The Write Stuff

Formula for Writing a 25K Erotic Romance

By Sable Grey

Most of us who start out writing novel length romances have kind of a hard time switching over to write shorter erotic romance.  I certainly did.  But as I learned how to trim the story and eliminate the fat, I came up with a formula for writing 25,000 word erotic romances and hopefully it will help other writers who want to cash in on the digital erotic romance market.

Before we look at the formula, what is erotic romance?  For me, erotic romance is nothing more than a romance story with explicit love scenes.  It’s the kind of story that readers who like a little more heat with their romance will want to buy.  I approach every book with three things in mind:

1. Who are the characters?
2. What is the story?
3. How many sex scenes can I fit in without messing up who the characters are and what the story is about?

The first two are fairly easy, but the third is why I developed a formula.  As someone who writes novel length, I was accustomed to just allowing the relationship and tension develop over several chapters before writing a love scene.  However, it becomes much more difficult when you are writing a twenty five thousand word story.  By having a formula, a basic outline, to fit the story into, things get much easier.

Each chapter is 5K and there are 5 Chapters.  This makes it easier to set up my writing schedule and goals.  This way, I can set myself up to write 5K a day and have a first draft finished in a week.

So week one, I fill out my formula and plot my story, doing whatever research I need before I start writing.  Week two, I write hard and fast and finish the first draft.  Week three, I revise and rewrite, polishing up my story.  Week four, I submit my finished book to a publisher.

The Formula

• Chapter One:  Introduce characters and story
• Chapter Two: Advance the plot, first love scene
• Chapter Three: Advance conflict, second love scene
• Chapter Four:  Black Moment
• Chapter Five: Resolution and a happily ever after

Let’s break it down.  I’ve made up a western story to fit into this formula as an example of how this works.

Chapter One:  James is an ex-outlaw gone gambler who has just been caught cheating when playing cards with a lawman, has taken the money, and is making a run for it.  He hops the first stage he sees which happens to be the one carrying Molly, a mail order bride, from St. Louis to Denver where she will meet her new husband.  They don’t get far before James sees that the lawman is fast catching up with him so he holds up the stage, steals two horses and the woman.  At gunpoint she goes with him and they set off across the plains.

Okay so I’ve established the plot, the conflict, and have introduced the characters and their individual stories.

On to second chapter where James goes off the main road and they take up camp.  She asks why he won’t just give the money back but James tells her he wants to buy some land with it…he’s been saving for it.  James promises her that he’ll take her to the town, now that he’s escaped and let her go.  The next morning they ride into town only to find that the lawman has already been through.  They part ways but Molly finds out that the law thinks she’s the outlaw’s partner in crime.  She hears people talking about hanging and sets off after James, catching up with him by nightfall, demanding he turn himself in and clear her name because no man will marry her if she’s thought to be a criminal.  They are attracted to one another so really hot outlaw sex scene follows.

Great, plot advancement accomplished and first love scene is out of the way. Now I’m ready for Chapter Three.  But how in hell do I advance the conflict now?

Point of view switch to the lawman.  Carter isn’t going to be had by this poker player.  One, because it makes him look bad, and, two, because James is the illegitimate son his wife had with her lover twenty seven years ago.  When she gave birth, she died and while Carter killed the lover, the very sight of James reminds him of his loss.  Carter realizes that they are no longer on James’ trail and circles back.  Scene change, back to James and Molly and James is taking her to one of the old hideouts he used back in his outlaw days for a second love scene.  Before they get it on, he talks about the gang he was in and how he got out of the gang by turning them over to the law.  Then follow with a really good love scene.

In Chapter Four I must have a black moment, where things look they can never work out.  What is the worst that could possibly happen?

One of the outlaws that James turned in is in the hideout and after the love scene comes out and shoots at James.  But it’s just not big enough for a black moment so I’ll have to push it over the top.  James instinctively ducks out of the way but in doing so, without meaning to, allows the bullet to hit Molly instead.  James knocks the gun from the outlaw’s hand.  At the sound of gunfire, Carter is rushing to the scene; meanwhile, James and the other outlaw are facing off.  They start fighting.  James gets the upper hand but the outlaw gets to his gun, turns, points, and James is suddenly shoved to the side.  Two gunshots ring out and as the outlaw falls dead, James turns and finds Carter was shot too in the stomach.  He dies saving James.  Molly will die too unless he can get her to a physician so he picks her up and carries her out of there.  The outlaw had obviously gotten rid of the horses, so he sets off on foot with Molly bleeding in his arms.

Now that’s a great black moment.

Chapter Five starts with James standing at a fresh grave.  He puts flowers down.  Then Molly walks up and adds her own flowers to Carter’s grave.  They walk back to the room in the hotel in town and I can work in a third love scene here – when it’s over there is a knock at the door – because I do like to throw in one last small curve ball before the happily ever after.  James gets up and it’s the man that Molly was supposed to meet in Denver standing there.  He’s not very happy because he’s paid for a bride and now he’s out the money and the woman.  James, despite Molly’s protests, gives the man the money out of land savings to settle the deal.  After he’s gone, James tells Molly that they’ll just have to work hard to get the money back and buy the land together if she’ll have him.  She says she will.

