a question about romance series

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Monkeyarcher

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Romance is a bit of a foreign language for me (both in writing and in life) but I am working on learning. So sorry ahead of time if this is a silly question (I am the master of the dumb question, by the way), but how do romance series work?I mean those series with the same primary characters in each book, such as the ones centering around a detective agency. It seems that after the first book, the character has met the love ingest and fallen in love, so after that it is no longer a "romance" Street by the common definitions I have heard - the meeting, the conflicted pairing, the over-coming of said conflicts, the HEA, etc. At the very least, the meeting and the HEA seem to be taken care of.
So how do these continue as romances and not just adventures with a love interest?
 

Feldkamp

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I used to work as an outliner for an indie romance publisher. The outlines always had to be serialized. The best way I can think to describe it is to picture the series being written like a television show. Take Grey's Anatomy, for instance - the romance is never static. Characters fall in and out of love, challenges arise that test emotions, there isn't simply a "we love each other and now it's happily ever after."

Continuing the romance element is about creating obstacles that strengthen or weaken the relationship throughout the series.
 

girlyswot

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They don't. Mostly they are other genres with some romantic elements, like J D Robb's In Death series.

Some series work by having a different couple featured in each book, but set within the same world.
 

MsLaylaCakes

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It's not a dumb question at all. There are several ways I've seen it done--here are the three I can think of off the top of my head:

1) Same couple over several books: This is rarer, but it's possible. You can have a "happy ending" that is the beginning of a relationship in the 1st book, a more committed relationship in the second, an engagement in the third, a wedding in the fourth, etc. Examples of these are Suzanne Enoch's Samantha Jellicoe series and Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter series (the first 3 books anyway).

2) A different couple in each book, but they all have something in common. Characters also tend to play cameo roles in each other's books. This can be a shared family (Nora Robert's MacGregor Series or Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series), sports team (Susan Elizabeth Phillip's Chicago Stars series), setting/world (Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series)--the field is wide open.

3) Multi-author series: Different books, written by different authors, all sharing some defining characteristic as determined by the publisher. This can be anything--same world, a certain character, the same family, a set story arc. In this case, the books being in the same "series" is primarily a signal to the reader that they are getting the same "type" of book.
 

LJD

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Often they focus on different couples. Like for a detective agency, book 1 would focus on one person who works at the agency and whomever he/she falls in in love with, and book 2 would be about another character there and his/her romance. Characters could be connected by where they work, as in your example. Or it could be a group of friends, siblings, people who live in a small town, etc.
 

KimJo

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I have a romance series (male/male paranormal) that follows the same couple throughout. I made it work by having something occur in each book that threatens the relationship. Things ranging from arguments between the guys to the threat of being killed by a senile werewolf ruler. My guys have "happy for now" endings in each book, but their final happy-ever-after ending doesn't come until the final book in the series.
 

Monkeyarcher

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thank you. For both the helpful answers and the idea that a senile werewolf could be on the same level as when I forget to empty the trash. ;)
 
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Becky Black

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I'm working on the third book in a series following the same couple too, have another one I'm planning on doing later, and I'm a reader of several (m/m especially) series books that follow the same characters.

This is tough to admit here, but I kind of don't believe in the "happy ever after" ending. I'm more into "You're happy now and I'd say you have a good chance of staying that way, maybe even spending the rest of your lives together." But even if that's the case all relationships develop and change over time. Things like getting married make a big change to the relationship and definitely should not be the end of romance. :D

If the stories are still to be classified as Romance rather than simply a relationship drama, then each book has to end with a satisfying resolution, and, I think as far as the romance side goes, any of the books could be the end of the series. (There might be other ongoing unresolved things, but for the relationship, we should be able to leave them at that point and be sure they're okay.)

Some series ones don't do that - Josh Lanyon's Adrien English series for one. It takes some time for the central romance to be resolved. The series as a whole could be classified as Romance, since they get their happy ending eventually. But not all of the individual books could be - the 3rd one especially.

The best thing for you to do to understand how this works is to go read some romance series books - preferably a finished series - so you can see how the writer balances the romance story of each individual book, against the arc of the whole series.
 

Monkeyarcher

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well, I have been diving into a variety of romance novels, with varying degrees of success. And I think there is one type that I am being most confused by. I am going to paraphrase a description from a variety of book descriptions of series I have seen --

"After her last case, Victoria thought her days as a psychic detective were behind her. But that was before the mysterious calls started coming. And before she started sensing being followed, even when no one was around. And before she heard the strange howling in the distance. And before the mysterious stranger came to her one night insisting that she help him find a legendary artifact.
Now she must find the artifact before the men in black find her and her client. How can she focus on saving the day when she is suddenly finding herself wanting to follow her heart into the dark stranger's arms?
Book 3 of the Victoria Lovebookherokraft Chronicles."

This seems to be all over the romance titles, mainly paranormal, but also some thriller. is the lead just falling in love with a different character each book?
 
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