#Gwen Hayes

[suzannahnatters]

Subplot Romance

Over the years I've created some twitter threads on writing and history and I've decided it's a good time to start compiling and sharing them on this Tumblr. I'm going to tag them "writing".

-

Here's what I've learned about writing subplot romance. (People who write genre romance probably already know this stuff. It's those of us who are mainly leavening romantic subplots into fantasy novels that need this info).

1. Romance = fundamentally character-driven. All internal conflict & internal growth. (Can these two trust each other? Will their character flaws drive them apart?) The more study you put into creating characters and building character arcs, the better your romantic writing.

A romance arc is not the SAME as a character arc, but it 100% NEEDS solid character work undergirding it.

2. Romance needs two ingredients: a compelling reason for the characters to be TOGETHER, & a compelling reason for them to be APART. This forms the conflict in the romance so do not skimp on either.

Eg, a common mistake in male-penned stories: female lead has no compelling reason to want male lead. "He's a good-looking warrior dedicated to winning her throne!" Yeah nah, she's literally surrounded by good-looking warriors dedicated to winning her throne, why's he different?

3. Romance needs chemistry = a believable spark of attraction. Something that blew my mind when I realised it: romantic chemistry =/= sexual chemistry. Sexual chemistry (purely physical attraction) is simply PART of romantic chemistry.

Romantic chemistry is a good deal broader. (Read/watch some good romances to see how chemistry is built by different storytellers. One fave of mine is the Romola Garai EMMA. Peerless friends-to-lovers chemistry. Watch the actors' body language; the way they gravitate to each other; the way their faces light up)

Chemistry tip A: if the driver behind sexual chemistry is lust, the driver behind romantic chemistry is trust. Protag needs/wants someone to trust. It's the way you play with trust/distrust that will create romantic tension.

eg: love interest holds protag's hand. With sexual chemistry, protag simply feels a jolt at the contact. With romantic chemistry, protag feels comforted and trustful - then betrayed when it turns out LI is tracking her pulse to see if she's lying to him (see: MISS SHARP 😇)

Chemistry tip B: if protag is falling for someone, that person should occupy their mind. LI should be mentioned/thought of each scene, even when absent. When present: LI consistently provokes unaccustomed emotion - either positive or negative, depending.

Chemistry tip C: make the characters their best/most lovable/most iconic selves when with each other. Quirkiness, smarts, hilarity. Make these the most fun character scenes in the book & the audience will ship them. Passionately.

4. Build romantic chemistry/attraction through escalating moments of trust and tension. If aiming for happily-ever-after(HEA)/for-now(HFN), then the overall arc is towards greater trust, but you need those moments of tension to give the big payoff scenes appropriate catharsis.

OTOH, if you're writing a tragic/backstabby romance, you need the trust/comfort moments in order to sell the big tragedy/betrayal.

5. Trust, comfort, & happiness are POWERFUL. This is what genre romance thrives upon. Even in dark/spiky stories, the most surprising thing in the story can be the moment when the LI DOESN'T betray the protag. That too can be wildly cathartic. Use it.

6. Just as character-driven skills help you with romance, so if you master romantic writing, you'll be better able to write ALL types of relationship - platonic, friendly, hostile.

OK that's all so far. Two book recs: ROMANCING THE BEAT by Gwen Hayes & THE HEROINE'S JOURNEY by Gail Carriger teach you the rules/expectations of genre romance so you'll know what the rules are for a happy romance subplot & how to break them for a tragic version.

[paperclips37]

One thing about season 4

Jeri Ryan was awesome and frankly her arch ended too soon.

Excellent all round.

[kevinklehr]

I'm writing Romance

This is new to me. Well, almost. I have written two Romance novellas before (see images below), which were guided by a couple of years of binging Sex and the City. There were mixed reviews, making it clear the Romance purists weren’t impressed. But at least those who loved them, really loved them. The original cover for ‘Nate and the New Yorker’ (Wilde City Press edition) and the current ‘two…

[hannaedits]

Book Review: Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels by Gwen Hayes

Book Review: Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels by Gwen Hayes

When I decided to try my hand at paranormal romance, I knew I’d have to learn everything I could about the structure of a romance arc in order to tell a successful story. In every place I asked for recommendations on romance craft books, the top answer was always Romancing the Beat. It’s a slim volume but wasn’t terribly expensive in paperback, so I bowed to the collective expertise and bought a…

[atimburtonfan]

[midnight-star-world]

#CountryMusic

CMT 12-23-23 (Hot Twenty Holiday Countdown)

So today I will be bringing you what CMT (Country Music Television) chose to play for us on 12/23/23. So let's get started right now.

