Allaboutwriting

Write a Romance – Your Step-by-Step Programme

Now you’ve learned the basics and worked at your romance skills. This is the time to commit yourself to your first novel. By investing a couple of hours each day, you should have completed a 50 000 word novel by the end of our six-month course.

Building on the foundation already laid in the Guide to Writng Romance course, this programme runs you through the practical application of your skills. Using the Guide to Writing Romance course as a reference, we add to what you’ve learned and help you put it into practice. We will guide and support you as you turn your idea into a working novel.

Modules should be done once a week while you’re still in the planning phase. Once you’ve started writing, you will do a module every two to three weeks, to give you enough writing time.

The steps of the journey:
• Coming up with the idea and preparing for the writer’s life.
• Creating your hero, heroine and subsidiary characters.
• Creating the world of your story.
• Plotting their journey, and deciding where to begin telling it.
• Deciding which point of view tells your story best.
• Creating the map of your journey – the beatsheet.
• At this point you write your first chapters, with guidance on baiting your hook. How to introduce your main characters; the conflict that will complicate their lives and their love. Writing first lines that matter.
• How to write in compelling scenes and arcs.
• You’re now into the heart of your story. How to balance the romance and drama, maintain suspense and keep the story moving forward. Avoiding the sagging middle.
• Writing convincing dialogue, that reveals character and drives the plot forward.
• How to “show”, rather than “tell”.
• Writing sex that doesn’t embarrass the pants off you. Using sex to take the story forward.
• Memory and flashback, and how they help you get over the past.
• You’re on the final stretch. How to maintain suspense to the very end. Happy endings – keeping them believable. How to end: the cliches vs the surprising, quirky finish.
• Assessing the work. Getting constructive feedback. Revision, light and heavy edits.

Register here for this course.
Price ZAR 4800 Prices are in South African Rands. Use this currency convertor to convert to other currencies.