What size is a paperback book fairly standard, actually about five inches by eight inches measured on the cover plate. So to fit in the number of words you need, your book will end up with about 28 lines per page on average, and contain around 10 words per line on average. That's 290 words per page, on average, for the quick thinkers, so a bit more math and you have around 290 pages of writing to do. Now don't get excited because the book you have in your hands is about 390 pages long. Remember, those are averages, some lines will have 10 words per line, some 12 Some even only eight Less, and the font size matters too. So either way, you're aiming for a book of about that size or less if you go for the 50,000 word version, it makes up for a slightly thinner book is all more if you're writing for the 75,000 word limit in there now what it's going to take you at least, at least I say, six months to get the first draft done.

Oh, yes, each chapter will be about 30 to 40 pages long. Go to your local library and find the romance section. measure a range of books. If you're self publishing with Amazon, for example, then download the book template. You can't go wrong with that. So that's the mechanics out of the way for the moment.

I don't want to get into that excruciating detail. Just here. Let's get down to writing something. So we will start with the first chapter, which is what this course is all about. Getting Started and getting into the first chapter. It's probably the most important chapter in the book.

And it needs careful thought. This is the chapter that introduces the characters, the setting, the location, and the likely conflicts between characters in need the tension that is always apparent in normal human relations. I don't mean conflict in the manner of I hate you Jeremy. And the heroine takes an axe to pour Jeremy. Some people like to sit down and write the first thing that comes to them. And it works for some others like to sit down with the outline of the book already planned in something of a storyboard format.

I don't want to go into that detail in These lessons, because that's not what this lesson is about. However, by all means, do some research on storyboarding. This is about getting the first chapter, right. And I'm basing my lessons on the books commonly found in the mills and boon romance section. read the first chapter of each of the two recommended reading novels. There are some excellent authors writing for mills and burn.

So you can't go wrong if you follow their lead without copying their work, of course. So let's begin to put together a boilerplate document that we can use to get the story going. A boilerplate is something like a template, but isn't. Each writer has their own voice, and you have to find yours. This is quite important. I'll use the story that I'm writing at the moment because it has It happens.

It's set out very clearly along the lines that I will detail in following lessons. I have another romance story already on Amazon, both in print and for kindle that follows the pattern, but with a slight difference. It's called the intimate anchor affair by Robert Chalmers. That's me Of course, and begins by introducing you to the heroine, the female lead of the story. However, I want to do this slightly differently, shall I call it the classic way so that you make no mistakes. The classic method has a few ground rules that would be very wise to follow.

If you want to be published in that market. They are as follows one no raw sex sex scenes if they must be included, need to be written with feeling. If you are uncomfortable writing about sexual activity, put the couple behind closed doors and fade the morning coffee. Whatever happens there has to be emotional activity as well as physical. The physical does not need close up detailed description. a saint has to be there for a reason.

Otherwise it's just gratuitous or worse, boring. Start your story with interest. Mine a car accident between a hot and single female resort owner and a lonely and bitter lawyer. A female lifeguard saves a hopeless but very attractive swimmer on a surf beach. A security company operative on a mission helps out a female ranch owner who discovers she has a flat tire. The idea is to hook your reader into the story from page one.

Read a lot of romance, romance readers a smart savvy and know what they want. I also mostly women, keep in mind that one famous mills and boon author has sold over 430 million books. That's not a small number of books. So the rule here, you have to love reading romance. Only by reading do you come? Only by reading do you become familiar with the landscape of the romance author?

I now I know you'd rather be writing, but I'm not suggesting you sit by the fire and read for pleasure, although that's nice. But I am saying you need to analyze the books you're reading, especially chapter one. If chapter one hasn't hooked you into reading the rest of the book, then choose another because chances are that the story, author voice is not close to your own style. You have to develop your own style. That is your own voice. It's what makes your writing unique.

And if you have to rewrite and rewrite until you get it right, then that's what you do. You can't write like somebody else. Other authors work attracts you because it comes close to how you perceive your own world. Your thoughts are in your head silent and intense. If an author's writing, which is the expression of their thoughts, resonates with your thoughts, you will find the work attractive if it doesn't Then you won't even work by the same author can difference in expression though. If you find a marked difference, check the print date.

People styles change over time. Don't search for a formula. There isn't one. Your stories are character lead stories with a happy ending. Always. The characters are involved in relationships, maybe several.

But in the end, conflicts are resolved. Two main characters get together and everyone lives happily ever after. Don't leave your work with a myriad characters. Just focus on the two main characters and the few people within their sphere of existence. Your characters remember what it's all about. You have to become your characters, thinking for them laughing In loving for them, ask questions.

Who are they? Where are they? What do they want, get to know them intimately, how they change and grow together is what their romantic story is all about. Conflict is all important. Whatever is stopping the characters from living together is your stories engine and its driving force. You have to know what it is and how your characters overcome it and end up together.

This is probably the most important part of the whole business of writing romance. Don't waste time in endless research. Our story needs to be convincing, but no one expects a Google Street Map and a romance. If you need to research character types and appearances. Look no further than the main street of your local city. Every single person You see has a life and has features you can describe.

Don't waste hours looking at pics of beautiful people avoid the cliches. You will never come up with a new plot, but you have to work to develop the one you do have. Try to give it a new twist a new element, something slightly different. The genre is constantly changing. So keep up to date with the latest reading and see what's developing. Now let's move on to some writing.