Writing

How To Write A Romantasy Book

by Third Wheel Publishing.

August 14, 2024

Writing always starts with an idea, a thought that sticks in your brain and you feel as though you have to get out on paper.

The real start to writing a book, especially a romantasy, is the plot.

If you are unfamiliar with the romantasy genre, here’s a reasonable explanation:

In short, it’s a mix of two major genres:

Romance
Fantasy

A romance book seems simple to write because you have two characters who meet and fall in love with various obstacles in between. When you add the elements of fantasy and worldbuilding, you create more depth to the story and, therefore, more to consider before you begin writing.

There’s no one best way to plot out a story. Everyone finds their own style through trial and error but it’s always nice to find a place to start based on someone else’s methods.

Here is our method to starting a romantasy book (read to the end and get our plot template for free):

Your World

In a romantasy, the world you create is far more important than in many other genres. Everything throughout the book exists based on how the environment functions, the types of characters that are in the areas you design, and whether magic exists within it.

If your world does include magic, you also have to consider the type of magic system you have in place. Soft magic? Hard magic? Nature-based magic? Technology-based magic?

Every choice you make in terms of your world will affect your characters and the environment around them. It will impact choices, create boundaries, and possibly even determine who your characters can fall in love with.

Even if your world isn’t imbued with magic, the way people are governed and laws that impact choices need to be established ahead of time to make your story more cohesive and provide guidelines for your characters to either follow or break.

These may all seem like things you can create as you go but, by planning them out, you will save yourself the headache of long and tedious edits that happen because you didn’t place limitations on your world, leaving it open to plotholes.

Sure, some people get away with a good plot and subpar world-building but it’s easier to create a story if you understand where it’s set rather than trying to figure it out on the fly.

Start Right Before

The easiest way to begin the plot of your story is to set the scene right before the main character runs into the inciting incident. The moments or hours before the first conflict begins is an ideal place to grab your readers’ attention and convince them to stay until the end.

Many of these predicaments show themselves as a matter of life or death, regardless of whether the main character is truly in danger or not. The reader needs a reason to connect with the character and, in those moments before they either live or die, you have the opportunity to present them with a basis for why they should root for the character to live.

The main character might not be the most likable person in the world but their development is what is going to drive the story. So don’t skimp out on giving the reader the ability to relate to them, whether it be through their situation, feelings, or even their outlook on life.

The Meeting

Romantasy thrives on how the characters meet. This is the first point that your reader gets to experience them together and it sets the mood for the rest of the book. Is their situation calm or chaotic? Are they drawn together or do they hate each other?

There are endless ways the characters can meet and it doesn’t always have to be under bad circumstances. What’s important is to give a solid sense of how the characters feel about each other within this section of the book.

The reader needs to know the terms they stand on that will determine the choices they may make throughout the book.

Their relationship will likely change as they develop but you need to set the foundation to build upon.

Consider where you want them to end up and the dramatic changes you’d like them to experience along the way if you’re at a loss for how they should meet or feel toward each other. It doesn’t need to be a 180 to how they end up, especially since other characters will likely affect their relationship, but you need to give them room to grow.

This moment will set how your reader feels about the person who is most likely the love interest and can make for an important callback point later in the book.

The Rejection

You don’t have to necessarily think of the rejection point as being related to the primary relationship, though it often is. It could be a secondary relationship that causes a point of contention or an opportunity that the main character is struggling to decide on. Whatever it is, you need to carve out a section that focuses on the rejection of this element.

Honestly, for a romantasy book, you are going to want the rejection to have to do with a relationship but you can have multiple rejection points throughout the book. The key thing is to set aside time for the character to wrestle with the decision before making it. It’s rare that someone miraculously comes to their senses or changes their mind without introspection. Plus, the reader needs to understand why the character made that choice.

Keep in mind, even if a main character rejects their love interest or a certain opportunity, that doesn’t mean it is out of their life forever. Sometimes the rejected love interest is still a major part of the character’s life or turning down an opportunity affects their feelings in the future. Most of the time choices aren’t just black and white and it’s great when you can show that in a book (without harping on it too much).

The Catalyst

This is the point in your book where everything gets thrown into complete and utter chaos. The conflict has come to a head and things are up in the air. The reader is trying to see where the pieces will fall.

This should be where everything feels charged up and exciting like anything could happen. This part cannot fall flat. If the reader isn’t locked in for the rising action of this section of the book, it’s unlikely that they will finish the book with a favorable outlook.

The catalyst can make or break your book. If you make it too one-note, the reader will see the ending coming from a million miles away. If you make it overly complex, they might get lost and not understand how they got from the beginning to that particular ending.

As a note for complex catalysts: There are writers who can change everything that happened in a book in the span of a single page, impacting dozens of characters, and still have it make sense. It’s possible. That doesn’t mean that it is advised for all writers, especially those who are newer to putting words on paper for the enjoyment of others. The most important thing is to keep your reader engaged without confusing them.

The Climax

You’ve reached the tip of the iceberg and this is where everything comes together. All the foreshadowing you did throughout the book starts to make sense for the reader and their appreciation of your imagination and creativity is at an all-time high.

Ideally, your readers should be balking at the minute hints that were scattered throughout the previous parts of the book that led to this series of events. It shouldn’t be completely out of left field that they ended up here (even if the characters themselves are trying to work it out). You don’t want to throw the plot to the wind for shock value.

By this point, the reader will likely finish the book regardless of their feelings about how things are turning out. They’ve invested so much time into reading your work and they only have a little longer to go before they can mark it as done on Goodreads.

Unless you’ve botched your plot in some unforgivable way, they won’t DNF your book.

That doesn’t mean that they will read the next book (if you’re planning on doing a series).

This might be a good time to mention that, if you have beta readers, when you are following up on any reviews you can ask those who either didn’t finish the book or left a negative review at what point the book didn’t meet their expectations. This will help you when editing your book.

The Resolution

You’re almost at the end! The resolution is exactly what it sounds like. It’s how things end up and, if you’re creating a series, the lead-in to the next book.

This is your final chance to pull everything together if it’s a standalone book. You want to clean up as many loose ends and potential plot holes as possible by the last word of the book.

Your characters should have developed throughout the story to reach this point without too much friction. A resolution doesn’t mean that you have to give every little thing away. You can leave the reader wondering about their life after, giving yourself a chance to write another book in the future without having to commit to making it a series. Just don’t leave them with room to poke holes in the plot of this book.

If you are looking to create short side stories for your characters or world and want to share them with readers, StudioLink is the perfect place for you to post your work, gain a following, and network with those in the industry.

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This is a very straightforward way of plotting out a romantasy book and doesn’t include every instance you may want to note before you begin writing. It is designed as a starting point for you to adapt to your own writing style and the story you are creating.

Building a world and writing a story may sound easy but it takes a lot more thought and effort than many people realize. After all, the devil is in the details.

Editing and clearing up plot holes and details will be the next battle after you’ve written the first draft but, hey, you’re on your way! Before you know it, you’ll be ready to share it with the world.

The great thing is that, if you work on your plot beforehand, you might be able to save yourself some backbreaking work of trying to fix your book so that it works with the world you originally had in mind.

Romantasy is a wonderful genre and is gaining popularity among readers at a rapid pace but it is much more involved than simply having two characters run into each other and fall in love.

Here’s a meme that most romantasy readers and writers can probably relate to: