Customer Reviews

The Romance Writer's Handbook

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The author uses an informal style that immediately puts her readers at ease. She uses her own experiences to illustrate points in her book, a method that really helps the reader understand why she is saying what she is saying. Another thing is how short the chapters are. It makes for easier reading. I know that seems kind of minor, but for me, sitting down and spending an hour reading just isn't possible. I read this book while on the elliptical machine at my gym. By making a point in a few pages then moving on, it held my interest. If I put the book down for a few days, it was easy enough to pick it up and get back into the groove.

The chapters entitled "Finding Your Voice" and "Imagery" were both excellent. They are very helpful to both new and experienced writers. I really liked Connie Flynn's chapter on paranormal romances. She made a couple of points that were salient to my writing.

I've got a bunch of how-to romance writing books, but I don't think I ever read one of them all the way through. It is simply written and the author makes her point and moves on. I recommend it highly to anyone wanting to write a romance.

I must confess that I did contribute a small article to the book. I did so knowing that Ms. Vinyard would put together a good book. I was not disappointed.

I'm going to begin by picking a nit, here. This book is not authored by Ms Vinyard in the conventional sense. Probably 50% of the copy is authored by other women.
On to more important issues:
1) Most of the material in the book is quite elementary. If you don't know what point of view is or what the options are, this book explains that. But if you want advice beyond "don't change point of view too often," you will not get much help.
2) Unlike other writing manuals, this book is not structured in a way to help a beginner actually write a romance. It reflects this in it's contents, which include "Elements of Romance Storytelling," but nothing on putting the elements together.

I prefer "On Writing Romance" by Leigh Michaels and "Writing Romance" by Vanessa Grant, both of which rewarded my reading time with a great deal of useful information.

On the other hand, if you want to be part of the romance writers' community, this might be a good book for you, as it often mentions Romance Writers of America and the author's own web site. The section on "Support Networks" is as long as the one section on writing, "Elements of Romance Storytelling," and there is a whole section titled, "Inspiration, Comisseration and Information." That's all padding, from my point of view.
My own experience? I've won a state wide fiction award, edited a very small magazine and a book published by a major publisher, and written for a web site with ga-zillions of hits a week (yes, that's a technical term), and a glossy magazine. I teach college. I need to organize my material well and include plenty of useful content if I want my work to benefit my students.

The Romance Writer's Handbook: How To Write Romantic Fiction & Get It Published by novelist, journalist, and www.Romance-Central.com webmaster Rebecca Vinyard is a quick-study course to crafting romance fiction for the markets and readers of today. From practical advice to creating heroes and heroines that resonate with the reader; to delicately orchestrating plot complications; to bringing alive sensual love scenes, and more, The Romance Writer's Handbook is an excellent and "writer friendly" resource and primer especially recommended for beginners seeking to break into print and intermediate level romance writers seeking to expand their published title list.

Ms. Vinyard provides a wonderful roadmap for writing romance fiction. Most beginning writers have ideas and characters and can write a good story. By using this book, they will have the tools to write a great story.

TRWH covers basics like plot, and characters, but also adds information about external conflict, internal conflict, and the framework on the resolution of those. Every aspect of the novel is de-mysified. She also covers how to write the dreaded query letter and synopsis.

The handbook has sections on the business of getting published, agents, entering contests and websites.

Truly, this book deserves to be in any aspiring romance writer's library.

Many of the books on this subject are not current and are only mildly entertaining... Ms. Vinyard on the other hand fills the pages with exciting descriptions of the current Romance market and piles on the practical advice for the new and experienced writer. This book is a must for ever Romance writer!!

A wealth of knowledge! A must-have for the new writer and an excellent guide for writers at any level. It covers virtually everything you need to know when writing about romance, Including a basic understanding of the different types and sub-categories within this genre! Starting from the basic idea or concept, it takes you through the writing process with ease, step-by-step information teaches you about writing and selling in this genre. This book contains tips, ideas, advice, examples and more on every topic. I have read more than 25 books on this subject but THIS BOOK is undoubtedly one of the BEST!

I'm about halfway through this book and have already learned so much that I'd pay FULL price for the book (I'm a used book nut, so that is saying a lot).

The info about proper manuscript set-up is worth buying this one.

I am not a "new" writer but haven't written romance until now. Looks like I chose a quality reference for the job!

I'm afraid many sub-par books are published every year about how-to-write. THIS one is not one of those!

This book is excellent for providing the basics for romance writing, including the fact that there are several types of romances, and it points out that there is literally a recipe for romances, which helps one to write something that would be publishable. I purchased this book on the recommendation of another book on writing. I recommend this book for those writers just getting into the genre of romances.

This book is a great little tool filled with advice on making ANY novel more interesting (if you skip over the tips on romance formula).

This book is generally known as the mack-daddy of the "how to write a romance" books. My sister and I intend to become embarrassingly rich with the information we glean from it. Should you never see my name again, rest assured, the fault lies with me, and not the book.