MAY THE BEST MAN WIN just hit3750adds on Goodreads! To celebrate, I'm doing a thread on my approach to writing ROMANCE!

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Like so much else, good romance grows from characters' motivations. Writers need to understand and express on-page why two characters are drawn together.

But romantic motivations are COMPLICATED. It's easier to set up why a character needs money or power than why they need love

We're drawn to people for reasons we don't always understand. Feelings grow and change past first impressions. So to write a good romance, you start with another motivation--what brings your characters into the same space?

Once you get your characters together, you can show them bouncing off each other *and* getting closer at the same time. Let their external goals face conflict from the developing internal goal--their desire to be together

Because while characters may face conflict from external forces, on the inside, they're deeply compatible and *yearn* for each other. Once you show us the internal motivations of the characters, we turn and root for them to be together.

A good romance turns on the conflict between the things we want and the things we think we need. Once you tap into that fulcrum, you can craft relationships readers cheer for!