  is that the main characters need to overcome in their story. The internal conflict usually comes from the main character’s traumatic childhood or a past traumatic event that defined their personality, such as a manipulative, cheating ex or an abusive/alcoholic family member.

Popular themes in romance stories include forgiveness (forgive themselves or others), responsibility  (take responsibility and fight for justice), duty vs desire (sense of obligation vs want) and love (accept and love themselves and others around them).

Planning steps
Now, it’s time to brainstorm what kind of romance series you want to write and the possible planning steps you need to take.

Possible steps may include:

1. Decide what kind of series you want to write.
2. Write down the major romance beats of your series, and for each book of your series.
3. Write down important information about your main characters (goal, motivation, conflict, emotional development).
4. Write down important elements about the setting of your world (macro, micro, temporal, seasonal) and relevant aspects of worldbuilding.
5. Narrow down the romance subgenres and tropes that you want to include in your series.
6. Create a series bible that includes all the information about your series, such as character profiles, romance story structure beats, locations, rules about your world, research, etc.
7. Create a master timeline that includes all the events across the series.

Writing schedule
Now, it’s time to look at your schedule and find the time of day that suits you best to start writing the first book in your romance series. Look at your various obligations and determine when you have free time to write.

Don’t discourage yourself if you think you don’t have enough time for writing. Even 30 minutes a day is fine. The most important thing is to write every day (or almost every day) to keep the momentum going and create a consistent writing routine.

Write down a word count goal for the first book of your series and decide how much time you will dedicate to writing every day. For example, you want to write 80,000 words for your first book, and you can write 30 minutes a day. Beginner writers can usually write about 1,000 words in one hour, so that leaves us 500 words a day for a 30-minute session.

Divide the expected total word count of your story by the amount of your daily word count to get the number of days it will take you to finish writing the first draft of your first book: 80,000/500= 160 days. 

Please note that this is just an initial estimate, and it can change at any time since you can write more words on a specific day or have an unexpected emergency that keeps you from writing on another day.

​Just keep writing as often as you can (preferably every day), and you will have the finished manuscript in your hands very soon!

Conclusion
This blog article explains how to plan and write the main characters of your romance series, the setting and worldbuilding and the romance genre conventions, brainstorm possible planning steps and create a writing schedule. Good luck writing your romance series!

Additional resources
How to plan and write a romance series (part 1)
How to choose a story idea for your romance novel
What is a romance story, and how to write one
How to write the setting and worldbuilding of your story
How to create a consistent writing routine

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

Do you find the process of planning a whole novel overwhelming? Do you find it difficult to establish an outlining routine, or are you not sure how to outline the structure of your romance manuscript? 

Instead of outlining all the plot points of your romance story at once, which can be tiring and overwhelming, I recommend outlining first the 5 major plot points of a romance manuscript’s structure: the Catalyst, Break Into 2, Midpoint, All is Lost and Break Into 3.

Catalyst
Break Into 2
Midpoint
All is Lost
Break Into 3
How should I outline my romance story if I have multiple main characters?

Catalyst (10%)
The first major plot point of a romance story is the inciting incident that happens to the main character and introduces them to a new world. In romance stories, 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.

The pov character is physically attracted to the other person and vividly describes their physical appearance. The pov character internally thinks the reasons (internal conflict) they cannot fall in love, and they emotionally reject them.

Break Into 2 (20%)
The second major plot point occurs at the beginning of Act 2, when the main character decides to leave the status quo and enter into a new world. The main character leaves their comfort zone and enters an unknown world or a new way of thinking.

At the beginning of Act 2, the main characters 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 come emotionally and physically closer.

Midpoint (50%)
The third major plot point takes place in the middle of the story, and it is the plot point where the main character realises their romantic feelings. The main character is willing to change and falsely believes they will be able to overcome the internal conflict that is keeping them back from emotionally opening themselves and having their happily ever after.

This is the plot point where you raise the stakes and put more obstacles and challenges to the main character to emotionally change.

All is Lost (75%)
The fourth major plot is the lowest point of the romance story. It is the scene where the main character chooses fear instead of love, and they break up because they believe they will emotionally hurt each other because of their internal conflict.

*There are many romance novels that don’t include an actual breakup scene since some romance readers don’t like it. It’s up to you whether you want to include one in your story. You can choose instead to temporarily separate the main characters so that they can see how miserable their life is without each other.     

Break Into 3 (80%)
The fifth major plot point occurs at the beginning of Act 3, where the main character chooses love this time and wants to be happy.

They come up with a plan on the steps they need to take (with the help of family and friends) to reconcile with the other character and to fix the problems they have created the right way. 

How should I outline my romance story if I have multiple main characters?
The first step to outlining your romance story is to decide the number of main characters. In romance novels, the main characters (the main couple) are the pov characters of the story.

Some romance writers choose to have only one main character, while others choose to have two main characters. If the second character has equal page time and character development with the main character, then you probably have two main characters in your story.

If your romance story has one main character, you need to create one outline sheet, starting by writing down the five major plot points of your story.

If your romance story has 2 main characters that experience the majority of the story together, then create one outline sheet for both of them.

If your romance story has 2 main characters that don’t experience the majority of the story together, but still have some shared chapters, create a separate outline sheet for each main character.

Conclusion
The five major plot points will help you outline the basic structure of your romance manuscript in an easy and simple way. Brainstorm and write down the five major plot points first before outlining the rest of them in your outline sheet.

​Take as much time as you need to plan your romance story and write down as many details as you want. Your outline sheet can include brief bullet points or long paragraphs. Have fun and enjoy writing!

Additional resources
How to write a novel using the 3-act structure
How to write a novel using Romancing the Beat
What is a romance story and how to write one
How to write a romance novel in 5 steps

One of the most common questions that romance writers ask is how long their romance novel should be. Romance writers often wonder if their novel is long enough to match the expectations of the romance genre, and they are often uncertain why word count matters for their romance novels.

Word count estimate for the romance genre
Why word count matters
What should I do if my novel is too long?
What should I do if my novel is too short?
I need help to edit my book

Word count estimates for the romance genre
Romance is a very broad category and can be divided into many subgenres.  A novel is considered to be in the romance genre when the development of the romantic relationship between the main characters is at the centre of the story, and the main characters live happily together at the end. If your story doesn’t have a happy ending, then it is not a romance. 

Some of the most popular romance subgenres are contemporary romance, fantasy romance, romantasy, paranormal romance, historical romance, romantic suspense and YA (Young Adult) romance.

Generally, the word count for romance novels is between 70,000 and 100,000 words. Romance novels under 70,000 words might be considered too short, and romance novels above 100,000 words might be considered too long. 

There are exceptions to these guidelines with fantasy romance, romantasy, paranormal romance and historical romance novels, which have slightly longer word count because of worldbuilding and setting requirements.

For example, fantasy romance and romantasy novels are typically between 90,000 and 120,000 words. Fantasy romance novels with emphasis on the romance elements are typically between 90,000 and 100,000 words, whereas fantasy romance novels with emphasis on the fantasy elements are typically between 100,000 and 120,000 words. 

Paranormal romance and historical romance novels are typically between 80,000 and 100,000 words to allow writers more room to setup and expand the worldbuilding of the story. 

Why word count matters
Production costs
Longer books are typically more expensive because they cost more to print, ship and store, and publishers generally don’t want to take risks with longer novels, especially by new writers.

On the contrary, shorter novels are cheaper to produce and easier to sell because of the production cost and because readers prefer to read shorter books. Readers prefer to commit to shorter books (300 pages long) because they feel confident they have the time to finish reading them.

Publisher expectations
Publishers have expectations for how long a romance novel should be. Writing a novel that is “too short” or “too long”  makes it impossible to market and sell, no matter how great the writing might be.

Established writers might be “forgiven” and allowed more flexibility with the word count of their story, but it’s best for new writers to follow the industry standard of their genre and write a novel within the publisher’s expectations.

Reader expectations
Avid romance readers have their own expectations about how long a romance novel should be. Typically, romance readers expect that a romance novel should be around 70,000-100,000 words (depending on the subgenre), so writers need to have a really good reason for writing a shorter or longer romance novel and defying these expectations.

It is best for writers to write a book within the “expected” word count so that it’s easier for them to market and sell it to romance readers.

What should I do if my novel is too long?
If your novel is too long, I recommend editing it and cutting down unnecessary words:

• Revise or delete scenes that drag down the pacing of the story and don’t move the plot of your story forward
• Delete subplots that are not related to the main plot of the story
• Revise or delete minor characters that are not important to the story

While I understand that you might have spent weeks or months writing and editing your romance novel, deleting unnecessary parts of your story will strengthen your plot and your characters, and you will make a more compelling story for the readers.

