What Works Best In Fantasy Romance Genre?

[QuillandGraphite]

I’m curious to hear your thoughts as fellow writers and readers of fantasy romance. There are so many ways to approach the genre, and I’d love to know what you’ve found works best (or what you personally enjoy most).

1. Do you plan everything out before writing, or do you discover the story as you go?
2. What pacing feels right for fantasy romance — slow-burn, fast-moving, or something in between?
3. Do you lean more toward dark romance or soft, wholesome romance in your stories?
4. Do you prefer a character-driven plot where relationships take center stage, or a fantasy-driven plot where the worldbuilding drives the story?

I’m asking because I’ve just started a new fantasy-romance novel and I’m curious how other writers approach these elements.

 

[Eldoria]

I can't give you any advice. I tend to write characters as aromantic. Instead of romance, I substitute sibling and familial relationships. So the drama is born from those relationships.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

As a writer and a reader, I generally prefer stories were romance is a B or C plot over the main one. But then, I am a guy and the typical audience for Romantassy seems to be women, so my view is probably not relevant.

 

[RightThereInTheTitle]

Here's what I consider the idea balance for romance fantasy:

• The author should have an intended direction from the beginning. At the point that you begin writing the story (as opposed to "let me write some unconnected scenes in case I decide to eventually find a story to put them in", if that's a thing you do), you should have a sense of the major beats.
• The author should be open to change based on how the writing goes. Sometimes you write a scene and realize that some characters have a lot more chemistry than you expected. In a romance story specifically, that's a great reason to change direction. Alternative, if the interactions between some particular characters comes across as flat, then maybe you abandon an intended relationship and course-correct.

George RR Martin famously said that writers are either architects or gardeners. Both are equally valid in general, but I'd argue that being a gardener is the superior approach for romance fantasy specifically. Mainly because the exact details of the worldbuilding and plot (while important) are less impactful than the reality of how your character interactions feel, and that can only be discovered in the writing process.

 

[Arkus86]

As a reader, I would say for points 2 - 4 it really depends on what kind of story you are writing, and how much of a central stage do you want the romance to be in it. There is no "one answer fits all" in there.
Sometimes getting the couple together right from the start is what you want. Sometimes you want the budding romance to be a journey, and them getting together the ending. And maybe you intend the romance to be the heart of the story, or you intend to write a deeper story where the romance develops alongside, or in the background of, other plots and world building.

Then for you first point... the general advice for any story, is to have at least a broad idea of the path and ending before you start. You don't need to plan every detail, but your story will likely suffer from your lack of direction if you don't have at least a rough outline.

And for the third point specifically, that's again purely about what you want to write, but I would guess most of the readers of romance novels prefers soft.

But if you're really asking others how to write your story and what might work best with such fundamental questions, instead of it being merely a curiosity, it feels like you have no idea about the story you want to write, and are writing purely to sell it.

 

[QuillandGraphite]

But if you're really asking others how to write your story and what might work best with such fundamental questions, instead of it being merely a curiosity, it feels like you have no idea about the story you want to write, and are writing purely to sell it.

I'm not trying to sell my story, because if I was, I would've at least mentioned the book's name which I didn't. I just wanted to see how other writers approach fantasy-romance. It's not that I'm going to write my story according to the replies I get; I will write how I see it fit and how I've planned. I do realize that the answers to these questions vary from author-to-author and the type of story they're writing. I simply wanted to know out of curiosity about how other authors go about these things.

 

[DireBadger]

Nothing wrong with writing purely to sell it.

I used to work for Roy Rogers. I used to make lots of hamburgers just to sell them, and none one was ever accused of being 'mercenary' for it. Why is writing different?

'artistic sellout' only means the person saying it is a failure and hates other people's success.

 

[QuillandGraphite]

Nothing wrong with writing purely to sell it.

I do understand, but I write mostly for my pleasure. I do care about my readers also but doesn't mean I write according to what my readers want to read. That's what my mentality is, to write for myself more than my readers; but I do appreciate that you spoke up for me.

 

[RightThereInTheTitle]

One way to look at this question of "write for yourself" vs "care about your readers" is that reader reactions can tell you how well your ideas are translating onto the page.

When a reader doesn't like the fundamental basis of my story, that's fine. I'm not writing for them.

When a reader is asking questions about things I meant to be clear from the text, that means I need to work on my writing. Even if I'm writing for myself, I care about getting better at expressing what's in my head in my writing.

This same dynamic applies to the questions asked by the OP. "I have an idea in my head about how to show two characters falling in love, but I'm interested in knowing how well that love story comes across when mixed in with different amounts of plot, worldbuilding, and pacing." Even when I'm "writing for myself", I care about trying to calibrate that stuff, because otherwise my writing is failing to capture what's in my head onto the page.

It's why I appreciate posts like this one, because like the OP, I too am interesting in hearing what works for other people and how they try to translate their ideas into their stories.

(My own story has fairly "dark" romance element, which I try to keep fun by mixing them in with a lot of lighthearded hijinx and slice-of-life mealtime conversations. My worldbuilding drives the story but is not meant to be "noticed" by the reader, i.e. the characters behave the way they do in part because of the shape of the world they inhabit, but characters don't usually stop and reveal the underlying structure and bureaucracy outlined in my twenty-seven page worldbuilding document to the reader.)

 

[QuillandGraphite]

When a reader is asking questions about things I meant to be clear from the text, that means I need to work on my writing. Even if I'm writing for myself, I care about getting better at expressing what's in my head in my writing.

About that, I do agree.

 

[DireBadger]

One of the things that it takes a writer a truly long time to understand is that writing, on its own, writing a good story, is an intellectual task. What I mean is, writers, unlike many other artists, need to be more intelligent to even find joy in the task.

Reading, however, does NOT require intellectualism. Many readers are above average intelligence, but more than a few are strictly average. Like video games and movies, 'reviewers' are a poor source of feedback for the actual value of your work, even if they are the only source we have... it leads to a general dumbing down of good works, unfortunately.

Basically, unless you write Naruto fanfic, your audience is always going to be a lot dumber than you are. The challenge is dumbing down your works to suit them without sounding condescending, or to the point where you hate your own work. Good luck.

 

[QuillandGraphite]

outlined in my twenty-seven page worldbuilding document to the reader.)

I checked out that document. Will be reading it if I get time.

One of the things that it takes a writer a truly long time to understand is that writing, on its own, writing a good story, is an intellectual task. What I mean is, writers, unlike many other artists, need to be more intelligent to even find joy in the task.

Reading, however, does NOT require intellectualism. Many readers are above average intelligence, but more than a few are strictly average. Like video games and movies, 'reviewers' are a poor source of feedback for the actual value of your work, even if they are the only source we have... it leads to a general dumbing down of good works, unfortunately.

Basically, unless you write Naruto fanfic, your audience is always going to be a lot dumber than you are. The challenge is dumbing down your works to suit them without sounding condescending, or to the point where you hate your own work. Good luck.

I don't mind the reader reviews very much. There are things I can check myself (plot holes, pacing, etc.) and edit those things myself. When I was on Wattpad, the Awards were the best way to get honest feedback about or constructive criticism about my book (However, I left Wattpad due to many reasons). Many readers do leave hateful comments, but that doesn't matter to me, really.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

When a reader is asking questions about things I meant to be clear from the text, that means I need to work on my writing. Even if I'm writing for myself, I care about getting better at expressing what's in my head in my writing.

Not necessarily - it means the reader is invested enough to question what they read. It may mean that you're writing is exactly where it needs to be... or that you need an editor to help catch silly errors. Or both (usually both). But yes, it CAN mean you need to work on something, but does not have to.