Make A Living Writing Romance

There’s no argument that the romance writing process is highly individualized. Some people write in a very structured manner, typing for an hour each day or working until they complete their word count goal. Others go on writing binges where they write for hours or days straight and then also have long dry periods where they may not write a word.

Some romance writers plot and plan every single detail before they ever start writing their manuscript while others, who call themselves “pantsters”, write by the seat of their pants. They just sit down and start typing out a story.

The Revision Process Is Just As Individualized.

You may sweep through your romance manuscript and make all the necessary changes in one pass. You may break down the process and make ten passes through your manuscript, each time focusing on a new step, dialogue for example.

You may dedicate a specific amount of time each day to your revision process or you may sit down and complete it all in one chunk of time. You may decide to revise 3 chapters a day, 100 pages a day, or for an hour a day.

So How Do You Create The Right Revision Plan for You?

There are three keys to any successful revision plan. They include:

1. Measurable goals
2. Structured time
3. A process or a checklist

Measurable Goals – The biggest goal to set here would be a deadline for having your romance manuscript polished.  A general rule of thumb, though you may be much more motivated and really amp the revision process, is to spend as much time revising your manuscript as you did writing it in the first place.  There is plenty of wiggle room here because if you had a whirlwind writing session and wrote your book in a week, it may very likely take longer to revise and polish it.  However, it’s a place to start.

Other measurable goals include smaller goals like a page count per day or a revised word count per day.  This strategy may seem restrictive however; it really helps you push through those days when you don’t feel so motivated.

Structured Time – You know what time of day you’re most productive, creative and energetic. This is the best time of the day to write and it’s the best time of the day to revise. Schedule your romance writing into each and every day and try to schedule it during your best time of the day.

A Process/Checklist – There are many phases to revising your romance novel. You want to make sure:

• Your scenes are fleshed out
• Your characters are consistent
• You use the 5 senses as appropriate
• Your dialogue works
• Your sentence structure varies
• Your pace, tone and POV are all appropriate for the scene

And so on….

Your revision checklist will reflect this. How you organize your checklist and structure your revision process is up to you. You may combine several elements or you may give your romance manuscript 20 passes, each time looking at a new element.

Here’s a sample RevisionChecklist.  It’s recommended to use this as a guideline for creating your own process customized to fit your style, goals and writing process.

Revising your romance novel is a required step to get it ready for publication. Make it easy on yourself and create a process that fits you.

One of the interesting aspects of writing romance is that so much attention is paid to completing the actual manuscript that many writers forget to learn how to revise effectively and efficiently.

Revision is in fact at least 50% of your job as a romance writer and that’s before your publisher’s editors get a hold of your manuscript. Then you’ll be revising again.

Writers spend countless hours reading romance and learning about their particular genre.

They spend time, money and energy fine tuning their craft and learning about plot, pace, setting, dialogue, point of view, voice and all of the elements that comprise a good novel.

Writers spend time learning how to submit to agents and editors.

They learn which publishers and agents are looking for new writers and accepting submissions in their chosen genre.

We even spend time learning about contracts, marketing and royalties.

Yet we forget to learn about how to revise our manuscripts!  Without a perfect, or darn near perfect, manuscript none of the rest matters.

The Revision Process

The revision process is about more than running a spell and grammar check on your computer.  In fact, that may be the last thing you do and it won’t be enough to catch all the errors.

Based on a number of books and workshops on the subject of revision here is a quick summary of the revision process:

• Write summary paragraph, elevator pitch, and synopsis.
• Read through manuscript beginning to end.  Take notes on each chapter.  Don’t stop to make corrections. Look for anything that catches your eye or stands out.
• Analyze plot in detail.  Maybe make storyboard or outline. Look for gaps. Investigate beginning, inciting incident, climax, false climax, and HEA. Look for Inciting Incident, four turning points, black moment, and resolution.
• Analyze characterization. Does each scene support the character’s main problem, conflict, theme, strengths & weaknesses? Does each character have a consistent and unique voice?
• Analyze each scene as they relate to the overall conflict.
• Analyze each scene for action-reaction (emotional and physical)
• Hooks.  Do they work? Are there enough?
• Scenes  – fully developed? Five senses?
• Point of view, pacing and tense.  Double check that tense is consistent as is POV. Make sure pacing is consistent with each scene.
• Copyediting. This is where you check your spelling and grammar. And just a little bit more

                                     -Check for repetitive words

                                     -Paragraph breaks

                                     -Continuity (eyes stay the same color, names stay the same etc.)