What should I do if my novel is too short?
If your novel is too short, consider adding more words to the story. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Are my main characters’ goals and motivations clear?
• Is my plot structure clear, or can it be tightened?
• What is the central conflict of the story, and how can I strengthen it?
• Can I add more subplots to make the story more interesting?
• Can I add more obstacles or challenges to the main characters to tighten the tension and make the plot more compelling?

I need help to edit my book
If you are looking for a reliable and supportive developmental editor to help you edit the big-picture elements of your romance novel to your desired word count, check out my developmental editing services and fill in this form to discuss the needs of your manuscript. 

Conclusion
Word count is an important factor to take into consideration when writing your romance novel. Before starting to write and edit your novel, it is best to check the industry standard word count for your subgenre.

​Have in mind that different agents and publishing companies have different word count requirements, so make sure to check them before submitting your manuscript to them. Good luck!

Disclaimer: The content mentioned above is only meant to serve as a guideline. Do what feels right for your story and romance subgenre, since word count guidelines and expectations are constantly changing. 

Additional resources
How to self-edit the big-picture elements of your story
How to become more productive and write your story faster
What is writer’s block, and how to overcome it

​November marks the month of the year when many writers sit down in front of their computers and attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

​Although this tradition started with NaNoWriMo, many writers have participated in a similar writing challenge this year. They either created their own writing challenge with writer friends or participated in a writing challenge by other writers, and found themselves a welcoming and supportive writing community.

November is over, and now you have the first draft of your novel completed or the 50,000 words of it. The next step you need to take after writing the first draft is to self-edit the big-picture elements of your story.

Take a break
Read your manuscript and take notes
Main characters
Plot and structure
Setting and worldbuilding
Follow through with your plan
Next steps

Take a break
The first step of self-editing your novel is to leave it rest for at least one month. Taking a break from your story is necessary to put distance between yourself and your story and be able to see your manuscript from a reader’s perspective during the editing process.

Read your manuscript and take notes
The second step in self-editing your story is to read through your manuscript. Schedule 2-3 days of uninterrupted time to read your manuscript from start to finish and take notes about the big-picture elements of your story.

As you are reading your story, take notes in the margins of the manuscript document or in a separate notebook and write down any ideas you have on how to improve the main characters, plot and structure, and setting and worldbuilding of your story.

Main characters
One of the most important big-picture elements of your story is your main characters. The main characters in romance stories are the love interests of the story.

​The most important things you have to establish about your main characters are their goal, motivation, and internal and external conflicts. Create a character profile about each main character (if you haven’t already), and identify the following elements:

•  Goal: a clear, tangible goal that can sustain the whole story. Note if/how the goal changes throughout the story and why.
•  Motivation: the reason the main character wants to achieve this goal, what will happen if they do achieve it, and what the consequences will be if they don’t achieve it
• Internal conflict: an internal flaw that your character falsely believes about themselves or the world around them, and prevents them from achieving their goal
• External conflict: an antagonist or villain that puts obstacles and challenges to the main characters and actively prevents them from achieving their goal

Plot and structure
Another important big-picture element of your story is your plot and structure. If you are a plotter, then you probably already have an outline of your story or even a chapter-by-chapter summary. If you haven’t updated your outline while writing your story, this is a good time to do it.

While you are reading your story, open an Excel spreadsheet and write down important information about each chapter of your story to help you see the “forest”, the overall plot of your story. The Excel spreadsheet can include the:

• word count of each chapter
•  pov character
• characters present
• location
• main story events
• notes/reactions/things to improve

You can also write down margin comments in your manuscript document about specific issues that you want to improve in a particular scene. Check if your plot follows the 3-act structure and if each chapter moves forward the plot of the story.

Setting and worldbuilding
Another important big-picture element (often neglected by writers) is the setting and worldbuilding of the story. While reading your manuscript, write down the following information about the setting of your story:

• The macro setting of your story. Note down the planet, country and the city your story takes place in.
• The micro setting of your story. Note down the particular locations your story takes place, such as a house, a cafe, an apartment, a school, or an office. Write down a clear description of each location in your notes. Note any discrepancies in descriptions in the manuscript to fix them later.
• The period your story takes place in. Does it take place in the present or a particular historical period? Do any necessary research about the language, customs, culture and habits of the people in that particular historical period.

If you are writing a paranormal romance or fantasy romance story that takes place in a fictional setting,  you might also want to pay attention to the worldbuilding of your story.  Some worldbuilding elements might greatly influence the plot and the characters of your story, so you might need to note down:

• the government, political figures, and laws that appear in your story
• the different species (humans, werewolves, vampires, fae, witches) and how they interact with  each other
• the magic system with its rules, limitations and risks
• the history of the world and any important historical events that shape the civilisation and culture of the species today
• the types of professions and the opportunities for employment that each species has based on their race, powers and social status
• the levels of education and how accessible education is for all citizens of your world

Follow through with your plan
Congratulations. You have finished reading through your manuscript, and now you have made various notes about the characters, plot and structure and setting and worldbuilding of your story. You have made notes in character profiles, Excel spreadsheets and in the manuscript document, and you have plenty of ideas on what aspects of your manuscript to improve. 

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, since it will be overwhelming and you will soon feel lost trying to juggle multiple tasks at the same time.

​Instead, do multiple rounds of editing for the big-picture elements of your story:

• Decide which big-picture elements of your story you will focus on in which round. For example, you might want to make one round of editing to fix the structure of your novel.
• Write down the particular tasks you need to go through for each round of editing. For example, you might want to rewrite the meet-cute of your main characters (the first time your characters meet on the page).
• Write down the available time you have each week for editing your novel, your estimated weekly progress and the estimated deadline of each round of editing. You can go back at the end of each week and note down the actual time you sat down to edit your novel, the progress you made and if you are on track to meet your deadline. You can repeat this process for every round of editing until you finish editing the big-picture elements of your story.

Next steps
After self-editing the big-picture elements of your story, it’s time to hire a professional developmental editor. A developmental editor is the first editor writers look for after self-editing their novel. 

The developmental editor addresses the manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses and provides honest and constructive feedback about the story’s plot and structure, character development, point of view, pacing, setting, genre conventions, scene vs narrative summary (show vs tell) and dialogue. The developmental editor provides margin comments in the manuscript document and an editorial report to further guide the author.

If you are looking for a reliable and supportive developmental editor or beta reader for your romance story, then I might be a great fit for your manuscript!

​I can provide honest and constructive feedback to help you improve the big-picture elements of your story and achieve your writing goals.  Check out my editing services: developmental editing, manuscript critique, discovery draft evaluation, beta reading and contact me to discuss your story.

Additional resources
Why you need to create character profiles for your story
How to write a romance story using the 3 structure
How to write the setting and worldbuilding of your story
What are the different types of editing services
How to find the right editor for your fiction book

You want to write a romance story. You might have too many ideas in your mind and don’t know what to choose from, or you might have too few ideas and you can’t combine them into a solid story idea. This blog article includes 6 steps that will help you choose a compelling story idea for your next romance story.
​
Choose your genre and tropes
Choose your main characters
Choose a setting
Combine them all together
Create a rough outline
Create a detailed outline

Choose your genre and tropes
The first step to choosing a good story idea is to brainstorm the genre and tropes of your romance story.
Ask yourself the following questions:

• What is your favourite romance genre to read?
• What are the subgenres and tropes that you have enjoyed reading or watching lately?

Write down the answers to these questions in a notebook or writing software.
To help you brainstorm your story idea, you can see below some of the most popular romance genres and tropes.
Popular romance genres include:

• contemporary romance
• YA romance
• romantic comedy
• historical romance
• paranormal romance 
• fantasy romance 
• romantasy
• romantic suspense
• science fiction romance

Popular romance tropes include:

• billionaire trope
• enemies to lovers
• friends to lovers
• reformed playboy
• fake relationship/marriage
• marriage of convenience
• second-chance romance
• sports romance
• workplace romance
• forced proximity
• love triangle
• forbidden love
• best friend’s brother/ best friend’s sister
• grumpy/sunshine
• secret/mistaken identity
• alpha hero
• soulmates

Put a timer for 30 minutes and think about your favourite books, tv shows and movies and write down the genres and tropes that you like in them. Consider the ones mentioned above, but feel free to add your own. You will soon notice that common patterns emerge.

