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Passionate Ink: A Guide to Writing Erotic Romance
The forecast is in: the future of romance is hot and steamy. But riding the wave to success takes more than stringing together a couple of sex scenes. "USA Today" bestselling author Knight shares the down and dirty details on writing erotic romances that will keep readers coming back for more.
346 pages, Paperback
First published April 6, 2007
5 people are currently reading
284 people want to read
About the author
Angela Knight
133 books1,021 followersAngela Knight is an American author of mostly erotic fantasy.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 13, 2010
“Passionate Ink: A Guide to Writing Erotic Romance” is not only a view into the writing process of a talented author, but also a look back at the steps she took (or should have taken) to achieve a successful writing career. Ms. Knight explained what an erotic romance is and how it differs from the other types of romances. She introduced the steps in her plotting, writing, and re-writing process, including excerpts and commentary from her own works. The second half of the book contains information on agents, publishers, submissions, and marketing your book.
The most helpful part of this book was the listing of reference materials in the back to further help with writing and on sex.
This book was written in the witty and entertaining way that I would expect from Ms. Knight. She is, if nothing else, honest about life as a writer.
The most helpful part of this book was the listing of reference materials in the back to further help with writing and on sex.
This book was written in the witty and entertaining way that I would expect from Ms. Knight. She is, if nothing else, honest about life as a writer.
March 25, 2012
I found many parts of this book to be helpful. I do recommend it for anyone writing romance books. I am sure every romance author will find something in it to help improve their writing. Love scenes for the romance genre are probably the most difficult scenes for any writer to write well. You have to include really good conflict, you have to write sensations and feelings in a very strong and unique way and of course the loves scenes have to move the plot forward.
March 6, 2008
The reason this book rec'd 2 stars instead of 1 is the fact that it has a section on writing erotica romance and how to make a sex scene count. I found the information worthwhile.
Other than that it had the same stuff every other book on writing has and I am glad I checked it out before buying. Read it if you haven't read any other help books otherwise borrow it for the section mentioned.
Other than that it had the same stuff every other book on writing has and I am glad I checked it out before buying. Read it if you haven't read any other help books otherwise borrow it for the section mentioned.
May 5, 2011
Some good writing advice, but the feminist in me raged at all the gender-based generalizations thrown around in this book. Most of the content was taken from Internet forums and you could see a few places where it hadn't been edited (disappointing, considering the cost of the book). Also, "erorom" is an extremely awkward thing to call erotic romance.
April 20, 2011
Absolutely made me rethink my approach to character development and crafting a story. Even if you are not going to write E-Rom (like me), it's worth the read to help get you motivated and writing.
July 18, 2024
The Book I Wish I had Read Before I Started Writing!
There are only a handful of craft books I’ve read that have changed my life and this is one of them. Even non-romance writers will benefit from this book as Angela takes you through the entire writing process from plotting to publishing. What makes this book gold is that she gives you actual steps and processes to get you to finish a book, make your writing better, and not just a bunch of random concepts. Her guide is focused and clear. I had so many lightbulb moments reading this one.
Angela also made me laugh out loud many times. Her humor sings off the page making it an enjoyable read! You will leave this book feeling more confident and equipped with tools for success for your own writing. Most especially, her Romantic Conflict GMC chart is an excellent edition to Debra Dixon’s GMC chart. With both of these charts, you can’t go wrong in the plotting process! I’ll use these forever. There were also some treasures I found in here like Linda Howard’s 12 Steps of Intimacy, and how to write a fight scene, which I never thought I needed to know! Overall I thought this book was brilliant and it will remain on my bookshelf forever.
There are only a handful of craft books I’ve read that have changed my life and this is one of them. Even non-romance writers will benefit from this book as Angela takes you through the entire writing process from plotting to publishing. What makes this book gold is that she gives you actual steps and processes to get you to finish a book, make your writing better, and not just a bunch of random concepts. Her guide is focused and clear. I had so many lightbulb moments reading this one.
Angela also made me laugh out loud many times. Her humor sings off the page making it an enjoyable read! You will leave this book feeling more confident and equipped with tools for success for your own writing. Most especially, her Romantic Conflict GMC chart is an excellent edition to Debra Dixon’s GMC chart. With both of these charts, you can’t go wrong in the plotting process! I’ll use these forever. There were also some treasures I found in here like Linda Howard’s 12 Steps of Intimacy, and how to write a fight scene, which I never thought I needed to know! Overall I thought this book was brilliant and it will remain on my bookshelf forever.
August 17, 2024
Dusted off and updated.
I read the original version of this book around 2006. It became one of my favorite reference books for romance writing. So of course, I picked up the revised book to see what had changed. It is still one of my all-time favorites. The book has been updated with newer analogies and references throughout. This is one any romance writer would appreciate.
I read the original version of this book around 2006. It became one of my favorite reference books for romance writing. So of course, I picked up the revised book to see what had changed. It is still one of my all-time favorites. The book has been updated with newer analogies and references throughout. This is one any romance writer would appreciate.
August 18, 2019
Very useful and informative. Great resource!
September 13, 2014
I like reading books about writing, and erotic anything is a hot genre these days, no pun intended. So when I saw Angela Knight’s Passionate Ink, released by Loose Id, I had to give it a try.
This book is ideal for writers new to the erotic romance genre. The author explains the distinction between romance (which relies heavily on sexual tension) and erotic romance (where the characters are having sex, and plenty of it). Under those circumstances, something else will have to keep the characters apart—either their own personalities or some external conflict, or both.
There are plenty of examples from the author’s books, with the author adding notes throughout to show what she was trying to do in terms of intensifying conflict and deepening the relationship. I also appreciated the warning about what can happen if you tease your readership too much. The more you build up the anticipation leading to the sex, the better that needs to be.
The example given here is of one book where this buildup lasted for hundreds of pages. When it finally did happen, it didn’t last very long (due to the author, not due to the hero) and the impression that gave was of an author who wasn’t really comfortable with writing about sex. Hence the protracted teasing which lead up to a fizzle. Personally, I’m fine with fade-to-black in novels like Gone with the Wind, but yeah, if I pick up a hot romance I want heat.
Another such EroFail is when the sex is too emotionally heavy—for instance, one of the characters is severely scarred from rape. This can work great in other genres. But in erotic romance, the reader expects lots of exciting sex. If the sex comes off as difficult or heartbreaking because of the characters’ physical/emotional wounds, this might be tough to pull off.
One thing I didn’t like about this book was the author’s heavy reliance on alpha males—basically, 200-pound guys who sweat testosterone, who are always ready for “a fight or a fuck”. Even if these are common in erotic romance, I would have loved to see more nuances here. I’m not asking for a man who’s shy or passive. I just want to see someone who would rather outthink the villain than outfight him.
But I did appreciate the her suggestions for how to write an erotic novella or a short story. There really isn’t much room here for the hero and heroine (or other hero) to meet for the first time, so it helps if they have a past history, especially a past romantic history. I used to wonder about whether a romance could be compressed into a short story a la Ellora’s Cave’s Quickies, and this went far towards answering that question.
The book also includes notes on fight scenes, medieval battles, the difference between plate and mail and why the designs of swords changed—which I wasn’t expecting. It’s an unexpected bonus in an erotic-writing book.
But it looked so amazing in Blade Runner!
Finally, there’s an appendix of non-fiction books dealing with sex, BDSM, etc. I didn’t go through this in any detail, but that’s because this is a very comprehensive book that covers a lot of angles, which meant I needed to finish it quick and return it to the library. Not a gotta-have-it-forever keeper, but definitely an engaging and useful read.
This book is ideal for writers new to the erotic romance genre. The author explains the distinction between romance (which relies heavily on sexual tension) and erotic romance (where the characters are having sex, and plenty of it). Under those circumstances, something else will have to keep the characters apart—either their own personalities or some external conflict, or both.
There are plenty of examples from the author’s books, with the author adding notes throughout to show what she was trying to do in terms of intensifying conflict and deepening the relationship. I also appreciated the warning about what can happen if you tease your readership too much. The more you build up the anticipation leading to the sex, the better that needs to be.
The example given here is of one book where this buildup lasted for hundreds of pages. When it finally did happen, it didn’t last very long (due to the author, not due to the hero) and the impression that gave was of an author who wasn’t really comfortable with writing about sex. Hence the protracted teasing which lead up to a fizzle. Personally, I’m fine with fade-to-black in novels like Gone with the Wind, but yeah, if I pick up a hot romance I want heat.
Another such EroFail is when the sex is too emotionally heavy—for instance, one of the characters is severely scarred from rape. This can work great in other genres. But in erotic romance, the reader expects lots of exciting sex. If the sex comes off as difficult or heartbreaking because of the characters’ physical/emotional wounds, this might be tough to pull off.
One thing I didn’t like about this book was the author’s heavy reliance on alpha males—basically, 200-pound guys who sweat testosterone, who are always ready for “a fight or a fuck”. Even if these are common in erotic romance, I would have loved to see more nuances here. I’m not asking for a man who’s shy or passive. I just want to see someone who would rather outthink the villain than outfight him.
But I did appreciate the her suggestions for how to write an erotic novella or a short story. There really isn’t much room here for the hero and heroine (or other hero) to meet for the first time, so it helps if they have a past history, especially a past romantic history. I used to wonder about whether a romance could be compressed into a short story a la Ellora’s Cave’s Quickies, and this went far towards answering that question.
The book also includes notes on fight scenes, medieval battles, the difference between plate and mail and why the designs of swords changed—which I wasn’t expecting. It’s an unexpected bonus in an erotic-writing book.
From a physics standpoint, a gun that could send somebody flying would also send you flying in the opposite direction when you fired it. So resist the urge to knock somebody through a plate glass window with a bullet.
But it looked so amazing in Blade Runner!
Finally, there’s an appendix of non-fiction books dealing with sex, BDSM, etc. I didn’t go through this in any detail, but that’s because this is a very comprehensive book that covers a lot of angles, which meant I needed to finish it quick and return it to the library. Not a gotta-have-it-forever keeper, but definitely an engaging and useful read.
January 14, 2017
I really like this book and was glad to have found an ebook version on Google Books. I originally read it when it was released in trade paperback and like the amount of information in it. The only "problem" I have is that it has a lot of excerpts in it from one of my favorite romances, Jane's Warlord, and reading those bits makes me want to read that book...again. If you are considering writing erotic romance, this book will help cover a lot of what you will no doubt need to know in this genre. It's a lot of work, even as it's also a lot of fun. Just be ready to read this book more than once as it does have a lot of information and you might not pick up on all of it in your first run through of it.
July 22, 2010
I found large portions of this book to be a very dry read and the others to be semi-entertaining. Knight's writing style struck me as rather inconsistent but, despite this, I did find a large chunk of the content to be interesting & useful. Knight brings up some suggestions/ideas/techniques with plot, character development and dialogue that I had not considered before with my own writing even the writing that is not of the Erotic Romance genre. All in all, I thought it was relevant and worth the read.
July 31, 2008
Like most books that propose to tell you how to write a specific genre, this book gives a few hints for that, then gives advice applicalble for writing any kind of book.
Nevertheless, Angela Knight is amusing and tells stories about her own experiences as an author. This is interesting, but if you aren't remotely interested in erotic romance, you can get the same information in many other books.
Nevertheless, Angela Knight is amusing and tells stories about her own experiences as an author. This is interesting, but if you aren't remotely interested in erotic romance, you can get the same information in many other books.
March 6, 2020
My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.
July 22, 2011
I attended a workshop Ms. Knight gave on writing short for Novella's. Her direct easy to understand approach in the workshop led me to pick up this book when I saw it. True to form the book is a keeper. I recommend to aspiring erotic romance writer to make this one part of their learning library
March 18, 2014
A really nice book to teach you a little something about writing erotic romance novels for beginners. The cover is just gorgeous and really fits the theme nicely, which is the reason why I bought the paperback version and not the digital one.
December 1, 2010
A nice look at what writing erotic romance entails, and what a good story needs!
December 13, 2011
I've got a long way to go with this one. I love the way she romanticizes the writing life as she describes exactly how to get your bad self published.
February 6, 2017
Good starter book but I already know most of the tricks here. Maybe it's time to do something about it.
October 9, 2011
Theromantic conflict chart is a great tool.
July 7, 2012
Loved this one. A great book for the shelves of any writer or romance or erotica.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews