What romance readers expect
The one rule the genre does not bend: a romance ends with the couple together, either happily ever after (HEA) or happy for now (HFN). A love story that ends in a breakup or a death is shelved somewhere else, and readers who bought it as a romance will say so in their reviews.
Inside that promise there is a lot of room. Readers pick books by trope (enemies to lovers, fake dating, second chance, grumpy and sunshine, forced proximity) and by heat level, from closed-door to explicit. Say both up front, because they set expectations for every scene. Dual point of view, alternating between the two leads, is common in contemporary romance, and many readers like hearing both sides of the misunderstanding.
Length and structure
Shorter category romances often run somewhere around 50,000 to 75,000 words, and longer single-title romances commonly sit between about 70,000 and 100,000. The Full-length preset (60,000 words over 20 chapters) is a sensible starting point; move to Epic for a sprawling historical or a romantasy.
Most romance follows a recognisable shape: the meet (often charged with conflict), a reason the two keep being thrown together, growing attraction against an internal wound each lead carries, a midpoint where they give in a little, a black moment around three-quarters of the way through where the relationship seems over, and a grand gesture that proves someone has changed. Planning that black moment in advance is what keeps it from feeling arbitrary.
How Inkora writes a romance
The book bible gives each lead a look, a want, a flaw and an arc, and the synopsis includes the ending, so the model always knows where the relationship is going. Each chapter is split into three to five scenes with a conflict and a turn, which keeps the push and pull moving instead of drifting into chapters of pleasant conversation.
After every chapter a continuity pass records facts like eye colour, the name of the bakery, who said “I love you” first and on which night, and later scenes are told never to contradict them. If you choose multiple POV, put which lead narrates which chapters in your brief or edit it into the outline before writing starts.
What to put in your brief
The brief is the “Your book idea & instructions” box in the new-book wizard. The more specific it is, the less generic the book. Here is an example, with the settings that go with it:
Contemporary small-town romance, enemies to lovers, open-door but not explicit. Nadia Rahman, 31, a Toronto architect, inherits half of her late aunt's lakeside inn in Nova Scotia; the other half belongs to Callum Doyle, the ex-navy cook who has run the kitchen for ten years and assumes she's there to sell. She has six months to decide. Her wound: she was left by a fiancé who said she was “too much work”. His: he stays because leaving is how his father ruined everyone. Black moment: Callum finds the developer's offer on her desk. HEA at the inn's autumn reopening. Alternate POV by chapter, starting with Nadia.
Other wizard settings
- Genre
- Romance
- Audience
- Adult readers of contemporary romance
- Tone
- Witty & humorous
- Point of view
- Multiple POV
- Length
- Full-length (60,000 words)
Example outline: Half an Inn
A brief like the one above gives a plan along these lines. You can rename, reorder, add or delete chapters before any writing starts.
- 1
Inheritance
Nadia arrives in a rainstorm to find the inn's cook has already changed the locks.
- 2
The Other Half
Callum reads the will twice and decides to be polite until she leaves.
- 3
Kitchen Rules
A war over the breakfast menu ends with Nadia scorched and Callum laughing for the first time in months.
- 4
Load-Bearing
Nadia finds rot in the east wing and Callum learns she can actually fix it.
- 5
The Storm Week
Snowed in with a wedding party, they run the inn together and it works.
- 6
Lobster Night
The town festival, one dance and a kiss neither of them mentions the next day.
- 7
What He Doesn't Say
Callum's father turns up asking for money and Nadia sees why he never leaves.
- 8
Blueprints
She draws him a new kitchen; he lets her in, in every sense.
- 9
The Offer
The developer's letter arrives, and Nadia doesn't throw it away.
- 10
Too Much Work
Callum finds it, says the cruellest true thing, and Nadia books a flight.
- 11
Toronto
Her old life fits worse than it used to; his kitchen is empty without her.
- 12
Reopening
Callum drives fourteen hours with the deed and a new name for the inn: theirs.
Condensed to 12 chapters; the Full-length preset plans 20.
Common mistakes
- Ending on anything other than HEA or HFN and still calling it a romance.
- Conflict that a single honest conversation would solve in chapter four. Ground the obstacle in each lead's wound.
- Leaving the heat level vague, so the tone swings between chaste and steamy from scene to scene.
- A love interest with no inner life of their own, there only to react to the narrator.
- Rushing the attraction: if they are in love by chapter three, there is nothing left to want.