Add Emotion
When polishing your final draft, look for at least one way in each scene to add more emotion. If the scene is tense … make it more tense. If the scene is funny … make it funnier. Find the main emotional focus in each scene and up the ante in some way.
Readers read romance looking for the emotional connection and to relive the wonder of falling in love. Help make your manuscript rejection-proof by making sure each chapter, each scene, and each page of your book is rich with emotion.
In tense scenes, turn the conflict up a notch, give the antagonist the most power, or figure out another way to push the heroine to work harder to accomplish her goal. Find a way to remind the reader what it is the hero has to lose if he fails at his scene goal. Pay close attention to the sentence structure in tense scenes to help build the tension.
If your scene is sad, dig deeper and pull tighter on the heartstrings of your reader. The more you allow your reader to see and feel the pain of the characters, the more emotionally involved they become in your book.
In humorous scenes, toy with your word choices to see if you can tap the funny bone a little harder. Look for a play on words that could induce a chuckle. Ask yourself what your hero or heroine could say that would be so unanticipated that it would cause the reader to laugh. Remember the secret to humor is surprise — the reader expects to read one thing and instead you give her something completely different.
The scenes in which the emotion should really be the strongest are in the love scenes. Love, and being able to experience all the emotions connected with falling in love, are the reasons your reader picked up a romance novel. Readers want to feel the desire, the tenderness, and the longing induced by meeting that right person.
POV really is the key to writing a good novel of any kind, romance included. To maximize the emotional quotient of your scenes, make sure they're written from the POV of the right character.
While not all romances will have the same level of sexuality, most will have sexual tension. Make sure you build the level of sensuality in your novels to meet the standards of the subgenre you are targeting.
Most important, remember that you are writing a romance. Allow the reader to experience the journey, the excitement, the wonder, the temptations, and the fears that come with falling in love.
