What makes for a good romance in fiction? We can all think of our favorite romances, but you need to break them down to write them well.

Romance has always been a part of my books. My work-in-progress, Trevor and the Eight of Swords, is the first one where romance (albeit a dark one) is the focus. There are five things I found are must-haves in fictional romances.

1. We must care about the romantic partners.

They may be wonderful people who we want to see get deserved happiness. Or they may be so wild and out-of-pocket that we can’t help but see what happens next. But unless our audience cares about who these people are, they won’t care what happens to them.

We should always make our characters human and three-dimensional, and it’s especially important in romance. Titanicisn’t about any poor boy and rich girl. It’s about Jack and Rose, the poor and passionate artist and the woman who wants to escape a confined life.

Add depth and detail into your characters. Let readers get to know them. Then, readers will root for them to fall in love.

2. Romance starts with physical attraction.

Ultimately, relationships are built on the characters’ personalities and conduct, but physical attraction is how a romance is kicked off. It doesn’t have to be the character’s appearance. It could be a helpful act a character does for someone else. It could be how someone performs a task. In Amiga, Laura first gets attracted to Kevin by watching him install a circuit board in a computer. There needs to be something about a prospective partner that makes that person stand out to the character and makes them think, “I must get to know this person.”

3. Romance is a process of discovery.

After the initial attraction, romance becomes a process of discovery. They get to know each other. They learn their personal histories, interests, and values. They let down their guards. In time, they encounter aspects of each other that are unattractive, and they decide whether they can accept them.

I feel this is the most fascinating and underrated part of romance. We can explore these characters in detail as they learn about each other and themselves. We can show their unhealed inner wounds and offer them opportunities for growth. Through this growth, we develop conflict and theme. These reasons are why discovery is an important part of a romance.

4. Conflict can come from many areas.

Every good story needs conflict. With romance, you have more choices than the typical love triangle and family disapproval.

Other impediments to a romantic relationship include:

• Lack of self-worth: Something within a character may make them feel they’re unworthy of love. The character is not only driven to be in love with another person but must learn to love themselves.
• Financial problems: A crisis like a job loss or an impending bankruptcy is a relatable source of conflict in a romance. It could hurt a growing romance if a partner can’t afford to date, or their money struggles are a source of shame.
• Job pressures: Another realistic conflict is how the demands of a job can interfere with a budding relationship. Someone who has to work a lot of overtime or hold down two or three jobs wouldn’t have enough time for a relationship. And what if they fall in love with someone they work with?
• Family demands: A character may be a single parent or have a chronically ill family member and is torn between their responsibility to that person and the person they love. If something a character did (or failed to do) caused that family member to become dependent, it heightens the conflict.

You can combine different types of conflict to raise the stakes and drama. A love triangle can be combined with a financial conflict. A character may be forced to choose between the person they passionately love, or they may have to settle for someone they dislike but can get them out of their money problems. Family disapproval can be tied with family demands. The family disapproves of the character’s lover because they would pull them away from taking care of their grandparent. By being creative with your conflicts, you can write compelling stories.

5. True romance requires freedom.

A relationship between characters we can get invested in that starts with the spark of physical attraction, becomes richer with discovery, and stronger by dealing with conflict is one readers can root for—but only if the characters enter it freely. There’s nothing romantic about characters who are forced into relationships, stalked until they relent to their stalker, or tricked into falling for someone. And here’s a tip for incels and those who grew up with Luke and Laura: There’s nothing romantic about rape!

This freedom is also required for authors who write romances.

A bill in the Oklahoma legislature would punish those who publish “pornography” while a “closed-door” publisher launched an online campaign against “smut” in romantic fiction. These accompany years of book banning efforts that don’t just target “explicit” content, but books about LGBTQ+, Black, Hispanic, Jewish, and other communities as well as anything that goes against their world view.

And even if you write “clean” or Christian romance, they’ll eventually come after you.

Book banners don’t want you telling your story. They want to tell their story (or have AI crank out books using their models). If you want the freedom to tell your story, you need to stand up for everyone’s right to tell their stories in their own way.

Freedom and love go together, as Jiddu Krishnamurti wrote. To write good romance, your characters should be free to love, to explore what that love means to them, and to strengthen that love through whatever challenges they face. And as an author, you should be free to write about that love.