Anne Wilson with Josh Turner - The manger. Hailey Whitters - New baby for Christmas. Dan + Shay - Christmas isn't Christmas. Brett Eldredge - The first Noel. Madeline Edwards - Perfect Christmas. Lady A - Christmas through your eyes. Darius Rucker - What God wants for Christmas. Darren Criss featuring Lainey Wilson - Drunk for Christmas. Brett Eldredge - Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! Gwen Stefani featuring Blake Shelton - You make it feel like Christmas. Carrie Underwood - Stretchy pants. Pistol Annies - Come on Christmas time (Live performance). Keith Urban - I'll be your Santa tonight. Kacey Musgraves - What are you doing New Year's Eve? Kelly Clarkson with Trisha Yearwood & Reba McEntire - Silent night. Alan Jackson - I only want you for Christmas. Chris Janson - Holiday road. Jon Pardi - Beer for Santa. Kenny Rogers with Wynonna - Mary did you know. Walker Hayes - Fancy like Christmas. Taylor Swift - Christmas tree farm. Brenda Lee - Rockin' around the Christmas tree.

And that's a wrap for what Holiday hits CMT (Country Music Television) chose to play for us today. And thanks to CMT for doing their weekly Country Music Video Countdowns. And thanks as well goes out to you for taking the time to read this weekly list. See ya all next time.

[1000-year-old-virgin]

Hayes Warner ft. Billy B & Kevin Rudolf - Just A Girl (Cover)

[danceprecisionsblog]

Dance Precisions - DP Rocks On (2013)

[sodasa-was-taken]

Why Suletta and Miorine's story is a romance: A Mobile Suite Gundam: The Witch from Mercury story structure analysis by Sodasa

So, I recently watched The Witch from Mercury, and I felt compelled to write an analysis of the show's use of the story structure of romances. I'm a hobbyist in the history of trends in genre fiction with a particular interest in romances. I thought it would be fun to use my area of expertise to talk about how the budding relationship between Miorine and Suletta is intertwined with the story of G-Witch.

Something particular about the romance genre is that, unlike other genres of fiction, it's mostly defined by its story structure. This means that just because a story is about two people getting together does not automatically make it a romance in the same way having magic in a story qualifies it as a fantasy. The flip side of this is that while you can't have a fantasy without fantastical elements, a romance can be put in any setting. As long as the story hits the required plot beats, it's still a romance. This makes Romance simultaneously one of the strictest and most versatile genres, as the plot can be anything as long as it ties into the main characters' developing relationship. Use this structure in a story about financial politics and mechs, and you get a story like The Witch from Mercury.

I think the show uses this structure very effectively. In my opinion, a great romance should, first and foremost, be an exploration of the part of the human condition where previous bad experiences make us reject intimacy. The romance story structure is designed to have the characters come face-to-face with their inner demons by giving them a reason to overcome them. Something that's a lot harder to pull off outside of romances, as not many things in life require us to overcome some of our deepest insecurities instead of just pushing them down.

G-Witch is a great show to use as an example of what makes a romance a romance as it follows the story structure almost to a tee, but it's also not the kind of story that most people usually think of when picturing a romance. I also believe that seeing the show through the lens of the romance structure leads to some juicy character psychoanalysis for Suletta and Miorine. I'll go over all the plot beats of a romance and explain how they apply to G-Witch and, if applicable, why I think you don't see those plot beats outside of romances. The names of the plot beats are taken from "Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels" by Gwen Hayes, which is also my primary source, along with my own extensive experience with the romance genre.

I hope someone gets something out of this. I have seen some excellent analyses and theories for this show, but they have been on things I don't know much about myself. Since the only part of story analysis I excel at is the structure of romances, I thought I'd lend my own area of expertise. I want to clarify that while I might sound matter-of-fact, this is just my opinion. I'm by no means saying that you have to think that G-Witch is a romance. I'm just arguing for why I personally consider it to be one.

