Within literature there are many genres: police or noir, comedy, drama, terror... and among them, romantic literature. In Spain it is one of the best sellers throughout the year, which is why many publishers are betting on it.
But what is romantic literature? What features does it have? ¿Why is it so important? We will discover it for you in this article.
What is romantic literature
If we had to define what romantic literature is, we would undoubtedly say that it is a love story between two or more people that has a happy ending. Now, the truth is that this is not always the case. For example, in the case of Romeo and Juliet, the story does not end well, but many consider it within the romanticism.
Indeed, the key in these stories is to develop a romantic relationship, in living love. Although at first there were only stories with a happy ending, now it is more open and there may be bitter stories, where love, although it triumphs, does not do it in the way one might think.
In addition, this romantic literature is not only open to heterosexual couples (and of two members) but that homosexual loves, threesomes, and more couples would also have a place.
Characteristics of romantic literature
If we go deep into romantic literature, we not only find that happy (or bittersweet) ending, but we can also discover that, throughout history, we can find several subplots. In other words, a romantic novel does not have to be exclusively romantic, but can develop themes from other types of literature, such as crime, horror, drama... As long as it maintains the link in love, there should be no problem in this case. .
Another characteristic is the Fight for that love. In almost every novel, the fact that the characters risk everything for their love is one of the strongest feelings that can be described. Therefore, it is part of its essence, that love is above everything, whether it is a forbidden, impossible, unrequited love...
All the descriptions are also very important in romantic literature, perhaps not so much for the place where the characters are as they are when it comes to expressing feelings, movements and what the couple believes with each other. In other words, what people feel prevails over the description of the scenes or the place.
Those descriptions and feelings are the most important, and where many can sin, sometimes due to excess, sometimes due to lack of them.
A norm, or characteristics, that many writers and writers skip is about "local love", that is, locating the novels in the place where you live, be it the city or the country. Many times the authors tend to locate them in other countries, either because they have been documented, they have spent time there or history requires it.
And speaking of the writer, there are two keys that they usually leave in their stories: on the one hand, their own experience, although that does not mean that the entire novel is true, but rather that they are capable of intermingling real events with those that are not so that one does not know what is real and what is not; on the other, the «self», that is, the protagonist self. For this reason, many of the stories in romantic novels are usually written in the first person (although you can find them in the third person).
Finally, we could talk about the "tragedy" in that the knot of the story is always going to be a situation that makes love falter and that the protagonists are the ones who have to fight, or decline, for that love.
Why the romance novel is so important
If you remember the comment we made to you earlier, we said that in Spain the romantic novel is one of the best-selling. In fact, according to the data handled by publishers, it is romantic literature that is experiencing a boom. And that's not counting the self-published novels of that genre like those sold on Amazon, Lulu, etc.
Why is the romance novel so successful? You might think it's because women are in the majority and they read a lot. But the truth is that there is also a large male audience feeding on this literature.
Indeed, success can come in the love story itself. In most of the books, it is love that triumphs over all things, and that makes many idealize that way of loving another person, to the point that it is unreal, at least in real life. We could say that they are stories in which what happens always has a beautiful ending, or at least almost always. And for people it becomes an illusion, a hope, or a way of dreaming while living in the skin of another character.
Tips for writing a romance novel
If after what we have told you about romantic literature you have wanted to try this genre, there are some tips that we can give you so that you have a clearer idea of how to start.
The first thing is to be very clear about the topic to be discussed. Although it may be a historical, black, humorous, dramatic novel... the central point and what you should never forget is that you are facing a novel where love must be extolled. And by love you should not only understand the feelings of one person about another. But the adventure that these characters will experience to fight for their love, whether due to a social difference, distance, age...
In the case of the characters, you have to take into account if you want to write in first or third person. If you do it first, you will have to choose which protagonist will be and focus only on their feelings and way of seeing the world. This deprives the reader of knowing how the other person feels.
If you choose the third person, you can alternate between feelings of one and the other. But you have to control very well the way you narrate it so as not to tip the balance (and voice) towards one or the other.
On the other hand, you have to consider what the argument, the plot or the reason for creating that story will be. A murder, a burial, a day to day, a new job... There are many ways to present the story. And even more important than the argument is going to be the conflict. That is, the situations that these protagonists are going to go through and they are going to have to fight for their love. For better or worse.
Do you still have doubts about romantic literature? Ask us!