Download the revision checklist I use HERE. It’s saved as a PDF however, you can download the doc file HERE.

How Do You Develop Your Own Revision Plan?

Each author is going to have their own process for revision. Some can make all of the corrections necessary in one pass, others need to go through their manuscript 50 times before they feel it is ready.

Your revision process will depend solely on you and your personal style. Much of this style will be developed with practice. Each novel you write and each revision you complete will help you hone your style.

That being said, most authors and experts strongly recommend taking a revision process workshop or reading a few books on the process. It’ll help you hone your skills much faster so you can get to the business of making money writing romance!

Click Here to Discover How to Become a Romance Writer

Time: 30-45 minutes

How do you choose books in the bookstore?  For many they’re first attracted by the cover art.  They then flip the book over to read the back blurb.  These two or three paragraphs can be critical to selling a book not just to your customers but also to potential agents and editors.  It pays to know how to write a catchy and compelling elevator pitch.  

Action Step #1 – Grab a half dozen books from your bookshelf, preferably books that are in the same romance genre you write in.  Read the back cover blurbs.  Count the words.  Take a look at the format for each of them.  What is similar?  What do they do well?  What, if anything, could they approve on?  
Action Step #2 – Now pull out your current work in progress – the romance manuscript you’re presently working on.  Or grab one you’ve completed.  Emulating the back cover blurbs on your sample romance novels, write three versions of a back cover blurb for your book.

Action Step #3 – Choose the one that feels the strongest and fine tune it until it’s polished and ready to sell your book.

Perfecting this skill accomplishes two things.  It helps you become comfortable with selling yourself, a critical element if you want to make a living writing romance.  It also helps you perfect the query and synopsis aspects of getting published.  You must be able to convince agents and editors your story is worth their time and effort and you must be able to do it quickly and compellingly.  Crafting your back cover blurb is a great start!

What Makes Great Romance Writing?

Make a Living Writing Romance – Writing Courses 

Romance Publishing

Once you finish writing your romance manuscript there is an immense feeling of satisfaction. Your baby is taking shape. Now, all you need to do is get it published. Here are a few tips to help you go about submitting your manuscript to agents and publishers.

1. Who do you need to contact? For the previously unpublished author, your first line of inquiry will probably be the publishing houses. There are agents that will take on new writers if they are very, very good. If you believe that much in your work and your skills, that is another avenue to pursue.

2. Read and reread your manuscript. Let another writing colleague or an editing service go over it. Manuscripts with typos may make it onto the desk of an editor or agent but it won’t stay there long. These professionals have too many other manuscripts to wade through to take time to tackle grammar issues.

3. Do your research. This is an important tip because many first-time writers don’t know anything about the business of romance publishing. Start at the local bookstore. New titles are coming out all the time and it is worth your while to check them out especially the ones in your genre. What are the plotlines? Your book will stand out if it takes a different tack than the others.

4. Fashion the best query letter possible. A query letter is required for editors and agents. The Writer’s Market includes sections on agents and publishing houses. Discover which agents are looking for new writers and which publishing houses accept unsolicited manuscripts. These are the people that you want to reach out to. Within the query, discuss your book and what makes it special. Include a synopsis of your book or a few sample chapters. What you send depends on what they want to read.

5. Follow the writer’s guidelines to the letter. Think about your job. If someone came to apply, you’d expect them to know something about the company and be dressed appropriately for the interview, correct? It’s the same with agents and editors. Your manuscript needs to be “dressed” according to what they like if you want them to take an interest.

6. Join a writer’s circle. It can be a local one or online. Here you will gain valuable insight from other romance writers both published and unpublished about how to play the game. Writer’s groups try to provide their members with guest speakers on writing, publishing information and critiques on your work by other members of the group. This is not just joining for the sake of your resume, get involved and make it worth your while.

7. Enter romance writing contents. These are fun and potentially lucrative ways to meet agents and editors. It is also a dry run to see how your writing fares against a larger pool of writers. This is similar to what it’s like in the publishing world. Enter as often as you can afford to and pay attention to any feedback that you get.

Submitting your romance manuscript takes time, preparation and knowledge of the industry. Let your publishing savvy show through and get your work read.