Contemporary Romance Novel Builder
This tool will help you plot your own sexy contemporary romance novel (designed for two partners) from beginning to end, and it is most useful for bad boy, NA, sports/rockstar, or billionaire. It is designed to give you structure for 19 chapters plus an epilogue and yield a word count of 55-70,000 words, depending on your writing style. It can easily be adapted to use with MM or FF as well as the MF referenced in the Storybuilder. There are several ways to structure and plot a contemporary romance, and this is just one, but it should help you get a feel for how to do it, and it can be reused indefinitely.
Includes
Niches
Contemporary romance covers a variety of romance niches. It can be rockstars, sports, bad boy and/or NA, contemporary small-town, contemporary western, billionaire, or romcom, just to name a few. Each subgenre comes with its own expectations and common tropes. I can’t cover each one in depth, but I’m providing an overview to help you decide what kind you’re plotting. This Storybuilder is meant to be used more for subgenres like bad boy and billionaire instead of romcom or contemporary western, since those have a different overall feel and tone.
Excerpt
Ch. 1
FMC’s POV (can start with MMC, but pay attention to how you alternate your chapters)
The introduction chapter. You get a glimpse of her life how it is now. You might show some of her friends or daily interactions. If she’s missing something, even if she doesn’t know what it is, you should start to show this here (no close friends, so no new messages, etc.).
Your two characters should meet by the end of this chapter, or no later than the first third of chapter #2.
You might also introduce one of your subplots here, particularly if it’s related to the obstacle or to the meet-cute. For example, she’s running late for an interview and literally runs into him. They exchange sharp words, and then she discovers he’s doing the interview.
Your subplot could be introducing a ticking time bomb of some sort, like she’s going to lose her apartment if she can’t find a job soon.
Questions to consider:
How do they meet?
Did you illustrate immediate attraction on all parts? You’re telling this chapter through her POV, but you can still show his reaction through body language and physical reaction, like pounding pulse or widened pupils.
How does this advance your story? (You should ask yourself this question about every chapter.)
Tip: Don’t forget to write about all the senses when relaying information. Use body language and expression to help convey feelings rather than dialogue tags or inner monologue. Immerse the reader in the character’s POV rather than having her “telling” the story to someone.
