This means that the key plot points so again, things like your inciting incident, your midpoint, your climax, things like that those key plot points must revolve around your protagonist's emotional journey.

So they must serve to move your character closer to, or sometimes farther from, becoming a more fulfilled version of themselves. Now, if you're thinking that sounds like most stories that have an internal arc, then you are correct. But here's the big difference In something like a true romance novel, those key plot points need to revolve around the romantic relationship. But in a women's fiction novel, those key plot events don't necessarily have to be tied to one external through line. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo and I'm here to help you write. Writing Made Easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo and I'm here to help you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming. So each week, I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get started. In today's episode, we're going to talk about the difference between women's fiction and romance, and I'm really excited to dive into this topic because it has been one of the most highly requested topics of the year and it's a topic that I know causes a lot of confusion for writers. But don't worry, because my goal is to break things down and make it super simple in today's episode. So, to start, we're going to talk a little bit about genre in general, because this catch-all term is what I think is at the root of the majority of the confusion, and then, after we talk about that, we're going to talk about some specific characteristics of women's fiction and romance. So we're going to cover a lot in today's episode and because of that, I have made you a cheat sheet that recaps the differences between these two genres. To grab that cheat sheet, you can go to savannagilbocom forward slash women's fiction all one word. So one more time, savannagilbocom forward slash women's fiction all one word. So one more time, savannahgilbocom forward slash women's fiction all one word. To grab the cheat sheet that goes along with today's episode. Okay, so before we can really dive into the specific differences between women's fiction and romance, we need to talk a little bit about genre, because the term genre can mean different things depending on what you're talking about and or who you're talking to.

There are actually five different ways that you can talk about the genre of any given story. So number one is it literary, upmarket or commercial fiction? Number two when does the story take place? Is it historical or is it contemporary? Number three deals with how old your target reader is. So are you writing for middle grade readers, young adult readers, new adult readers or adult readers? And then number four has to do with the setting or the reality that your story takes place in. So, for example, does your story take place in a fantasy world, a sci-fi world, or in our own current reality? And then number five is what is the content genre of your story, or what is the mix of content genres? And if you're not familiar with this term, I did a whole episode on content genres. It's called Genre how to Write a Story that Works and I will link to that episode in the show notes if you want to check it out. I'm also going to talk more about that later, but for now I want to go through an example just to kind of bring these five different ways to talk about genre to life.

So, for example, if we look at the book Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmis, this book is often described as historical, upmarket women's fiction. This description speaks to the time period it's historical, the writing style it's an upmarket novel, and the target audience, which is women. But depending on who you're talking to, they might just call it historical fiction, or they might just call it upmarket fiction, or they might just simply say it's women's fiction. So again, it just depends what you're talking about and who you're talking to. That's really going to determine which angle of genre you use to talk about any given story.

Now, lessons in Chemistry is also a story that includes a romantic relationship, but it's not classified as romance. So why is that? Well, herein lies one of the biggest differences between women's fiction and romance and one of the biggest sources between women's fiction and romance and one of the biggest sources of confusion for writers, and that is that both women's fiction and romance often include many of the same elements. So there's usually a female protagonist who has some kind of internal obstacle they need to overcome before they can be truly happy or fulfilled or whatever they're looking for. There's often some kind of romantic relationship and relationships in general, whether they're platonic, familial or romantic, usually play a large role in the plot. So what is the difference between these two genres?

Well, as I mentioned earlier, it all goes back to content genre. So the biggest difference between romance and women's fiction lies in how the author mixes and prioritizes their content genres. So let's back up for a second and just quickly talk about content genres Again. If you haven't heard me discuss this in detail, I highly recommend going and checking out the episode in the show notes. But in general, content genres are the writer's genres. So they tell us, writers, what kind of content we need to include in a story to deliver on readers' expectations. So things like what kind of plot events need to happen, what kind of character roles need to be filled, what kind of conflict the characters will face, what's at stake or what those characters stand to lose or gain, and so much more.

So, as a case study, I would like for you to consider two different stories. The first one is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmis, and the second is the Duke and I, which is the first Bridgerton book by Julia Quinn. Now, both of these stories feature women protagonists. They both include a romantic relationship, they both deal with gender and societal issues and they both take place at specific points in history. Yet Lessons in Chemistry is categorized as women's fiction and the Duke and I is categorized as romance. Well, you might have guessed by now, but they both have different content genres. So the Duke and I is primarily a love story. Its external genre is love and its internal genre is worldview, while Lessons in Chemistry is primarily a society story, so that's an external genre and it's mixed with the status, internal genre. So, although both of these stories feature similar elements, the difference in their content genres causes one to be classified as romance, while the other is classified as women's fiction.