[writingquestionsanswered]

I remember back in school that they taught us how to write stories like a picture that looked like steps or a triangle where it would show the conflict, rising action, falling action, climax, etc. etc. So I wondered if you have found those methods to be effective or is there another way about it that you'd recommend?

Basic Story Structure

What you're talking about is very basic story structure, like this:

While this is certainly an effective way to understand how stories work at the simplest level, it's not great for showing all the plot points that happen in each of those sections.

If you're interested in a more in-depth story structure method or template, you can Google ones like Save the Cat Writes a Novel! to Larry Brooks Story Structure, Three-Act Story Structure, the Snowflake Method, The Hero's Journey, Blake Snyder's Beat Sheet, Derek Murphy's 24 Chapter Outline, Gwen Hayes' Romancing the Beat, Shawn Coyne's Story Grid, The Seven Point Plot Structure, Dan Harmon's Story Circle, The Five-Act Structure, James Scott Bell's A Disturbance and Two Doorways, Kishōtenketsu Structure, Story Spine.

The key with any story structure method or template is to know you don't have to follow them exactly. They're just a suggestion... like a suggested travel itinerary. You can follow it or you can augment it and work in some of your own stops along the way.

For more, head over to my Plot & Story Structure master list. :)

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[melonteee]

On the subject of One Piece being a very un-shonen-like shonen, one example of this is how the recruitment of all the Straw Hats has way more in common with the structure of romantic comedies than it does with shonen rivals-to-allies.

...

... Okay I know that sounds like a joke but seriously hear me out:

Every single Straw Hat recruitment story has the moment where the character accepts themselves as Straw Hat that's facilitated by a Grand Gesture. And I don't just mean the popular ships, I mean literally every Straw Hat. Luffy deflects bullets at Zoro's execution and gives him back his swords. Luffy destroys Nami's desk at Arlong Park. Luffy punches the Black Cat Pirates for laughing at Usopp. Luffy destroys the Baratie in response to Sanji saying he's willing to die for it. Luffy shields Hiriluk's jolly roger in front of Chopper. Luffy & the crew burns the WG flag in front of Robin. The crew steals Franky's trunks to lure him back to his magnum opus. Luffy reveals that he made the same promise to Laboon as Brook (this one even happens while Luffy is sprawled over a piano). Luffy and Jinbe share blood.

Now, these Grand Gestures for the Straw Hats serve the same exact purpose as the Grand Gestures in romcoms, though in One Piece's case romance isn't the endgame. BUT. But, in a romcom the purpose of the Grand Gesture scene isn't just to be a flashy show of affection/devotion. It's the moment where Character A proves they understand Character B, and Character B in turn realizes that they are understood.

But that's not all! When reading "Romancing the Beat: How to Write Kissing Books," by Gwen Hayes, I'd argue there's a lot more similarities in how Hayes describes the common structure of romcoms. Specifically, a lot of romcoms have what she calls the "No Way" beat - when one or both characters expresses why they think they will Never-Ever Work Together; and the thing that needs to be overcome for the relationship to happen. Which is pretty much what happens with every Straw Hat. The vast majority of Straw Hats have had a literal "No Way" reaction to the prospect of joining the Straw Hats, and even the ones that don't there's still an implicit "No Way" factor underlying their arc.

Straw Hat recruits also hit similar beats to what Hayes describes as "Adhesion" i.e. the circumstances that force the characters into each other's company and making them be literally/figuratively stuck. This is another one story beat that's pretty much everywhere in Straw Hat character arcs: Luffy getting roped into being the Baratie chore boy, Nami being sick in the Drum Kingdom, the Merry being damaged in Water 7, half the crew ending up on the train to Enies Lobby, half the crew's shadows being stolen in Thriller Bark, etc. It's the point in the story - both in romcoms and in One Piece - where the characters have no choice but to bond.

... I don't really have an conclusion to this honestly. I just thought the similarities were neat.

lmao I have nothing to add on cause I totally agree. I read One Piece like a love story, but the love story is between Luffy and everyone and everything he loves HAHA

[darlingofdots]

What is a romance novel, really?

So far, the response to this post has mostly shown me that a lot of people don't actually know what a romance novel is, and that's okay! I don't expect everyone to know! However, for my own peace of mind, I am going to do my best to explain what we mean when we talk about romance novels, where the genre comes from, and why you should not dismiss the pastel cartoon covers that are taking over the display tables at your nearest chain bookshop. Two disclaimers up front: I've been reading romance novels since I was a teenager, and have dedicated the majority of my academic career to them. I'm currently working on my PhD and have presented/published several papers about the genre; I know what I'm talking about! Secondly, all genres are fake. They're made up. But we use these terms and definitions in order to describe what we see and that's a very important part of science, including literary studies!