And now I have the resolution and an outline for a twenty five thousand word western erotic romance.  I started in the middle of the action, had a horse chase, and have a good fight scene that ends with someone dying. Action, Adventure, Hot sex, Romance, the hero does something heroic, and a happily ever after.  I’ve well developed characters, a solid story, and three love scenes that do not mess up the story or who the characters are.

Sable Grey has been a published author since 2004, a cover artist who works in both electronic and print formats, and is a literary agent with her own company, Sable Grey, LLC.  She is also one of the owners of Cobblestone Press, an online publisher of erotic romance since 2006.  Visit her website at http://www.sablegrey.net

The Write Stuff

Character Development Workshop – The Twelve Step Program for Avoiding Personality Disorder

By Sable Grey

Developing characters before writing may seem like a waste of time.  I know what you are thinking.  Sable, I just want to write. But being a published author isn’t just about thinking up a good story.  Sable, I just want readers to read my stories. No – not just because if that’s all you wanted you would just write your stories and offer them for free on your site.  You want to be published so readers will buy your stories and you get paid for them.  And to do that, writers must work on their craft.  Character development is part of that craft.

As a publisher, for me, one of the most irritating things to see is a manuscript that introduces two characters, and then midway through the story the characters become split personality behaving in ways that were not already established as part of who they were.  A heroine who is a go getter, no nonsense partner in a law firm that she fought to build from the ground up will not be the damsel in distress weeping in the corner when someone tries to blackmail her for money.  She also won’t be the woman who lets the hero tell her what is good for her.  By developing a character fully, the author knows the heroine and won’t make the mistake of allowing her to develop a personality disorder midway through, ruining the chance of publication.

I am starting with the heroine because many times authors are so excited about their Hugh Jackman look-alike hero that the heroine ends up being a two dimensional character – with obvious personality disorders as a result.   But the heroine is the most important character in a romance novel. Because more than 95% of romance readers are women, she is the character that the reader will most likely relate to first and who the reader will care about most in the story.  However, this process should be done for heroine AND hero.

While every author is different in how they go about developing their heroine, this is my step by step procedure for developing the leading ladies of my own books.

1. Name and physical description.  Not so much for the reader but for me to get a clear picture of the woman in my head.  So let’s name our heroine Eve.
2. Character Goals.  Every person has goals.  What are your heroine’s goals?  Does she want to start her own business?  Buy a house?  Go on a vacation and get away from a psychotic ex husband?
3. What is her motivation?  Now this is different than personal goals.  If your heroine wants to start her own business, her motivation might be to reach success so she will never have to worry about how to pay the light bill again.  The Goals are the “what”, and the motivation is the “why”.
4. What past events cause inner conflict?  She grew up in a poor household with a mother that was not allowed to work and a controlling father who told his children that nobody loves those who have nothing.  Due to depression, her mother killed herself when she was only nine.
5. What are the effects of that conflict on the heroine’s personality and life?  She married a man much like her father right out of college.  Divorced and is now a workaholic who has no time for relationships.  She is untrusting of men and looks down on women who are not as independent as she is.
6. What are her worst fears?  Unless she is a successful businesswoman she has no worth and no one will ever love her.  Yeah, deep huh?  How about this to boot, she is scared that if she doesn’t succeed it will mean she is weak like she perceives her mother was?
7. How are her fears faced in the story?  (For the hero, what must he do that is heroic when facing those fears?) Psychotic ex husband sets her new business on fire and burns down all her dreams.  He’s stalking her down and wants her dead – she’s placed in a victim situation.
8. What lesson(s) is she supposed to learn by the end of the story?  That it’s doesn’t mean she’s weak to need someone.
9. What obstacles MUST your heroine go through in the story in order for her to learn her lesson(s)?

Okay so now we have a character that readers will care about.  It’s a pretty good start.  But characters to be believable can’t be just black or white. Let’s add a little shading.

1. What is something your heroine is responsible for that has nothing to do with her goals or motivation?  So Eve, despite her struggle to prove her father wrong, goes to the old folks home to visit him every Sunday.  She talks to him about her work but never receives acknowledgement for her success because he’s not all there in his head.  And just to soften her up a bit more, Eve has a cat named CrissCross who sits in her lap while she works at her computer after she comes home.
2. Habits help make characters individuals.  A problem that many authors have is giving the same habits to all their characters.  A lot of winking back and forth at one another when they say something clever or everyone in the story can raise one eyebrow.  It becomes very silly after awhile.  Each character should have individual habits.  What are your heroine’s?  And remember not to give the same habits to another character.
3. Dialogue – this is one of my own pet peeves.  “Hey let’s go to car.” And the hero responds, “Hey that’s a good idea.”  If everyone in the manuscript sounds like the same person when the dialogue is read aloud, the characters have not been developed. What does your character sound like?  Are there certain phrases she uses often?  And remember, that people from certain different places have little phrases of their own that are fun to build your character with.

While this twelve step way of developing a character is not a full worksheet, it is a good start to use when plotting the story and working in the character’s actions and reactions to the plot and can eliminate those pesky personality disorder mistakes.

ABOUT SABLE GREY

Sable Grey has been a published author since 2004, a cover artist who works in both electronic and print formats, and is a literary agent with her own company, Sable Grey, LLC.  She is also one of the owners of Cobblestone Press, an online publisher of erotic romance since 2006.  Visit her website at http://www.sablegrey.net