Tips for Writing an Action-Adventure/Romance Novel

Develop Strong and Relatable Characters

The best tip for writing a novel in any genre is going to be to make your characters relatable so that your reader becomes invested in their story. Your protagonist needs to be a believable action hero (or a reluctant one,) but needs to show that they have emotional depth and vulnerabilities that will open them up not only for your love interest but your reader as well.

Sure you’re protagonist can be a big strong brute who kills without mercy, but he saved a kitten from growing so he can’t be all that bad.

Balance Action and Romance

To have both action and romance you’re going to want to make sure you are giving both aspects equal attention in order to have an Action/Romance novel and not just an action novel — with a bit of romance thrown in or just a romance novel with a bit of action.

Try to integrate your thrilling action scenes with moments of emotional connection or tension between your protagonist and their love interest.

Create High-Stakes Conflicts

To make sure you really drive that your novel is going to be action and adventure you’re going to need to keep the stakes high. Physical challenges, dangerous situations, and obstacles that will test the strength and resolve of your character. However, your romance will also need to be high stakes as well. External threats, internal conflict, sacrifices and consequences, moral dilemmas. As much as you are stopping your protagonist from achieving their goal put as much in between them securing their love interest.

Build a Vivid and Immersive Setting

Including setting seems like a bit of a no-brainer when it comes to writing but in the case of combining both action and adventure with romance you need to use all the tools in your arsenal and use the setting to create an atmosphere for both of these to flourish you’ll need your setting to be something more than just an ordinary office setting every day.

Use Dialogue to Convey Chemistry and Tension

Other than having your protagonist kicking butt wherever they go you also want to make sure you are building the connection between them and the love interest. Building the chemistry between them with dialogue and using it to captivate your readers with their meaningful conversations and witty banner will have your readers rooting for your characters to end up happily ever after.

Incorporate Plot Twists and Surprises

This is arguably the most important aspect of both action and adventure novels and romance. If you’re not keeping your reader on their toes then what’s even the point? Keep some things unpredictable and keep your readers wondering what’s next to really drive the excitement up as they read on to find out what comes next.

Ensure a Satisfying Resolution

Your protagonist has to be successful in one of these endeavors, either the adventure they set out to conquer or winning the heart of their love interest. Ideally, you would satisfy your reader with both of these, but if you’re planning to write a sequel or you’re like me and you don't always believe books should have a happily ever after then pick one or the other.

If your protagonist fails at both then your reader may leave your book frustrated and unsatisfied, unless your goal is to have them throw your book across the room and then go eat their body weight in ice cream.

Hope this helps!

Keep reading and keep writing.

With Love,

B.K. xo

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