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NotWise

NotWise

Desert Rat
Joined
Sep 7, 2015
Posts
13,606
In my short time here LadyVer has been the principle defender of the Romance category, but LadyVer last posted to the forums more than a year ago.

Are there other defenders of the faith? I have a story that I'd love to post to Romance, but it breaks some rules. I'd like some expert input before I cut my head off by either posting the story someplace else or posting an unacceptable story to Romance.
 
NotWise said:
In my short time here LadyVer has been the principle defender of the Romance category, but LadyVer last posted to the forums more than a year ago.

Are there other defenders of the faith? I have a story that I'd love to post to Romance, but it breaks some rules. I'd like some expert input before I cut my head off by either posting the story someplace else or posting an unacceptable story to Romance.
Click to expand...

I’ve never posted there and don’t feel I have the skill set to ever do so. What particular rules do you feel it breaks?
 
NotWise said:
In my short time here LadyVer has been the principle defender of the Romance category, but LadyVer last posted to the forums more than a year ago.

Are there other defenders of the faith? I have a story that I'd love to post to Romance, but it breaks some rules. I'd like some expert input before I cut my head off by either posting the story someplace else or posting an unacceptable story to Romance.
Click to expand...

I've got a multi-part series in Romance that has been well received. I don't pay much attention to "rules". What, in particular, concerns you?
 
NotWise said:
I have a story that I'd love to post to Romance, but it breaks some rules. I'd like some expert input before I cut my head off by either posting the story someplace else or posting an unacceptable story to Romance.
Click to expand...

Romance has rules? :eek:

Considering that most of the stuff I write tends to be quirky (and British), Romance has generally been very good to me. Perhaps I have just been lucky. :)
 
MelissaBaby said:
I've got a multi-part series in Romance that has been well received. I don't pay much attention to "rules". What, in particular, concerns you?
Click to expand...

The basic "rule" to a romance story is that it starts with a man and woman who aren't in a relationship, but develop a mutual interest. They struggle through obstacles to build their relationship and at the end they achieve their goal and live HEA, or at least HFN.

I put a story in Romance shortly after I started here that didn't match that profile, and I found that those civilized folks can one-bomb with the best of LW. Their comments aren't as vile.

I went to the story feedback forum after that massive failure and asked what the problem was, and the rule was laid out by DreamCloud, LadyVer, and PenLady (among others)

My later successful story in Romance fit the rules to a tee, but I've seen other stories do well that deviated one way or another off that theme.

I like the category, and I don't want to post something there that will fuck up my reputation. My current story deviates from the "rules" because it has two female MC's rather than one, and because the two female MC's are both dead--and have been for 92 years. They're ghosts.

It ain't a simple story. I have two requests out for beta readers, but only one friend has accepted the challenge. the story is 29K words.
 
I've got three Romance stories that ran pretty well - one is my highest rated story. Readers are pretty generous, and don't mind graphic sex. One of the chapters celebrates the beauty of pregnancy, and babies are born. That seems to go over well.
 
My sense is that if you follow the basic formula you'll do fine. Formula being boy meets girl; boy and girl should be together but confront significant obstacles to having a relationship; boy and girl overcome obstacles and end up together.

I'm working on a story that fits this formula. I have no idea when it will be ready for publication but I'm looking forward to publishing in that category for the first time.
 
Romance stories tend to run longer than stories in other categories, and the focus should be on the blossoming relationship, rather than the sex. Normally, they start with two unattached persons who don't know each other, at least not well, and end up with them in bed. You can continue from there to HEA, or you can let that be assumed by the readers.

I like writing in the category and I like the challenge, because they are usually different from my usual stroke stories. One of my personal favorite couples is Donna from Daycare and Kevin.
 
I have a dozen and a half Romance category stories across my accounts. Over half of them have Hs. They run from 4.25 to 4.73 in rating. One has a green E but only a 4.47 rating. I didn't bother to write to any formula in deciding to put them in the Romance category. I only put hetero stories in that category. I have a whole bunch of gay romances in GM and they do very well there.
 
I have several in the Romance category. They've done well both in scoring and comments. I don't follow a formula when I write them and I don't pay attention to word count. So I guess I can't be of much help.
 
NotWise said:
In my short time here LadyVer has been the principle defender of the Romance category, but LadyVer last posted to the forums more than a year ago.

Are there other defenders of the faith? I have a story that I'd love to post to Romance, but it breaks some rules. I'd like some expert input before I cut my head off by either posting the story someplace else or posting an unacceptable story to Romance.
Click to expand...


Hi

Like, the others have said I have some in the romance category that has done well. One on the hall of Famers list if that counts but Dream cloud is hard to compare to :)

I'm happy to give it a read if you like, I don't think the fact that they are ghosts would matter too much but then I have always been free and easy with the rules myself :)

Send me a message if you would like my email address to send the story to :)
 
NotWise said:
The basic "rule" to a romance story is that it starts with a man and woman who aren't in a relationship, but develop a mutual interest. They struggle through obstacles to build their relationship and at the end they achieve their goal and live HEA, or at least HFN.
Click to expand...

