Romance, Romance: Why Write a Romance Novel?

© 2007, Carol Givner; an instructor for the Writing Learning Centre

Writers are busy people.

We live in the reality of relationships, dating, divorce, falling in love, falling out or love, day jobs, continuing education, car pools, PTA meetings, grocery shopping, bill paying, walking the dog, taking the cat off the keyboard where he likes to watch the fish on the screen saver--you get the reality picture. Yet, because we’re writers, we have a secret weapon that has been prized by philosophers, filmmakers, artists, musicians, and other creative folks. We have our imaginations.

Our minds can bridge the gap between what we have and what we hope to have. We can see the handsome cowboy heart in the boy next door. We can imagine the pirate ways of the office manager. The Lord of the Manor is right in front of our eyes even though he looks like the new garage mechanic who can’t change a tire to save his life.

And what about us as we drive to the office, walk in the park, and exchange the shirt that looks really strange once we get it home?

I don’t know about you, but when I do the mundane things in life, I am an influential politician changing the course of Global Warming, a brilliant scientist who has discovered a way to feed the hungry in Third World countries—and a romance heroine.

Pirates, cowboys, Lords of the Manors, they are all mine to savor between the pages of my manuscript where reality meets fantasy in a most congenial way.

How about you? Ladies, have you ever dreamed of being one of those well-loved heroines on a romance cover? Gentlemen, have you ever imagined the woman of your fantasies meeting you on a distant star millions of miles from earth when her space craft took a wrong turn immediately out of the earth’s gravitational pull?

Take a break from reality. You might even become a published romance author. I’ll teach you how to construct and write a romance novel in the genre of your choice. You choose the hero. Tall, handsome, sexy, employed (sorry), he’s the man of your wildest dreams. And the heroine?

The heroine is you.

Put a little fun in your writing. Try a little Romance, Romance.

Instructor Bio

Carol Givner is a best-selling author with six books to her credit, two of which have been nominated for the Frankfurt Award.

Carol teaches the course "Romance, Romance: Between The Sheets and Between the Pages of a Winning Romance Novel" at the Writing Learning Centre.