Okay, so I'm going to go through that one more time, because I know I just kind of threw a lot of terms at you. So the Duke and I, which is classified as romance, the two primary content genres that make up that story are love, which is the external genre, and worldview, which is the internal genre. Lessons in chemistry, which is classified as women's fiction, is made up of two primary genres as well. So the first one is society, which is the external genre, and the second is status, which is its internal genre. And again, if you're kind of thinking, what are you talking about? External and internal genres? Please go listen to the episode that I'm going to link in the show notes called Genre how to Write a Story that Works where I go into this topic in a lot more detail. Okay, but assuming we're on the same page about genre and assuming that you're with me when I say that the mix of content, genres in these two stories is different, and that's why one is labeled women's fiction and one is labeled romance.

Let's talk about what all of this means for you if you're writing romance or women's fiction, and we're going to talk about romance first. So romance novels follow a very specific framework. The potential lovers meet, they face different obstacles and conflicts, and then they eventually end up getting together and living happily ever after, or at the very least, happily for now. There might be other things happening in the plot, but that romantic relationship is always the primary focus of a romance novel. So what does this mean for you? Well, if you're writing romance, this means that the key plot points so think things like the inciting incident, the midpoint, the climax, things like that those key plot points need to revolve around the romantic relationship. So the scenes in your novel need to work to move your characters closer to, or sometimes farther from, that happily ever after ending Okay. So they need to contribute to that central romantic relationship. This also means that your story needs to include certain romance genre conventions. I'm going to link to a different episode in the show notes where I broke down what each of these genre conventions are and I gave examples and things like that. But just know, if you're writing a true category romance, you do need to include those key scenes and conventions of the love genre in your story. Beyond that, you can choose to include whichever romance genre tropes make sense for your story. So tropes are things like friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, forced proximity. You know things like that. Okay, so that's kind of, in terms of the plot, what you'll need to think about when you're writing a romance novel.

Now, when it comes to crafting your protagonist, you'll want to consider their views on love, intimacy and connection. So why doesn't your character have a happy, fulfilling relationship at the beginning of the story? And usually the answer to this question lies in their backstory and some kind of inner obstacle that they're going to need to overcome in the story present to enter into that romantic relationship and live happily ever after. So what this means is that in a romance novel, the protagonist's emotional journey, or that character arc that they undergo from beginning to end, needs to be in service of the relationship. So your protagonist needs to grow and change, or go on that emotional journey in order to get their happily ever after. If they don't grow and change, the romantic relationship just won't work. Okay, so that's important. Remember that the emotional journey or the character arc that they undergo, they need to do that before they can enter into that happily ever after relationship.

Okay, so, once you've thought about plot and character, I would encourage you to brainstorm the three key ingredients of sizzling character chemistry that I talked about in episode number 130. So I will link to that episode in the show notes as well. But those three key ingredients, when you're thinking about your protagonist and their love interest, those three key ingredients are vulnerability, desire and resistance. So you want to map those out. Go listen to episode 130 to hear more about that.

And this, plus the key scenes of the romance genre and the conventions of the romance genre, and that emotional arc that serves the plot, that serves the romantic relationship, all of this is going to help you give readers the emotional experience they're looking for, and in romance novels, readers are eager to find out if those two characters are going to get together and live happily ever after or not. So that's why they're turning the page. They want to see if they get to that happily ever after and how they get to that happily ever after. Now, that doesn't mean there can't be plenty of tears or anger or pain along the way. It just means that, as long as when readers close the book they know that those characters are going on with their lives happy, content and in love. So for category romance, that happily ever after, or, like I said sometimes, that happily for now, that is a requirement of category romance novels. Okay, so that's kind of a quick overview of what it means to write a romance novel things you need to think about when writing a romance novel.

Now let's move on to women's fiction, and women's fiction novels have a little more flexibility in terms of content genres. So in most cases, these stories are going to prioritize one of the internal content genres. So in most cases, these stories are going to prioritize one of the internal content genres. So those are worldview, status or morality, and they're going to prioritize one of these internal genres to help highlight the protagonist's emotional journey. So what this means for you, if you're writing women's fiction, this means that the key plot points so again, things like your inciting incident, your midpoint, your climax, things like that those key plot points must revolve around your protagonist's emotional journey. So they must serve to move your character closer to, or sometimes farther from, becoming a more fulfilled version of themselves.

