I'm a new member and just wanted to introduce myself. Is there anyone out there who's ever tried writing Mills & Boon type romantic fiction? I've attempted several as I thought (mistakenly!) that they would be quite easy. But although I always start well I find them quite difficult to sustain as there is only one plot strand and two main characters. Does anyone have any advice?

Welcome

and no but somewhere upon the forums I recall somebody else has mentioend this topic and if you search through you may find it. I recall that the format is very defined and M &B dictate to the author but I may hav ethat wrong

take care enjoy the site

david

I believe that Mills and Boon do an info. sheet for guidance on structure etc. or perhaps I saw something like that on my Internet travels. They don't need to be so long as the average novel - 50,000 words I believe, and if the usual romance feels a little boring there's a new imprint called Black Lace which deals with the more erotic novels. Might be more fun too!

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Just looked at Writers' Forum Mag. for June - they mention that My Weekly mag. is looking for romantic novellas, so if you felt that 50,000 words was too long you could start by writing something for them. (No more than 30,000 words.) The article is quite useful too, it tells you a bit about structure, settings etc.

I'll send you the article if you're interested - just email me an address and I'll pop it in the post.

hello Pamela,
I've heard they are hard to write as well. A very specific area I suppose might always be. I think Sci/fi must be really difficult to write too.

Also a new member. I like the point about Sci/fi writing though. Maybe I could start a new topic but it seems to me to be a very hard area to get in to. I have a piece of work I did that was very different and I intended to have it as a trilogy. People will probably thing Star Wars now but it was a very unique idea based around conflict between humans but set in space because it had to be set in the future. I never got anywhere with it because it wasn't sci fi enough for sci fi publishers and normal publishers are not interested in it. Frustrating but if i ever got a foot in the door I would certainlu revive it.

Welcome EJ!

Ah well, confession time. AS some of these good folk know, I am on the point of submitting a Black lace novel to a publisher (70,000 words, which is on the short side for erotica). But, I have been working on a MIlls&Boon novel on and off for eight years, following the same sort of thought - 'Dammit, it must be easy to write this stuff!'

The truth is, that once you've grasped the formula, then it probably is, but I'm struggling a little with the formula, because my heroine is just too damn wet! I keep wanting her to just go and tell the implausibly hunky bloke how she feels, on teh basis that that is what any woman of any sense would do, but that would make the novel about 35,000 words too short! Can't decide whether to try and finish it off (which will require suspension of my normal rather up front voice) or just to out the whole thing down to experience (and a rather embarrassing one at that).

Oh, and, er... I've also written a couple of sci-fi shorts too, but they're pretty poor, it has to be said. EJ, if you're interested in sci-fi, then there are a few authors on this site who have an inclination in that direction (Swike, Insane Bartender's amazing 'THe Dreamer', plus a fe others) and I'm sure they could discuss it at length!

OK, must go and write covering letter to publisher...

OK Steph, suppose she tells him how she feels, they have a blazing row, a tremendous fight, she says 'sod the bastard, I'm finished with him now', and he spends the rest of the novel trying to get her back? Cut to happy ending. (Compulsory.)

No no no Nell, she's done that... er... twice already, and the stupid eejit just can't bring himself to be honest about his feelings for her so... nah, it's not that bad really, but having focussed on a sassy, switched on dame like Maddy, I can't fget enthused about bringing a happy ending to Serena's story (well, at least, not unless I can write her a damn fine rogering in the closing chapter anyway!!)

Yes! You go girl!

Good luck - hope it's accepted. I've never read any of the black lace books, but understand they're a bit risque. Maybe I ought to try one!

I've never read one either, and romance is not my thing. It's said though that Mills and Boon are asking now for modern gritty romance rather than the hearts and roses stuff, also updating their covers, but wouldn't that make it 'Chick Lit'? Oh dear, those genres again, I do hate trying to classify my own stuff, but publishers do ask.

I think the attraction of M&B is that the reader knows what they are going to get... it's 189 pages of pure escapism (and yes, it's always 189 pages). If they're updating them, it's probably to give their heroines jobs, or illegitimate children, rather than the aristocratic waifs that they used to feature. Women of all backgrounds read them as a means of forgetting the day-to-day, whether that's trying to manage a household with four kids on welfare, or high-flying barristers/doctors/financiers.

Updating them , illegitamate children risque barbara cartland must be turning in her no doubt pink grave