Ever Try Writing About Love?

Valentine's Day brings a flurry of stories that involve love and romance. Romance novels are high on the list of kinds of books read most often. Authors of romance novels are sometimes scoffed at by other writers. Formula stories. Sex sells. Sappy stuff. We've all heard these comments or similar.

But--have you ever tried writing a romantic story, or a full romance novel? Woman's World magazine runs a romance story in every issue and they pay $800 for an 800 word story. This blog post will give you guidelines. 800 words sounds like a piece of cake for decent payment. Try it before you say that. It's not easy to write a full story in so short a word count. Read several back issues to get a feel for the type of story the editors want. Another call for submissions on stories about love has guidelines here.

You might say that you wouldn't try to write in the romance genre because you would never, ever be able to write a sex scene. Relax! Lots of love stories have no sex in them at all. It all depends on the market you're aiming for and how you feel about adding explicit sex to your stories. There's a lot more to true love than the physical side.

Want to write a romantic story for teens. Teens love to read about love. Even so, you'd need to be very up to date on what is going on in the teen world, the slang and more before you would be successful. Don't write about love in your teen years. They'd consider it archaic! Even if you're only 30 yourself.

It's difficult to write a romance that is fresh and new, not clichéd or done a thousand times before. Come up with a fresh angle and you're likely to find success in being published in this genre. Use all the techniques of writing quality fiction in these kinds of stories, too.

I once sent a story to Woman's World that I felt sure was a different approach. I knew they received around 2000 submissions each month but I submitted and waited. If you haven't heard from them in 4 months, you'll know you've been rejected. I did hear from the editor with a note saying that he liked the angle I'd written from and other things about the story. Ended his note by telling me it still wasn't quite right for them. I'd gotten close but not close enough.

If you've never written a love story, give it a try. Base your story on your personal experiences or dream up something entirely different. Most of all, have fun with it.