Now, if you're thinking that sounds like most stories that have an internal arc, then you are correct. But here's the big difference. Like I said earlier, in something like a true romance novel, those key plot points need to revolve around the romantic relationship. But in a women's fiction novel, those key plot events don't necessarily have to be tied to one external through line. So in a romance, that external through line revolves around the relationship. It's what the story is about. In a women's fiction story, that through line isn't always going to be tied to just one of the external genres.

So let's take a look at an example to see what I mean. In something like Lessons in Chemistry, there are a lot of things that affect Elizabeth Zott's emotional journey, things like the workplace, the relationships that she has or doesn't have at work the cooking show that she hosts, the romantic relationship that she has with Calvin, the relationship she has with neighbors and society and other people outside of the workplace, having a child and things like that. Right, these are all external things that influence Elizabeth Zott's emotional journey throughout the story. And, yes, there are a lot of different relationships that influence her emotional journey, which we'll talk about more in a second. So that's an example of women's fiction and how there might not necessarily be one central external through line Now, in a true romance like the Duke and I, stories like that can also include different subplots and side characters and things like that, but that romantic relationship is the primary external thing that encourages both Daphne and Simon to grow and change and eventually end up together living happily ever after. Okay, so the central through line in the plot revolves around the romantic relationship in a romance.

So what does all this mean for you if you're writing a women's fiction story? Well, this means that you still need to choose at least one external content genre to help you frame and build the external conflict that triggers your protagonist's emotional change. So you need to choose at least one external content genre to help you frame and build that external conflict that triggers your protagonist's emotional change. Then, once you've determined kind of the mix of content genres you're going to have in your story both internal and external you can search on this podcast or search on my website to find the key scenes and conventions that you're going to need to include in your story. So, for example, if I was writing a story modeled after Lessons in Chemistry earlier I mentioned that externally this is primarily a society story.

So it's a story about a woman in a man's world and how she struggles to navigate that world and the relationships that she has within that world. Okay, so that's the primary external genre. But there's also a love subplot. Right, there's a love subplot with her and Calvin. There's different things that go on at her work, but the primary external genre there is society. So if I were writing a story like that, I could go and find the key scenes and conventions of the society genre to help me flesh out a plot and to help me flesh out my character's arc if I was writing a women's fiction story. Now, some common content genres that are most often found in women's fiction are things like love, society, worldview and status. So I said those are common. It's not like your women's fiction story has to fit into one of those four. You can probably make any combination of external and internal content genres work, as long as the protagonist's emotional journey is at the front and center of the story. Okay, so those are some plot considerations.

Now let's talk about character. When it comes to crafting a protagonist for your women's fiction story, you're definitely going to need to do the work to flesh out their backstory, to uncover their inner obstacle. So, similar to any kind of story you would write. But what you're looking for here is what kind of misbelief, fear or wound is preventing your character from becoming a more fulfilled or happy version of themselves? Right, but what you're looking for here is what kind of misbelief, fear or wound is preventing your character from becoming a more fulfilled or happy version of themselves? So what's holding your character back from true happiness and fulfillment? And, yes, it can be something like society, but we're looking for some kind of internal obstacle, something that lives within your character, to help us highlight that emotional journey and that emotional growth from beginning to end.

Now, like romance novels, women's fiction stories often focus on relationships, but the relationships in women's fiction stories don't need to be romantic. They can be platonic relationships with friends, neighbors and co-workers. They can be familial relationships with siblings, parents or children, and they can also be romantic relationships as well. But no matter what kind of relationship you feature in your story, just consider how those relationships and how the people in your protagonist's life help or harm their ability to grow and change or to overcome their specific inner obstacle. You might also want to consider what bigger issues that you want to tackle in your story, if any, because women's fiction does tend to be a little more issue-driven than romance, but again, not always so. For example, in something like Lessons in Chemistry, we know that Elizabeth Zott deals with gender equality in the workplace throughout the story. This is the bigger issue that helps tie all of the external conflicts in the story together, so her relationships and the effect that those relationships have on her work and vice versa, and all of that works together to move her emotional journey forward. This is why a lot of women's fiction stories tend to fit in that society content genre and why many women's fiction stories can also be classified as book club fiction, because they do tend to tackle bigger issues and spark more discussion than romance novels do.