I violated that "rule" by having my main characters go to bed together on their first date. I received a few kindly chastising comments, but the chapter has a 4.70 rating. I may have lost some readers for further chapters, but of course, there is really no way to tell. The later chapters have all been well received as well.
 
I'm still experimenting, trying stories in different categories. The few I've tried in Romance have done well enough; Meg, my favourite and objectively my best, is in Romance. It followed Simon's 'formula'. The others didn't; they featured a committed couple whose love deepened in the stories. They did OK, too.

Rules are for the regulation of fools and the guidance of the wise and daring. Go wild.
 
29K! That's a short story. Don't have anything in Romance only because the couple of romance type stories I have written were either Sci-Fi or Taboo/Incest.

But by my personal standards 29,000 words is a short story.
 
Zeb_Carter said:
29K! That's a short story. Don't have anything in Romance only because the couple of romance type stories I have written were either Sci-Fi or Taboo/Incest.

But by my personal standards 29,000 words is a short story.
Click to expand...

When that's published it'll be my longest story. To each their own, I guess.
 
Zeb_Carter said:
29K! That's a short story. Don't have anything in Romance only because the couple of romance type stories I have written were either Sci-Fi or Taboo/Incest.

But by my personal standards 29,000 words is a short story.
Click to expand...

Even in the era of short story magazines, short stories maxed out at 20,000 words. What was above that until getting to about 50,000 words was a no-man's land as far as publishing because it wasn't cost effective to publish in that zone. The e-book saved the novelette and novella categories as far as publishing for pay.
 
I post a continuing story in Romance and it's doing very well. The principal couple involved are desperately in love and it's the overriding theme of the narrative. The only 'quirk' is the incestuous romance between a secondary couple in the story, and I just state that fact in the Disclaimer I post with every chapter. So far, so good.

I figure as long as 'very/desperately in love' is your principal theme, even if it's tragic, then go for it.

Yes, I'll defend the Romance category quite readily. It's where my story fits best, no question.
 
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BiscuitHammer said:
I figure as long as 'very/desperately in love' is your principal theme, even if it's tragic, then go for it.
Click to expand...

"All stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you." -Ernest Hemingway
Click to expand...

"Age don't matter, if you're Bogey and Bacall or if you are Romeo and Juliet."

"Romeo and Juliet died at the end of the story," Mary replied.

"So did Bogey and Bacall. And so will we." -MelissaBaby
Click to expand...



(Don't say I didn't warn 'em)
 
As a reader, Romance is the main category that I follow, with a nod to some stories in Erotic Couplings and Incest/Taboo that build significant romantic/emotional context and weight.

One thing that I've noticed among reader responses is the concept that some story elements or topics "trump" others. For example, LGBT characters and situations in a Romance story. Such stories often seem to be treated more severely in ratings and reviews by readers, who expect only the boy+girl relationships as discussed above. I guess that I would call that a de facto rule.

Of course, for every rule there are exceptions. As BiscuitHammer (one of my author favorites) mentions, he does a creditable job on a romance series that A] contains incest topics, and B] is treated well in reader ratings. Perhaps the author preface is responsible for allowing readers to choose what they are comfortable with.
 
From a prior thread, one of the big rules for the Romance category is no cheating. You might get by with a minor character cheating if they are looked down on, but that's it.
 
Well, no. A frequent theme of what I mark as Romance sets the dilemma as one of a couple having gone astray for various reasons, realizing they've made a mistake, coming back, and being accepted back. Cheating can be central to the dilemma of a Romance story. The flexibility of fiction is marvelous. It says "well, no, not necessarily" to just about every attempt to control it with rules. Those who insist there are rules and rate a story based on rigid rules are just being anal retentive and not being open to new horizons in their reading.
 
KeithD said:
Well, no. A frequent theme of what I mark as Romance sets the dilemma as one of a couple having gone astray for various reasons, realizing they've made a mistake, coming back, and being accepted back. Cheating can be central to the dilemma of a Romance story. The flexibility of fiction is marvelous. It says "well, no, not necessarily" to just about every attempt to control it with rules. Those who insist there are rules and rate a story based on rigid rules are just being anal retentive and not being open to new horizons in their reading.
Click to expand...

There is an aspect of Romance that is worthy of fiction, but seems (my tentative observation) on this site to be against the "rules:" most couplings in the modern age will ultimately fail.

Perhaps there were times earlier in history when marriage (and the culturally-sanctioned views of sexuality) were part of social institutions, not personal preferences. Now that those things have become individual choices - which maybe is what Romance means to us now - relationships are more fragile and more likely to be short-lived.
 
KeithD said:
Well, no. A frequent theme of what I mark as Romance sets the dilemma as one of a couple having gone astray for various reasons, realizing they've made a mistake, coming back, and being accepted back. Cheating can be central to the dilemma of a Romance story. The flexibility of fiction is marvelous. It says "well, no, not necessarily" to just about every attempt to control it with rules. Those who insist there are rules and rate a story based on rigid rules are just being anal retentive and not being open to new horizons in their reading.
Click to expand...

I think 8letters was right. Cheating isn't very well accepted in stories posted to the Romance category.

"Romantic" is something different. Stories can contain all sorts of elements and still be romantic, but not all romantic stories will fly well in the Romance category.
 
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