Romance Category

[MLClifton]

I'm working on a story that might be a good fit for Romance, but it could also work in Mature or Erotic Couplings. What, in your opinion, makes a story suitable for the Romance category?

 

[Kantarii]

A nice slow build up. That's what I look for in the Romance category if the title catches my eyeKant

Other things: a romantic setting, an engaging mood, a good plot, and smooth flowing dialogue that doesn't seem forced.

 

[ElectricBlue]

There's possibly a sliding scale that goes from sweetness, happiness and light through to raunch and depravity. Romance is at one end of the scale (make them cry but don't make them weep); Erotic Encounters is at the other end (make them wet and don't let them sleep). Mature is somewhere in the middle, I think.

I've posted in all three, and have received comments in all three. My last story was older man younger woman, so the most obvious, safest fit was Mature. It's going very well.

 

[Hypoxia]

'Romance' can range from bodice-rippers to cool reflections. Stories in almost any category can be written as 'romance', which I define as exploring the development of a relationship. My highest-rated story is a Romance with no explicit sex till near the end, but many sexual thoughts along the way, and much anticipation. An Incest or Same-Sex or BBW or SF/F tale can be a romance. I've written Historic Romance (The Botanists) and Tragic Romance (That's My Girl) and Incestuous Multiracial Romance (As Simple as Black and White). Tragic Romance is rewarding -- kill-off the main love interest and show the survivor's recovery and resuscitation. Readers seem to love that.

Romance need not be all sweetness-and-light. But it should probably end there.

 

[femmeappeal]

To me, the core of a romance is that it doesn't really end when the story is finished. Happily Ever After isn't really what makes for the conclusion to a solid romance story, Happier Ever After is. It means that you believe these two (or more) people will be happier than they would've been apart - whether it's making a good moment better or making a miserable moment more tolerable.

It can be an ending that hints at a future of love and happiness, an ending that spells out their journey definitively, resolving a conflict that was keeping them apart; there are many options and as Hypoxia mentioned it doesn't necessarily have to be hopeful ending. But romance means that some kind of intimate relationship exists between the characters, that will likely continue in the future.

I also think Romance is a fall-back category that you use when a more specific option is not already in place. Pretty much every story I write is qualified as a Romance story - especially my most popular ones - but if it's also a Non-consent, our Sex in Public story, I think it's more helpful for readers looking for specific kinds of stories, if I put my story in that specific category.

 

[MLClifton]

Thanks for the input, everyone. After reading these posts, I'm leaning more toward Romance, but there is a big age difference between the characters, so I'm wondering if I should just put it in the Mature category. My stories tend to be glimpses into a specific period in the characters' lives, but this one covers a larger time frame, and it does have the Happily Ever After (and Happier Ever After) ending. Decisions, decisions...

 

[Hypoxia]

After reading these posts, I'm leaning more toward Romance, but there is a big age difference between the characters, so I'm wondering if I should just put it in the Mature category.

That could work. My Left Behind could have gone in Group Sex but the horny Cougar narrator kept seeking lovers half her age, especially at the ambiguous ending, so it went in Mature. But in Substitute Pussy, even though the fuckers are a generation apart, the main theme was justified cheating, so it went to LW. Think about your story's main theme. What are you saying? Which predominates: the age difference, or the developing relationship, or any fetish-play or taboos?

 

[MLClifton]

That could work. My Left Behind could have gone in Group Sex but the horny Cougar narrator kept seeking lovers half her age, especially at the ambiguous ending, so it went in Mature. But in Substitute Pussy, even though the fuckers are a generation apart, the main theme was justified cheating, so it went to LW. Think about your story's main theme. What are you saying? Which predominates: the age difference, or the developing relationship, or any fetish-play or taboos?

Good point. The relationship between the characters definitely predominates, so I think you helped me figure out my category. Thanks!