Again, most of the time, but not always. Now what's really important to know is that when readers pick up a women's fiction novel, they want to go on a deep emotional journey, to feel like they're not alone. So they want to feel seen. They want to understand themselves and those around them a little bit better. They want to learn new and different ways to cope with struggles that seem daunting at the present time in their life. So this could be something like the loss of a loved one, dealing with aging in a culture that values youth, the issue of having children or not being able to have children, failing marriages or a lack of deep relationship, a lack of rights. I mean, it could be anything right. Just know that by putting your character's emotional journey front and center and by using the external plot events to move them along this emotional journey, you'll be able to deliver a women's fiction story that satisfies the reader's expectations, and more so, hopefully.

At this point, if you were confused about whether you're writing women's fiction or romance, you have a better idea of which genre best suits your story, but just in case you don't, or if you're still struggling to choose one, I have three questions that can help you make the decision. So number one when you imagine the end of your story, is there a happily ever after for the protagonist romantic relationship? If so, you are probably writing romance. If not, you're probably writing women's fiction. Question number two is is the romantic relationship more like one of the many threads that's woven into the tapestry that is your story, or is the romantic relationship more like the tapestry itself that the other smaller threads are woven into? If the former, you're probably writing women's fiction, but if the latter, you're probably writing romance. And finally, question number three when you think of your protagonist's arc of change, does meeting their love interest act as the catalyst for emotional growth, or is their romantic relationship just a piece of the bigger puzzle that triggers their emotional growth? If the former, you're probably writing romance. If the latter, you're probably writing women's fiction.

Okay, so there you have it, the key differences between women's fiction and romance. Let's do a really quick recap before I let you go, because I know we went through a lot in this episode. So key point number one is that there are many different ways to talk about genre. Women's fiction is a commercial genre or a sales category that tells readers, the book they're about to read will feature a character who is going on an emotional journey. Romance is also a commercial genre or a label that tells readers they're in for a story about two people falling in love. So two different reading experiences. Key point number two is that, as writers, we need to look underneath these commercial genres or these sales categories to determine what our stories are actually about. So we need to understand what content genres, or what mix of content genres make up our story. In most cases, the content genres that make up a women's fiction story are going to be different than the content genres that make up a romance novel, and this is where most of the differences between these two categories lie.

Key point number three is that, although women's fiction novels can center around a romantic relationship, just like romance novels do, there's usually more to a women's fiction novel than that. So usually the romantic relationship is just a piece of what causes the protagonist to go on their emotional journey. A good example of a book that kind of sits right in the middle of everything we talked about today is Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover. I see on Amazon that it's labeled as both women's fiction and romance, but the content genre of this story is definitely love, so it's built on that love genre framework, but it's labeled as both women's fiction and romance on Amazon, which kind of brings me to a bonus key point, and that is that all of these labels exist on a spectrum. So a story that has romantic elements might be a romance or it might be a women's fiction novel. It just depends what's under the hood, so to speak, and that's why it's so important to know your content genre. So hopefully this episode has helped to clear up some of the confusion around the difference between romance and women's fiction and genre in general. Hopefully you feel more confident about writing your romance novel or your women's fiction and genre in general. Hopefully you feel more confident about writing your romance novel or your women's fiction novel.

And if you want to go even deeper into this topic, I'm going to leave a link to the replay of our Lessons in Chemistry book club meeting. So in this two-hour meeting we took a deep dive into Lessons in Chemistry and we analyzed this story as a mixture of the society and status content genres. We talked through how to write a story that's more character-driven, how the external plot events really pushed Elizabeth Zott along that emotional journey and so much more. So, again, I will leave that link for you in the show notes, or you can go to savannahgilbocom forward slash book dash club and scroll down to find the replay of our Lessons in Chemistry book club meeting, as well as the replays of all the other deep dives we've done into popular stories. So that's it for today's episode.

As always, thank you so much for tuning in and for showing your support. If you want to check out any of the links I mentioned in this episode, you can find them in the show notes listed in the description of each episode, inside your podcast player or at savannahgilbocom forward slash podcast. If you're an Apple user, I'd really appreciate it if you took a few seconds to leave a rating and a review. Your ratings and reviews tell Apple that this is a podcast that's worth listening to and, in turn, your reviews will help this podcast get in front of more fiction writers just like you. And while you're there, go ahead and hit that follow button, because there's going to be another brand new episode next week, full of actionable tips, tools and strategies to help you become a better writer. So I'll see you next week and until then, happy writing.