The most widely used definition of "romance novel" to this day is from Pamela Regis' 2003 A Natural History of the Romance Novel, in which she states that "A romance novel is a work of prose fiction that tells the story of the courtship and betrothal of one or more [protagonists]."* People also refer to the Romance Writers of America's "a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending" and another term you will see a lot is "Happily Ever After/Happy For Now," which posits that the protagonists must be in a committed and happy relationship at the end of the novel in order to count as a romance novel. That's it. That's what a romance novel is.

Of course it's a bit more complex than that; Regis also posited the Eight Essential Elements which describe the progression of the love plot over the course of the book, and there's a similar breakdown from Gwen Hayes in Romancing the Beat that is intended more as writing advice, but both of these are really useful for breaking down how this narrative structure works. My personal favourite part of the Eight Elements is that the romance opens with a definition of the society in which the protagonists exist, which is flawed in a way that oppresses them, and then the protagonists either overcome or fix it in a way that enables them to achieve their HEA. A lot of social commentary can happen this way!

It can also be a bit difficult to pin down what exactly counts as a "central love story" because who decides? A lot of stories have romance arcs in them, including dudebro action movies and noir mystery novels, but you would never argue that the romance is the central plot. A lot of romance novels have external plots like solving a mystery or saving the bakery. A useful question to ask in this case is whether the external plot exists for its own sake or to facilitate the romance: when Lydia runs off with Wickham in Pride & Prejudice, it's so that Lizzie can find out how much Darcy contributed to saving her family from scandal and realise her own feelings for him. The alien abduction in Ice Planet Barbarians happens specifically so the abducted human women can meet and fall in love with the hunky aliens. There are definitely grey areas here! Romance scholars argue about this all the time!

I have a suspicion that a lot of people who responded to the post I linked above are not actually romance readers, which is fine, but it really shows the lack of understanding of what a romance novel is. I have a secondary suspicion that the way we have been talking about books has contributed to this miscategorisation in a lot of people's minds, because especially with queer books we will often specifically point out that this fantasy book is f/f! This dystopian novel has a gay love story! This puts an emphasis on the romance elements that are present in a book when a lot of the time, the romance arc is just flavouring for the adventure/uprising/heist and we are pointing it out only because its queerness makes it stand out against other non-queer titles. It makes sense why we do this, but there is SUCH a difference between "a sci-fi book with an f/f romance arc" and "an f/f sci-fi romance." I could talk for hours about how the romance genre has evolved alongside and often in the same way as fanfiction and how there are codes and tropes that come up again and again that are immediately recognisable to romance readers, even down to phrases and cover design, and how romance is an incredibly versatile and diverse genre that functions in a very specific way because of that evolutionary process. The same way that dedicated fantasy readers can trace the genealogy of a given text's influences ("this writer definitely plays a lot of DnD which has its roots in the popularity of Tolkien, but they're deliberately subverting these tropes to critique the gender essentialism"), romance readers are often very aware of the building blocks and components of their books. These building blocks (that's what tropes are, lego pieces you put together to create a story!) often show up in other genres as well, especially as part of romantic arcs, but that doesn't make every book that features Only One Bed a romance novel, you know?

Romance is an incredibly versatile and diverse genre and I really highly recommend exploring it for yourself if you haven't. I personally read mostly Regency/Victorian historicals and I've been branching out into specifically f/f contemporaries, and there are so many authors who are using the romance framework to tell beautiful, hard-hitting stories about love and family while grappling with issues of discrimination, disability, mental health, capitalism, you name it. The genre has a very specific image in a lot of people's minds which makes them resistant to it and it's not entirely unjustified, but there is so much more to it than Bridgerton and repackaged Star Wars fanfiction!**

*the original text said "heroines" but Regis later revised this. There is a very good reason for the focus on the heroine in the first couple waves of romance scholarship, but that's a different post!

