Collette Cameron | A Chocoholic’s Take: Why Writing Romance is Like Chocolate

What does she mean writing romance is like chocolate? Come on. Trust me.

The first thing you do to make chocolate is pick the beans, then let them ferment. This is the choosing the plot and contemplating the story-line stage of writing romance. Here’s where writers decide on goals, motivations, the length of their novel, what the story arc will be—you know, all that fun pre-writing stuff.

The next step: processing the beans. Everything that can’t be made into chocolate has to be picked out. Then, the beans are dried and crushed. This is where the writer creates deep POV, develops their characters, introduces conflict, and does rudimentary editing.

Okay, so now we have chocolate in its most basic form. You’d be hard pressed to recognize it though. Rough and grainy, it doesn’t resemble the chocolate we’re accustomed to seeing and eating. We’re talking first draft manuscript here folks.

That’s why chocolate is run through a series of steel rollers to get a fine texture (polishing the manuscript). Think: writing, rewriting, adding and removing scenes, details, dialogue and actions.

Are we done? Of course not! Has a writer ever gone through their manuscript just once? Well, chocolate gets the same treatment. It goes through a machine that gives it a smooth texture. In writing, this is the critiquing, beta reading, and content and copy editing.

This smoothing process is repeated several times to give chocolate its lovely glossy look. Sound familiar? Like polishing a writer’s manuscript isn’t it? We have chocolate and we have our novel, but not all romance genres are the same. Neither is chocolate. Think about heat levels of romances. For sweet romance—you know nothing on the page—we have white chocolate, then milk chocolate, a little semi-sweet, dark chocolate, and for the really daring, bitter sweet chocolate.

There are personal tastes about what to include in a chocolate romance too. Do you prefer creams and caramels (smooth sailing and happily-ever-afters) or nougats, nuts, and chews that offer a bit of mystery, intrigue, or danger? Now, add the subplots; a little sea salt for pirates or cayenne pepper for those sexy Arabian nights. Oh, and let’s not forget fruit for something unexpected and tantalizing. I’ve even seen bacon dipped in chocolate. I’ll let you use your imaginations for that one.

As we all know, writing romance doesn’t just mean writing a full length novel. Oh no. There are novellas, short stories, series, trilogies, and sagas. Romance writing can be so many things just like chocolate; hot chocolate, cakes, puddings, candy, mousse, ice-cream—

What happens to all of those, I ask you? They get consumed—devoured; yep, just like romances.

One final tidbit for you; studies have shown that smelling chocolate makes people buy more books. No, I’m not making this up. Google it. Maybe publishers should consider scratch-and- sniff book covers or chocolate scented pages. What do you think?

The Viscount's Vow

Half Romani, noblewoman Evangeline Caruthers is the last woman in England Ian Hamilton, the Viscount Warrick, could ever love—an immoral wanton responsible for his brother’s and father’s deaths.

Vangie thinks Ian’s a foul-tempered blackguard, who after setting out to cause her downfall, finds himself forced to marry her—snared in the trap of his own making. When Vangie learns the marriage ceremony itself may have been a ruse, she flees to her gypsy relatives, declaring herself divorced from Ian under Romani law. He pursues her to the gypsy encampment, and when the handsome gypsy king offers to take Ian’s place in Vangie’s bed, jealousy stirs hot and dangerous.

Under a balmy starlit sky, Ian and Vangie breech the chasm separating them, yet peril lurks. Ian is the last in his family line, and his stepmother is determined to dispose of the newlyweds so her daughter can inherit his estate. Only by trusting each other can Ian and Vangie overcome scandal and murderous betrayal.