Suspense In A Romance

Will the beautiful girl ever receive a kiss from that heartthrob who's been keeping her at arm's distance? Will the love-torn man ever get a glance from that girl he's been pining over? Will the unrequited love of the couple we can't help but root for ever be fulfilled?

Of course it will. That's the whole point of a romance novel ... to see a love story have a happy ending.

Every reader who picks up a good romance knows exactly how the story goes. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy slays the dragon, overcomes the wicked lord, and wins the heart of his sweetness all with one dashing wave of his sword, and they sweep off into the sunset to live happily ever after. Or, with today's modern heroine taking the forefront of bravery and wits, the fair opposite sex might accomplish that same thing, winning the hand of her true love. She knew she would - modern heroines always get what they want.

So if the outcome of the story is guaranteed and everyone knows what it will be, how do you maintain suspense in a modern romance novel to keep readers turning the pages? That's a quandary many a writer faces when penning love and rending emotions. But maintaining suspense in a romance novel is fairly easy to do, with a few good tricks.

Let's look at what suspense really is. Suspense is anticipation of what's to come, but with a level of uncertainty involved that makes the reader wonder just when that first kiss will occur or ask how on earth the couple will manage to ever be together. Suspense is having the reader unsure; not of what will happen, but when it will happen. In fact, the reader should be doubtful the whole affair will even occur - even when they know it will.

Adding suspense to a romance novel is all about adding obstacles that make the couple's fulfillment of love doubtful. If fulfillment of love were as easy as discussing the matter together to arrive at a similar conclusion (ie, that the two main characters love each other), then there wouldn't be any romance novels, or they certainly wouldn't resemble any romance novel you've ever read. From historical epics of broken hearts to modern tales of regular men and women falling into Cupid's grasp, obstacles are key.

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If the couple gets together, have them be interrupted before they kiss. Better yet, have them be interrupted by the girl's father. Who hates the man she loves. Who, in fact, has the power to prevent the relationship from occurring. Who places a difficult ultimatum on the girl so that she's caught between a rock and a hard place. And there you have it: What will the girl choose? Will she win the boy's heart and win her father over? Will she escape the restraints her father has created?

Distance is another great way to add suspense. The farther the loving couple is apart, the less chance they'll have of getting together in the end - unless, of course, the man swims oceans and battles vicious sea creatures to be at the side of his dearest fondness. By then, she might be married off to someone else - and she loves him too. Who should she choose?

See how it goes? Difficult decisions always figure somewhere in novels that play with raw emotion and people's feelings.

Even better than all that, having two main characters who don't even realize that they really want to be and should be together can add plenty of suspense. The reader knows they should be. It's visible. Why wouldn't those main characters get together? And yet, it seems that with each page, there's always something stopping the girl and boy from figuring out what's right in front of their face. Your hero and heroine will end up with a frustrated cheering crowd of readers screaming, "KISS HER, ALREADY!"

Of course, another way to maintain suspense in your plot is to have a secondary plot running through the story, one that isn't related to love in the least. Many romance novels intertwine two plots and carry that off very nicely indeed. The main plot is the developing relationship, and the secondary plot (because in romance novels, everything comes second to love) involves the quest, the mission, the job, the situation, or whatever else can come in and make life difficult.

But difficult or not, when the last page is turned, all the readers can heave a sigh of relief. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause, and yes, reader, the girl received her kiss, the man won a glance, and the couple that desperately wanted to be together ends up married to live happily ever after.