allaboutlove online romantic fiction courses

Available Courses

• The Guide to Writing Romance

  • Teacher: Jo-Anne Richards
  • Teacher: Richard Beynon

  

  The Guide to Writing Romance will introduce you to everything you need to know about writing romantic fiction. We’ll discuss what romance is, who your readers are and the expectations they have of you. We’ll also equip you with all the basic writing skills you need to write a novel:
  

  • Preparing yourself for the writing life.
  • Overcoming self-consciousness and getting started.
  • Developing your own unique voice.
  • Creating believable characters.
    
  • Showing off your characters without reams of explanation.
  • Revealing your characters’ pasts, without boring your readers to tears.
  • Writing authentic dialogue.
    
  • Building a story, with both conflict and romance.
  • Maintaining suspense.
  • Writing a good climax and resolution, while keeping the tension taut.
  • Structuring your story and keeping up the pace.
    
  • Writing love scenes.
  • Choosing the best possible viewpoint.
  • Creating a world for your characters to live in – setting and background

  .Each module will end with an exercise. We will respond to each with helpful and constructive advice. Every module is designed to be completed as part of your busy week. But you are free to work through the course as fast or slowly as you like.
  
  If you have completed Module 1, sign up now for the rest of the course. If you have not yet completed Module 1, click here for access to your free first module.
  
  Cost ZAR 3600
  Prices are in South African Rands. Use this currency convertor to convert to other currencies.
  
• The Guide to Writing Lesbian Romance

  • Teacher: Richard Beynon
  • Teacher: Jo-Anne Richards
  • Teacher: Ann Smith

  

  The Guide to Writing Lesbian Romance will introduce you to everything you need to know about writing lesbian romantic fiction. This course will give you the same writing skills as the straight Guide to Writing Romance. But it has been geared specifically to lesbian love stories.
  
  These differ from straight romances, in that your readers have different expectations of your characters. We’ll discuss what romance is, who your readers are and what expectations they have of you.
  
  We’ll also will equip you with all the basic writing skills to write a novel:
  
  • Preparing yourself for the writing life.
  • Overcoming self-consciousness and getting started.
  • Developing your own unique voice.
  • Creating believable characters.
  • Showing off your characters – what they’re like and who they are - without reams of explanation.
  • Revealing your characters’ pasts, without boring your readers to tears.
  • Writing authentic dialogue.
  • Building a story, with both conflict and romance.
  • Maintaining suspense.
  • Writing a good climax and resolution, while keeping the tension taut.
  • Structuring your story and keeping up the pace.
  • Writing love scenes.
  • Choosing the best possible viewpoint.
  • Creating a world for your characters to live in – setting and background.
  
  Each module will end with an exercise. We will respond to each with helpful and constructive advice. Every module is designed to be completed as part of your busy week. But you are free to work through the course as fast or slowly as you like.
  
  If you have completed Module 1, sign up now for the rest of the course. If you have not yet completed Module 1, click here for access to your free first module.
  
  Cost ZAR 3600
  Prices are in South African Rands. Use this currency convertor to convert to other currencies.
  
  
• Write A Romance – your step-by-step programme.

  • Teacher: Richard Beynon
  • Teacher: Jo-Anne Richards

  

  This is our advanced guide to writing a romance. We’ll match you step for step as you create your first romantic novel. It is intended to follow on The Guide to Writing Romance, in which you will have learned the basics and worked at your romance skills.
  
  Now is the time to commit yourself. By investing a couple of hours each day, you should have completed a 50 000 word novel by the end of our programme, which is intended to take six months.
  
  Building on the foundation laid in our Guide to Writing Romance, this programme runs you through the practical application of your skills. We will guide and support you as you turn your idea into a working novel.
  