**neither of these are a bad thing and part of that genealogy that I mentioned earlier.

[ariesmusingz]

૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა ╱ one syllable name masterlist ( below the cut is #181 one syllable first names. they are a mixture of feminine, masculine and neutral names, but please use as you see fit. please like / reblog if you found useful. )

air

anne

art

ash

ayn

banks

bay

bear

beck

bee

bell

ben

bess

birch

bird

blair

blaise

bliss

blue

blythe

bo

bram

branch

bree

britt

brock

brooke

brooks

cal

cale

carl

cash

cat

ceil

chance

charles

chris

clare

clay

cole

cort

cove

crew

cy

dale

dan

dane

dash

dax

day

dean

dove

drew

dune

elle

eve

faith

fay

fern

finn

firth

fox

frank

frost

gael

gage

grant

gray

greer

gus

gwen

hal

hank

hayes

hope

huck

hugh

jack

jade

james

jane

jay

jett

joan

joe

john

joy

jude

june

kai

kate

kay

kent

kerr

king

kit

knox

lake

land

lane

lark

lee

leith

lou

love

lux

luz

mac

mae

max

maeve

mark

maude

max

miles

nash

nate

neil

nell

north

nyx

oak

paige

paul

pax

pearl

penn

pierce

pike

poe

price

psalm

puck

quinn

ralph

ray

reed

reese

rex

rose

roy

ruth

sage

saint

sam

sean

seth

shane

shay

sim

sloane

snow

storm

tai

tate

tay

tess

thad

tom

true

truth

ty

vale

van

vaughn

vern

wade

walt

wes

west

whit

will

win

wolf

wren

wynn

yahn

zack

zane

zeke

zen

[just-b-wilde]

Your top 10 favorite ships?

Well, currently it's these ten ships. But it is very difficult to rank them numerically. 🤭

Five x Lila (The Umbrella Academy)

Aidan x Elly (Argylle)

Soléne x Hayes (The Idea of You)

Kate x Anthony (Bridgerton)

Loki x Sylvie (Loki Series)

Killian x Emma (Once upon a time)

Eda x Serkan (Sen Cal Kapimi)

Peter x Gwen (The Amazing Spider-Man)

Colt x Jody (The Fall Guy)

Wade x Vanessa (Deadpool)

[gwendolynwcde]

❛ ☾ ◟━ LOCATION: a midtown bar from this thread

❛ ☾ ◟━ TIME: evening

❛ ☾ ◟━ STATUS: closed for @capthayes

A loud sigh escaped Gwendolyn's lips as she read Sierra's text. So much for reading through paperwork, but it was not like she was enjoying it anyways...So perhaps, this was a blessing in disguise. At this rate, she knew she needed to get to the captain right away before any more drunken acts were to follow. Therefore, she grabbed her car keys and then drove to the bar Sierra was at.

Once she was there, dark hues scanned the area and Gwen immediately caught sight of the blonde as she walked in her direction. "Captain Hayes." greeted the brunette with an unamused tone. "Get up. Let's go." With arms crossed, she took a step back as if she was ordering a child to follow orders. "You are something else. While I understand that this week is filled with festivities, talking about your hook-up and your ex in the same series of text messages is a peculiar way of spending the night."

[azsazz]

How do you go about planning out your story structure? I'm trying to start writing a novel and I've got the first quarter or so figured out plot wise, but I'm struggling a bit trying to figure out the rest of it 😅😭

Heyyy!! No honestly it can really be a struggle.

So I would suggest making sure that your characters have goals. What you want them to accomplish by the end of the story besides falling in love (or whatever may happen)

If romance is your goal, it was a suggestion to read Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes. It's super short and essentially breaks down how to outline a romance novel. (if you join the mailing list in the link I posted she'll send you the pdf of the structure.

If you're going full fantasy, I'm not entirely sure, but I'm sure there might be similarities in outline structure or if your trying to go for romantasy, i think ^ will still work with that since it's technically a romance!

Once I have that, I kind of figure out how i want them to get from one "phase" to the next. i try to get two scenes in a chapter. sometimes it's definitely a struggle but just remind yourself that your characters have goals and what will help them reach those goals?

While I've been working on my novel, i have definitely gotten stumped or was not feeling what was happening story-wise, which is totally fine! you can definitely go back and rework the plot line and i'm sure down the line beta readers or arc readers will give you advice/comments/critiques about it as well.

i hope this helps, but if you have any other questions, feel free to ask!!

happy writinggggg, best of luck!! 💙💙