What Romance Can Teach Us About Writing

WIP interviews author Susanne Dunlap about romance-writing techniques

Q: Hi Susanne. You have fourteen published historical novels. Why this turn to romance?

A: All my novels have always had strong romantic elements in them. But the romance itself has never been the focus. I had this negative association with romance novels—perhaps because when I said I wrote historical fiction, many people asked me if I was writing a bodice ripper. 

Then I realized that the movies and TV I loved almost always had a romance at heart. Not for me Breaking Bad etc. Anything with Sandra Bullock, or Bridgerton, for instance, was more my style. Why? I wanted that happy ending, the undercurrent of desire, the romantic situations. So I started reading historical romance, and became completely hooked. I loved being in those worlds and knowing everything was going to work out in the end. I decided I wanted to write one.

Q: What’s different about historical romance?

A. Where do I start? I have learned so much about storytelling through reading and analyzing historical romances and through writing one myself. I began to wish I’d broadened my reading to include such things years ago.

I have learned among other things the absolute necessity to create protagonists with the reader in mind—ones they identify with and care about. Not that that’s something you shouldn’t do in other fiction, but in romance, it’s job #1.

I also learned important lessons about pacing and structure. I learned not to be afraid of story beats and tropes, because in essence, all fiction has those to one degree or another. (Witness books like Save the Cat, or The Hero’s Journey, or the three-act structure.)

Finally—and this is something my coaching clients really struggle with—the necessity to make sure emotion is on the page. Readers have to be right there feeling what the protagonists are feeling, and if you don’t take care to convey that in your writing, they won’t have that immersive experience, or fully enter into the satisfying ending.

Q: What has your experience been like drafting historical romance?

A. It’s been utterly delightful. I get to use all my geeky research chops (because good historical romance is every bit as well researched as any historical fiction) and develop a story with an unabashedly happy ending.

I feel as if my confidence as a storyteller has grown exponentially since I embarked on this journey.

And that’s why I’m teaching this workshop. I know I will be using many of the techniques I’ve learned recently when I write my other historical novels—even if their focus isn’t primarily romance. 

The same thing could be said, I’m sure, of studying the style and form of a great thriller. 

Genre fiction gets a bad rap in a world where aspiring to a place in the literary canon is seen as the highest goal of a real writer. But in the end, it’s all about storytelling. I say take your lessons and inspiration where you can get them. 

You might surprise yourself with what you learn.