What is Romance?
What is romance as in, what is the romance genre, is both a simple answer and a more difficult one. The simple answer is: the romance genre is a love story with a happy ending. The genre’s main focus is the couple (mainstream romance) and their journey to discovering love and accepting love. For many romantic stories one or more of the main characters feel they don’t deserve love or they don’t have time for love, some don’t believe love is a true emotion. The purpose of the story is to show them coming to recognize their need for love, their belief in love and what they are willing to do for love. As Meat Loaf said, “I’ll do anything for love, but I won’t do that…” well, in a true romance book, the hero/heroine will even do that.
In a true romantic genre story one of the characters may have to make sacrifices in order to be with the one they love. Often, we see that both characters are willing to make sacrifices and can sometimes find a happy compromise or workaround.
In romantic subgenres, the romance is only a part of the story the author has to decide if the story is going to be marketed as a romantic-suspense, romantic-comedy, etc. If so, romance is the main focus and the subgenre takes a secondary role. The difference being, if it is a suspense with a romance, the main focus is the suspense and the romance doesn’t necessarily have to have a happy ending. But, if it is a romantic suspense there should be a happy ending for at least the romance and a satisfying ending for the suspense. You can put your characters in peril. You can make it seem as if everything is lost but in the end, the couple should end up together preferable having solved or resolved the situation.
Romance isn’t just a love story. It’s about the journey to finding love, being prepared to love and be loved, and love being the strongest force or the best reason for everything. Doesn’t everyone want that one person who is willing to change the course of their whole life for them.
Sherri Lupton Hollister, author 