'Formulaic' is a criticism that's often thrown at genre writers, particularly romance writers. Let's have a little (or possibly quite length) think about that...

So what is the formula for a successful romantic novel? Well first you need (at least) 2 character who your readers are going to believe in, empathise with, be prepared to spend 50000+ words with, and really really want to be happy? Just make those up out of...

... nothing but your own imagination. Off you go. I'll wait.... Done? Great. Now you need a setting. A world that your reader will love being in. It might reflect the real world you and your readers inhabit. It might be aspirational. It might exist only in fantasy...

... It might be historical. Whichever you choose, it has to be coherent. It has to feel three-dimensional. And it has to support your characters are your story. So if the hero you'd imagined is terrified of being out of his comfort zone, that interstellar cruiser setting...

... might not work after all. Now let's think about story. Romance is all about people who absolutely should be together but can't be. There need to be barriers, and those barriers need to be big and deep. If they could be resolved in one honest chat that's not enough.

That won't sustain a whole novel. So what are your characters' emotional flaws? What is stopping them from thinking they deserve to be happy? What is holding them back from stepping up and yelling 'I fucking love you' at the top of their lungs?

That stuff has to be deep and it has to be emotionally rooted. And here's a thing. Writing deep real emotion is hard. You have to be prepared to go their yourself and be vulnerable in front of your keyboard. If you can't make yourself feel...

... you probably aren't going to make your reader feel either. And you need to make your reader feel. Reading romance should be cathartic, emotional, uplifting, sometimes inducing big snotty cries. Emotion is EVERYTHING. So find real deep emotion and put it on the page.

And now the ending. Joyous. Uplifting. But also believable. Remember that really big deep emotional barrier you created - well now you need to lift it. But that needs to be believable. Emotional damage doesn't just magically get better. Your characters need to...

... change and develop over the course of the story so that breakthrough moment is earned and makes emotional sense as the result of everything you've put them through. And finally, you need to do it in a new and different way to every other romance novel that's come before you.

And there are loads of them and romance readers real A LOT. We don't want to read the same book again and again and again. We want to see those ideas reinterpreted and reinvented. We want authors to bring something new to the genre. We want the authors own individual voice...

... to shine through. We want to be comforted, entertained, excited, but also surprised. So there you go - 'formulaic' - sure. I'm sure there's a formula for everything ultimately, but that doesn't mean it's easy, or not creative, or not important.

Millions of readers love romantic fiction. When the genre is belittled so are they. And it's tiresome, and snobbish, and kinda misogynistic a lot of the time. So shall we just not? TY.

Many many typos in this thread. So one final writing lesson - first drafts are allowed to be a typo-ridden mess. You can totally sort it out in the edit. (If only twitter had an edit button!)

And one final final point - obviously there is actually no formula. For every writing 'rule' there will be amazing authors and books that ignore them entirely. You can do absolutely anything in a book if you do it well enough.