On Writing Romance_ How to Craft a Novel That Sells - Leigh Michaels [9]
Word count: 50,000 to 80,000
Romantic Suspense: A story that includes mystery, suspense, or threatening situations in which both the heroine and hero are directly involved. The heroine of a romantic suspense isn't standing off to the side letting the hero protect her or investigate the mystery—she's right in there pulling her weight. Unlike a mystery or suspense novel that includes a romantic subplot, a romantic suspense novel features the romance as the primary focus. However, the romance usually comes about because of the threat to the characters. The problem is solved and the bad guy defeated by the hero and heroine, preferably while acting together.
(Though assistance from the authorities isn't forbidden, it's unsatisfying if the SWAT team swoops in from nowhere and wipes out the bad guys while the hero and heroine are drinking coffee and holding hands.)
The biggest challenge in writing romantic suspense is keeping the story in proportion. If the suspense plot overshadows the relationship between the hero and heroine, the book veers across the line from romance into mainstream.
Word count: 75,000 to 100,000
Saga: A long, mainstream novel that follows a female protagonist from early life to old age, often including two generations of her descendants, though she remains the dominant character throughout the story. Romance may be present, but it is not vital. Often the heroine is involved in more than one love affair during her lifetime, and frequently she is shaped by the death or loss of her husband and/or the man she loves. An important element of most sagas is the heroine's drive to succeed in a business she herself establishes and nourishes.
Word count: 100,000 or more
Science Fiction. See also Futuristic, Paranormal, Time Travel
Short Contemporary: The most sensual of the category romance lines, though not as sexy as erotic romance. Though these books include consummated sexual relationships between hero and heroine, their emphasis is still on love rather than sex. These books are shorter and focus intensely on the hero and heroine, so there is little room for extra characters or dramatic, complicated plots. Still, it's necessary to have a believable conflict, since one difficulty in creating a very sensual romance is to maintain legitimate suspense about the possibility of a long-term relationship while allowing the characters to indulge in sex.
Word count: 55,000 to 70,000
Single Title: Stand-alone books published and promoted individually rather than as part of a category or themed group of books. They remain on the market and in print longer than category books.
Single title allows the author more leeway in almost every direction. The hero and heroine can be a great deal more like real humans, with bad habits and dark pasts. The bad guys can be more evil in their intent and their actions. The events of the book can be darker, more violent, more intense. The romance or love interest can play a smaller part in the story. The story may be even more of a glitzy fantasy than a category romance, or it may be gritty and realistic. The ending may be low-key and much more practical than the sweeping happily-ever-after of the romance, or it may be even more over-the-top.
Single title and mainstream are similar, and the terms are often used interchangeably, but usually the romantic elements are stronger in single-title books than in mainstream.
Word count: 90,000 to 120,000 See also Mainstream, Women's Fiction
Sweet Traditional: The original romance novel, a short book that is highly emo-tional and maintains sexual tension without including explicit love scenes. Some publishers prefer that the hero and heroine not actually make love unless they're married to each other, while others allow premarital sex. In either case, the emphasis of sensual description is on the feelings, not on the act itself. The sweet traditional tends to leave lovers at the door of the bedroom rather than follow them in.
Sweet traditional often emphasizes family connections or girl-next-door heroines without sacrificing the