Why Fantasy Romance?

I didn't start out writing romance. In fact, my first book, the one my mom insisted I finish after my "short story," was what I classify as "Epic Fantasy" without any real romantic elements. At 230k words, no agent, editor, or publisher would touch it since I was an unknown.

So I turned to "short story" romance to hone my craft. See, the key element I identified in my writing that needed work was character building in fewer words.

I wrote my big book imagining it as an action-adventure movie, but movies have an interesting, visual way of developing characters. I won't pretend to be an expert in screenplays, acting, and directing, but I knew something was up with my characters.

Pro tip: Just because your first book is a giant doesn't make a 75k book a "short story." If you call it that, others will be confused and perhaps even offended. Google industry nomenclature before you characterize your work.

But back to my journey, I wrote Dragon's Avarice next. I wanted a small cast of characters with distinct voices and traits. I wanted a female who knew her worth and a male that could be proud to stand beside her. I wanted to explore the "Cinderella" archetype where a rags-to-riches character finds her place in the limelight in her own way. Thus, Saskia was born.

Still, I wasn't really happy with my first draft. And I didn't really understand the romance genre. I hadn't read too many romance books, so I had a hard time picking out the elements I liked and didn't like.

I tried again with Alpha's Druid. This time, I added more guys, more expletives, more sex, and more trigger points. I was really proud of this one and actually loved it so much that I immediately started working on the sequel, which I completely re-wrote after 50k words because I hated the female main character. But when I passed it over to an author friend, she introduced me to (a) white space, (b) dialog tags, and (c) sensory queues for world immersion. So, back to the revisioning step.

Somewhere along the line, I started Moon Blessed, and honestly, that felt like a turning point. I love my characters. I love their motivation, their voice, their energy. I even love their flaws. So I then went back to Dragon's Avarice and Alpha's Druid to revise. Now, I think they are in a much better place. I think the stories are engaging, the characters interesting, the adventure thrilling, and the world immersive.

And that's what I was going for. I'm still honing my skill. I probably have a long way to go, but each manuscript I create refines my voice. I've got eight stories over 50k words right now, but only three I'm ready to push to publication. I'll start there and keep going, learning from my writing community as I go.

TLDR: Roadblocks in the publication process don't mean your story is terrible. It's likely to be fantastic, but there could be issues with it. My problem? I wrote it like an essay, not a novel. Don't give up, but don't stop learning and growing.