  The steps of the journey:
  • Coming up with the idea and preparing for the writer’s life.
  • Creating your hero, heroine and subsidiary characters.
  • Creating the world of your story.
  • Plotting their journey, and deciding where to begin telling it.
  • Deciding which point of view tells your story best.
  • Creating the map of your journey – the beatsheet.
  • At this point you write your first chapters, with guidance on baiting your hook.
  • How to write in compelling scenes and arcs.
  • You’re now into the heart of your story. How to balance the romance and drama and maintain suspense.
  • Writing convincing dialogue, that reveals character and drives the plot forward.
  • How to “show” rather than “tell”.
  • Writing sex that doesn’t embarrass the pants off you. Using sex to take the story forward.
  • Memory and flashback, and how they help you get over the past.
  • You’re on the final stretch. How to maintain suspense to the very end. Happy endings - keeping them believable. How to end: the cliches vs the surprising, quirky finish.
  • Assessing the work. Getting constructive feedback. Revision, light and heavy edits.
  
  Modules are designed to be completed as part of your busy week, during the planning phase, and over two weeks while you are writing. But you are free to work through the course as fast or slowly as you like.
  
  This programme contains no formal assignments. But after each module, we will suggest what to send us from your work in progress. We’ll respond to each with constructive advice.
  
  Click here to sign up.
  
  If you have not yet completed The Guide to Writing Romance, try Module 1 absolutely free.
  
  Price ZAR 4800
  
  Prices are in South African Rands. Use this currency convertor to convert to other currencies.
  
• The Guide to Writing Sex Scenes

  • Teacher: Richard Beynon
  • Teacher: Jo-Anne Richards

  

  This four-module short guide looks at how to write sex well – whatever genre you are writing. It looks at how sex can advance the plot and develop characters.
  
  We investigate why some sex scenes work and others don’t. Then we move into the realm of sex to turn the reader on: how to do it without invoking the ghastly cringe or, perhaps worse, the hysterical giggle.
  
  Finally, we deal with sex in Romance writing – what it should and shouldn’t do, and how to use it well.
  
  This course is intended to be helpful, whether you’re writing straight gay or lesbian sex. We hope it’s useful, no matter what type of fiction you write.
  
  Some of the aspects of this course are:
  • What else a sex scene must do (besides the obvious).
  • Why sex should jostle for its right to be there
  • What sex can do that other scenes can’t
  • Examples of sex used for different purposes.
  • Does it always have to be the full monty?
  • Different levels of explicitness – to achieve different effects
  • How to write sex designed to turn readers on
  • The terms to use (or, more to the point, not to use)
  • Point of View
  • Why sex scenes don’t work
  • Sex and Romance – what to consider, your readers’ expectations
  • Romance and celibacy – how to build your emotional intimacy and sexual tension, even without explicit sex
  • Setting
  
  The course will end with an assignment. We will respond with helpful and constructive advice.
  
  Cost: ZAR 1200
  
  Prices are in South African Rands. Please use the currency converter to see the cost in other currencies.
  
• Writing Erotic Fiction

  • Teacher: Karlita Diamond

  

  Seduce and Delight
  
  Would you like to be able to turn people on through words alone? Karlita
  Diamond, international woman of mystery, and published erotic fiction
  author, lets you in on her secrets. Learn the art of erotic writing,
  explore your inner sex god/dess, push your boundaries, and become a
  master/mistress of seduction. Whether you want to write for a living or
  just write for your partner, this course will equip you with everything
  you need.
  
  Every module is followed by an assignment, on which Karlita herself will give you feedback. These will help you build a story of your own. By the end of this course, you should have written your own erotic story.
  
  Here's what you'll learn:
  
  1. A brief history of erotica – erotic fiction, what the history
  is, and why people write it.
  
  2. Losing your virginity – getting over the shyness. A basic guide
  to erotica, sexual language
  
  3. What turns you on? – exploring sexuality, triggers and eroticism
  
  4. Characters – essential to any story, but particularly erotic
  fiction – how do you make characters believable, real…and sexy?
  
  5. The best place for sex – how do you weave sex into your writing
  so that it is interesting and realistic? The difference between porn and
  erotica.
  
  6. Nuts and bolts – writing sex. Detailed descriptions.
  
  7. Finding your sexual style – exploring different erotic genres.
  
  8. How far is too far? Pushing the boundaries of erotica.
  
  9. Beginnings and Endings – where do you start telling your story,
  and where do you leave your readers wanting more…
  
  10. Details! Nuance, suggestion, subtlety – the details which will make
  your story come to life.
  
  Click here to sign up now.
  
  Price ZAR 4500
  
  Prices are in South African Rands. Use this currency convertor to convert to other currencies.
  

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