Narrow down the list of genres and tropes. Choose 1-2 genres and  4-5  main tropes that can be combined and write them down on a new page. 

Choose your main characters
The second step to choosing a good story idea is to brainstorm your main character(s).
 The main characters of the story need to have: 

•  a tangible goal big enough to sustain the whole story
• a motivation: a reason why the main characters want to achieve their goal, why this goal is important for them and what the consequences are for them if they fail to achieve this goal
• internal conflict/flaw: A  flaw is a misbelief that the main character falsely believes about themselves or the world around them, and prevents them from achieving their goal
• external conflict: An antagonist or villain that prevents the main character from achieving their goal and has led the main character to believe that their flaw about themselves and the world around them is true and cannot be changed

Keep in mind that the main characters need to have equal and opposite goals to create the central conflict of the story and to prevent them from easily achieving their respective goals.

Figuring out the goal, motivation and flaw of the main characters before starting to write the story will tremendously help you during the drafting process.

You can also figure out other aspects of your main characters before starting to write your story, such as their strengths and weaknesses, personality, appearance, and hobbies and interests.

If you have trouble creating consistent and compelling characters, you can create a character profile to help you keep all the information you need about them. Learn why character profiles are important and what to include in them in this blog article.

Choose a setting
The third step to choosing a good story idea is to brainstorm the setting of your romance story.  
Consider the following questions while brainstorming the setting of your story:

• What is the macro setting of your setting (planet, country, city)?
• What is the micro setting of your story (workplace, home)?
• When is the story taking place (time period, season)?

Brainstorm these questions and write down possible locations based on the genre and main characters of your story. If you want to learn more about the worldbuilding and the setting of your story, read this blog article.

Combine them all together
Now, it’s time to combine all the elements of your story. Put a timer of 30 minutes and see how the ideas you have written down about your genre and tropes, main characters and setting can be combined into a single compelling story idea.  

During the 30 minutes, write down on a new page each element about your story idea: genre and tropes, main characters, and setting. Look at your ideas from the previous pages and write down your final story idea for each element.

The process might take some time, but it is important to see the core of your story and determine potential directions it could take before starting the drafting process.

After 30 minutes, it’s time to look into your final story idea and see if you are fine with it or if you would like to make some changes. If you would like to brainstorm further, set a timer for another 30 minutes and make the necessary changes. 

When you are done brainstorming your story idea, see how you feel about it. Make sure you choose a story idea that:

• makes you feel excited, inspired and creative
• you are most familiar and comfortable to write 
• has the most potential to develop into an interesting story for the readers

Create a rough outline
After finalising your story idea (genre, tropes, main characters, setting), it’s time to create a rough outline. A rough outline consists of a small paragraph (5-6 sentences) about the premise of the story, the main characters and their goals and the central conflict of the story. By writing this rough outline, you confirm the core of your story and possible directions it could take.

While writing the rough outline, you might come up with possible chapter ideas that you want to include in your story. Write them down on a new page in your notebook or writing software.

Create a detailed outline
The last step to choosing your story idea is to create a detailed outline. Take the rough outline you have created in the previous step and expand it into a detailed outline to include the beginning, middle and end of your romance story. You can write the outline in bullet points or in paragraphs.

If you need help to create a detailed outline for your romance story, you can read this blog article about how to plot and structure a romance story using Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes.

You can outline as much as you want. You can create a detailed outline with a chapter-by-chapter summary and extensive character profiles, or just write a one-page summary of the story events.

You don’t need to outline your entire story in advance if that’s your writing process or that’s how your brain works. For now, you can outline the major plot points of your story and figure out the rest of the chapters while you write your story.

If you are a beginner writer and you don’t have a solid writing process yet, you might find useful reading this blog article about writer types to figure out which type of writer you are.

Conclusion
Congratulations. You have chosen your story idea and you are ready to write your romance story.  All you need to do now is follow through with your plan and actually finish your story.

You might feel doubts or be uncertain about your story idea as you write your story. Remember why you chose this story idea in the first place, why you feel excited about it and why this story idea matters to you so much. I believe in you. Good luck!

Additional resources
What is a romance story, and how to write one
How to create a consistent writing routine
Why do you need character profiles, and why create one
How to write the setting and worldbuilding of your story
3 types of writer goals you can set in 2025
How to write a novel using Romancing the Beat
Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes