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Writing the Romance Novel
About the Author
LEIGH MICHAELS is the author of more than 70 contemporary romance novels. More than 30 million copies of her books have been printed, in 25 languages and more than 120 countries. A six-time finalist in the Romance Writers of America RITA contest for best traditional romance, she also teaches romance writing.
LEIGH MICHAELS is the author of more than 70 contemporary romance novels. More than 30 million copies of her books have been printed, in 25 languages and more than 120 countries. A six-time finalist in the Romance Writers of America RITA contest for best traditional romance, she also teaches romance writing.
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About the author
Leigh Michaels
353 books176 followersLeigh Michaels is the pseudonym used by LeAnn Lemberger (b. July 27 in Iowa, United States), a popular United States writer of over 85 romance novels. She has published with Harlequin, Sourcebooks, Montlake Romance, Writers Digest Books, and Arcadia Publishing. She teaches romance writing at Gotham Writers' Workshop (www.writingclasses.com) She is the author of On Writing Romance.
When Leigh was fifteen she wrote her first romance novel and burned it. She burned five more complete manuscripts before submitting to a publisher. The first submission was accepted by Harlequin, the only publisher to look at it, and was published in 1984.
Michaels was born in Iowa, United States. She received a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, after three years of study and maintained a 3.93 grade-point average. She received the Robert Bliss Award as top-ranking senior in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and won a national William Randolph Hearst Award for feature-writing as an undergraduate.
She is married to Michael W. Lemberger, an artist-photographer.
When Leigh was fifteen she wrote her first romance novel and burned it. She burned five more complete manuscripts before submitting to a publisher. The first submission was accepted by Harlequin, the only publisher to look at it, and was published in 1984.
Michaels was born in Iowa, United States. She received a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, after three years of study and maintained a 3.93 grade-point average. She received the Robert Bliss Award as top-ranking senior in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and won a national William Randolph Hearst Award for feature-writing as an undergraduate.
She is married to Michael W. Lemberger, an artist-photographer.
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
July 4, 2019
This is one of a large stack of books on fiction writing, and one of three specific to romance, that I decided to survey together (by dint of them all being present at the library at the same time!). For reference, the other two were How to Write a Romance for the New Markets, ed. Kathryn Falk, and Writing Romances: A handbook for by the Romance Writers of America, eds. Rita Gallagher and Rita Clay Estrada.
Of the books specific to romance, this is the strongest, largely because it is the only one not written as a compilation from many different authors. Having a single author means this book is well organized in format as well as in content. It is also a more fundamental-- and thus more useful for beginners-- book on the craft of writing, covering the basics of structure and literary devices you might find in a more generalized writing guide, but tailoring every lesson to be relevant to romances. This also makes the perspective a bit myopic; I find that even with romance in mind there is great inspiration to be had by considering ideas that don't fit into a specific box.
If you're looking for a good starting point for romance writing, go with this one! But to avoid the many pitfalls of the genre, I'd recommend pairing it with a light read through How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them—A Misstep-by-Misstep Guide (best enjoyed if you're a voracious reader of novels of varying merit). If you want to get deeper into either literary writing or romance how-tos, there are other books out there.
Of the books specific to romance, this is the strongest, largely because it is the only one not written as a compilation from many different authors. Having a single author means this book is well organized in format as well as in content. It is also a more fundamental-- and thus more useful for beginners-- book on the craft of writing, covering the basics of structure and literary devices you might find in a more generalized writing guide, but tailoring every lesson to be relevant to romances. This also makes the perspective a bit myopic; I find that even with romance in mind there is great inspiration to be had by considering ideas that don't fit into a specific box.
If you're looking for a good starting point for romance writing, go with this one! But to avoid the many pitfalls of the genre, I'd recommend pairing it with a light read through How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them—A Misstep-by-Misstep Guide (best enjoyed if you're a voracious reader of novels of varying merit). If you want to get deeper into either literary writing or romance how-tos, there are other books out there.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review