Earn that Kiss! - Jo Noelle

Hello all! I attended a writing conference in Eagle Mountain, Utah today. It was a fantastic day! Started out with a carpool with fellow writer Emily Daniels and the rest was filled with great authors and presentations. 

First class of the day: Earn that Kiss with the co-authors who write clean romance novels under the pen name Jo Noelle. 

Here are some of the notes I took:

Types of Love stories/Relationships

• Love at first sight
• Oops (imbalance of power, often inappropriate - think boss and employee)
• Forbidden love (changes rules of society they are in - think romeo and juliet)
• Love/Hate (tension leads)
• Childhood friends (like a rubber band - they keep coming back to each other, can't stay apart)
• Best Friends/Friends First 
• Rivals (pressure from other friends / try to ignore growing attraction - think High School Musical)
• Love Triangle (only a triangle if both "options" have a real shot - Peeta, Gale, and Katniss in the Hunger Games

• Sorry, I'm taken (One-sided sometimes, guilt and sadness sometimes - better for a subplot unless it has a happy ending. 
• In disguise (one or both are hiding identities - causes trust issues)
• Different worlds (like Aladdin - cultural differences, hard to understand each other)
• Second chance (Sweet Home Alabama)
• Tragic Past
• Long distance relationship
• Unattainable (1-sided love, also really hard to do in a true romance (must have happy ending!))
• Lovers in Denial 
• Passionate love (lust first, emotional connection comes later)
• Sweethearts Forever
• Opposites attract
• Similarities attract
• Partners in crime
• Arranged marriage/date
• First love
• Long-term lovers

​12 steps to believable romance

1. Checking out
2. Flirting
3. Get to know
4. First touch
5. Arm in arm / to shoulder
6. Arm to waist
7. Kissing (YAY!)
8. Hand to head
9. Hand to body (not second base...unless you write like that)
10. (Insert more steps here for how far you're comfortable going)

If you're a writer with romance in your story (even as a subplot!), here's your homework:

1) Identify the type of relationship
2) Choose a scene and build a new step of attraction

This awesome content is not mine, but belongs to Jo Noelle!

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