Crafting Category Romance

The Art of Fiction Haiku

Amy Lane

• Publisher: DSP Creatives
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781644058060
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Langues et linguistique
• Subtopic: L'art de l'auteur

Category romance is a precise art. With such a small word count, writing the perfect category romance is a little like writing a haiku. But how do you write a book in seventeen syllables? How can you cram compelling conflict, satisfying character development, and toe-curling romantic tension into less than sixty thousand words?

In Crafting Category Romance, two-time RITA™-nominated author of nearly one hundred books Amy Lane describes the rules of engagement, traps to watch out for, and how to leverage common tropes to create conflict, craft a character, develop a plot, and leave readers with a happy ever after that's different every time—all in a tidy package. With practical exercises in plot, conflict, and character development, Crafting Category Romance will teach you how to use the rigid rules and expectations of the genre to your advantage and win a loyal readership following for life.

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• Crafting Category Romance
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Author’s Note—Amy’s Nostalgia Lane
• A Word About the Notebook
• Chapter 1: Fiction Haiku—How to Stage an Opera in a Phone Booth
• Chapter 2: Character—The People on Romance Lane
• Chapter 3: Conflict—Not Just a Glitch in Your Schedule
• Chapter 4: Plot Tropes—The Train that Keeps on Coming
• Chapter 5: Intimacy—Not Every Climax Needs a Condom
• Chapter 6: Guidelines—Play By Those Rules
• Chapter 7: Nope Tropes—Giving Love a Bad Name
• Chapter 8: Treasure—Taking Out the Trashy
• Appendix A: Occupations and Hobbies
• Appendix B: Narrative Tropes
• Appendix C: The Exercises in Brief
• Peel Back the Foil
• The Grammar of Characters Speaking
• Tropetastic Character Math
• Mapping Character Conflicts
• Moment Modeling Exercise A
• Moment Modeling Exercise B
• Appendix D: Some Casual Recs
• Advance praise for Amy Lane’s Crafting Category Romance
• About the Author
• Author's Note
• Copyright Page