Romantasy has taken the publishing world by storm, and the appeal for authors is clear. Bestseller potential, infinite creative possibility, the scope for epic sagas and series, all while putting a fresh spin on romance tropes you love? If that sounds good to you, read on for tips on writing romantasy.

Identify your ideal reader, and their ideal escape

Knowing your ideal reader can shape many aspects of the work around a book, from querying to designing a cover to promoting on social media (where romantasy is particularly strong). For many readers, romantasy is an escapist genre, so understanding your ideal reader’s ideal escape may also shape your characters and narrative.

For instance, ideal readers who are driven in their careers may relate to characters who excel or who choose a challenging trade… but if what they seek in a novel is distraction from work-related stress, then they may find what they’re looking for among characters whose fulfilment comes from other types of undertakings, such as caring, creating or carousing.

Romantasy from the spicier end of the spectrum may scratch the itch for an ideal reader who is unsatisfied, frustrated with modern dating, or exploring their own sexuality. Stories of epic quests through imaginative settings may appeal to readers who feel geographically stuck, yearn to be elsewhere, or wish they had more opportunities to travel. Knowing what’s on your ideal reader’s mind can help you give them an escape they will value.

Reveal your world

Romantasy can take place in any number of worlds, which can work in weird and wonderful ways. The first fascinating challenge lies in defining the rules of the worlds you dream up. The second is in deciding how the characters, and the reader, will come to understand them.

In The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V. E. Schwab has the reader discover the conditions of Addie’s new reality as Addie herself does, through a process of trial and error which at first is confusing for both character and audience. Romantasy queen Sarah J. Maas takes a different approach in A Court of Thorns and Roses, in which all the secondary characters know exactly what is going on, but cannot explain it to the main character or the audience. When circumstances change, the whole situation can be revealed in one fell swoop – pouring out of a tertiary character in a single intense conversation which catapults the main character into the next stage of the narrative and gives the reader a sense of relief and clarity. The former is showing, the latter telling.

Deciding which you will use to reveal the workings of your world will influence how you frame your story, when you introduce information, how your characters talk to one another, and the experience and emotions you create for your reader.

Choose between fate and free will

The trope of two people destined to be together occurs frequently in romantasy and can play out in many different ways, taking routes through bewilderment, rejection, acceptance – or all three, as happens to the eponymous characters in Brandon Sanderson’s Yumi and the Nightmare Painter – on the way to true love.

Some readers find this fated-mates trope enchanting. Others, however, find it creepy and prefer romantasies in which characters (particularly female ones) have more agency. A romantic dilemma, in which the main character chooses between two love interests – such as in Shadow and Bone, in which Leigh Bardugo offers her main character two potential partners to pick from – may be a more palatable trope for readers who struggle with partners that come pre-bonded, marriages that are arranged or other situations that feel inescapable, even if these ultimately do lead to a happy ending.

Find the perfect balance

Many straight-up romance novels take place in our world, or a lightly reimagined version of it. Many pure fantasy novels overlook romantic or sexual relationships, or put them squarely behind closed doors. One of the main appeals of romantasy is that both strands of the book are equally well-developed. As you write, ensure that your worldbuilding and plot evolve hand in hand with the characters’ relationship.

Raise the stakes

Romantasy offers opportunities for peril that true-to-life romance may find difficult to match. If mythical beasts, murderous weapons, magic or monsters form part of the world you create, exploit them to their fullest to create potentially world-ending scenarios that take your characters to the brink.

In The Trial of the Sun Queen, Nisha J. Tuli’s main character stands to win or lose everything. Her destiny balances on the outcome of a series of perilous contests, and she faces jeopardy of an intensity that is difficult to attain in a relatable contemporary real-world setting. Competitions, curses and catastrophes all present tantalising set-ups for characters and couples to find out what they are made of.

Bring your whole self

Even if your tale takes place in a different reality, consider ways of weaving your own reality in. Rebecca Yarros has spoken publicly about how her medical diagnosis led her to represent a character who faces – and overcomes – physical challenges in her Empyrean (Fourth Wing) series.

There may be parts of your identity that you wish to bring into your romantasy writing. Using medical, sociological and other terminologies from our world may not serve you as a way of doing this, so think instead about how this aspect of your being would manifest in the realm you create. How would it be perceived by others, when seen through the different lenses that exist in the world you are writing about? What is its history there? And its future? How do people talk about it? How do your characters feel about it? How does it influence their actions? What is the point that you most want to get across?

Answering questions like these may get to the heart of how to share a lived experience from this world in the conditions of another, and create the romantasy that only you could write.