On categories: Romance

[NuclearFairy]

What do the readers think belongs in the romance category?

What isn't received well there?

What could cause a borderline story to fall in or out of that category?

 

[old_prof]

My experience is that most anything with emotional content is well received as well as it has the required HEA.

I think stories just about the sex with no emotional content would be poorly received there, but we have plenty of other categories for those.

But I think it's one of the more accepting categories.

 

[onehitwanda]

Romantic relationships between girls is a definite no-no there.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I'm not very familiar with the category, but we've heard repeatedly that the stories that do well in the category tend to be formulaic.

Again, I'd say that authors should write the stories they truly want to write and not let their writing be influenced by the type of content the readers reward with high ratings. To answer your question, that means that the Romance category could cover a much broader type of stories. I think that, in general, Lit authorship has indulged the readers too much for the sake of receiving good ratings.

I'd say that some of my stories should fit under the category, although I am not sure whether they would be received well by the readership. Nor do I care that much.

 

[lovecraft68]

One of the easiest categories to score well in.
Couple years ago, I'd say the easiest but at this point it may have fallen second to Lesbian.

 

[BeechLeaf]

It doesn't actually require a happy ending. My first, before I knew anything about the quirks of categories. was a classic romance with a meet-cute brought on by dogs in a park, and the people were quickly attracted to each other, blah blah, but they couldn't do anything about it because she already had a boyfriend. Sad kiss at the door. Commenters of course wanted them to get together later, but it did well despite the lack of resolution. I think it hit almost all the buttons, so it fitted nicely (and wouldn't work anywhere else).

 

[Voboy]

No happy ending required, but you better get some emotion in there. They like emotion.

Other than that, they're pretty accepting. I've done well there even with cheating stories, as long as they were emotional.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I'll concur with Beechleaf and Voboy, the belief that Romance writers demand a happy ending is inaccurate. What is required, in my experience, is an emotionally satisfying conclusion.

 

[Ianus4]

I think that, fundamentally, readers of Romance expect boy-meets-girl stories. Sex scenes aren't necessarily expected, but emotions are all the more so. Both character-driven and plot-driven stories are well-received. A slow-burn approach is generally preferred. What’s not well-received is stories that should have strayed into the trump categories. However, gentle dominance & co. can perform well. More serious, darker themes aren’t a deal-breaker, as long as the story ideally leads to a HEA or HFN.

 

[Ianus4]

Romantic relationships between girls is a definite no-no there.

That can be true, but within a story, a WLW storyline between MCs can work very well alongside straight storyline(s), as seen in A Night at the County Fair by @Arcadia.

 

[NotWise]

Romantic relationships between girls is a definite no-no there.

@Bramblethorn has a very successful lesbian romance in Romance. I have a weak recollection of her naming others.

 

[Erozetta]

Long stories are preferred over short ones in romance.

 

[Ianus4]

@Bramblethorn has a very successful lesbian romance in Romance. I have a weak recollection of her naming others.

And there's Anna & Paloma by zyplor

 

[MelissaBaby]

My series, Mary and Alvin, was published entirely in Romance. Two major characters are lesbians, and there are explicit scenes between them. I also killed off multiple characters, including most of the principals. The Romance readers ate it up. very chapter has a rating of all least 4.74. When it was new, it occupied more than 25 spaces on the all time Romance toplists. So, everything in the category doesn't have to be hearts and flowers.

The biggest complaint I got in the entire 37 chapters was that the title characters had sex too soon after they met.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Long stories are preferred over short ones in romance.

I think that's inherent in the genre. Successful romance depends on more emotional development than most other genres, and that takes time, and pages, to achieve.

 

[NotWise]

And there's Anna & Paloma by zyplor

A quick tag search found 11 pages of stories in the Romance category with the tag "lesbian." Just looking at the first page, 28 of 50 had scores of 4.5 or more. You couldn't say they were poorly accepted.

On the other hand, there were only 19 stories tagged "gay male," and only seven of those had a score of 4.5 or more. There are more tagged simply "gay," but a quick look showed those stories to be a mixed bag.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I think a lot of people tend to assume the Lit Romance audience is more similar to the general audience for romance novels than it actually is.

 

[ClintonBrooks]

I've written two Romance stories, including a trans woman/cis man love story. It, in my opinion, had the emotional connection and was decently written. What I was told it lacked, was conflict. It seems conflict is a required component for romance stories.

 

[JohnBJohn]

Be wary of having a cheating in Romance. I did and was blasted for it and my story struggled for a long time.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I think readers are looking for well developed (emotionally, not necessarily physically) characters, a bit of tension, and a satisfactory ending - happy or otherwise.

I wrote a romance story that involved two women and one guy with a bit of lesbian and two on one action. I wasn't sure if romance was the right category, but it's done well. Nobody commented it was in the wrong category.

 

[Britva415]

I've written two Romance stories, including a trans woman/cis man love story. It, in my opinion, had the emotional connection and was decently written. What I was told it lacked, was conflict. It seems conflict is a required component for romance stories.

Where does the investment in the story come from, if not from conflict?

I mean, yeah, you need more than just conflict. Readers won’t get invested in a conflict between two unlikable characters.

But the concept of investment is both a reader experience as well as a character experience. Your characters had a strong experience of emotional connection: Why? A magical chance meeting where they discover they’re sooo perfect for each other because Such Big Feelings isn’t a conflict, but it also isn’t the whole story. When two people have Such Big Feelings for each other and a Such Big Bond results from that, it’s probably because of other stuff they each have going on.

The bond solves a major problem one maybe did and maybe didn’t know one had. That’s a source of conflict. Not with each other, and maybe not even with any specific other character either. Internal conflicts are often just as compelling as external ones. What obstacles are there which impede the couple or one of the people in it from pursuing or committing to the bond? What sacrifices is a character driven to make in order to pursue it?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Where does the investment in the story come from, if not from conflict?

I've never understood this notion that you need some sort of conflict in erotica. Sometimes, isn't it enough that a story is about intimacy between your characters, nothing more, nothing less?

 

[Britva415]

a story is about intimacy

Intimacy is conflict. Or, less simplistically, intimacy can’t develop without each person overcoming obstacles to intimacy, or, dealing with the pain of vulnerability.

A story which just skips all that in order to wallow in a fully-formed intimacy as if it took nothing to get there is just uninteresting, and, very hard to relate to. It’s a whitewash, incomplete.

 

[Britva415]

Alternatively:

I can think of a type of story which could do that, and not be boring and unrelatable. It would be, for example, one where the two people use the pre-existing intimacy to solve some other problem.

 

[Britva415]

Also I just realized I responded to a post about “conflict in erotica.” That’s a bit of a subject change. The original subject was the Romance category. More going on than “just erotica.”