Longing to write a historical romance?
💗 Introducing the one course you need to plan, draft, and revise the romantic novel of your dreams. 💗
The Heart of Historical Romance
Join today —
doors close soon!
This self-paced course will show you step-by-step how to create protagonists to fall in love with, hit all the necessary beats without feeling predictable, and create the narrative drive to keep readers glued to the page to the very end.
Tell me if this sounds like you:
🌺 You really want to write a historical romance, but are afraid of the research.
🌺 You’re worried that if you use the classic tropes and beats, your story will be predictable and boring.
🌺 You’ve read books about writing romance, but they only seem to easily apply to contemporary romance, and you want something more targeted to your needs.
🌺 You want guidance as you venture into this beloved genre, so you can truly write a book readers will fall in love with.
Good news!
These are questions my clients and I have grappled with—and if you’re anything like them, you’ve probably heard these myths about historical romance too.
⟱
Myth:
A historical romance is just a romance set in a different period.
Reality:
Yes and no. It’s more complicated than that. A good historical romance has to satisfy the requirements of a historical novel and a romance—which means adhering to all the romance conventions and also honoring history. This course shows you how to strike that balance.
Myth
Historical romances are the same as bodice rippers.
Reality:
Historical romance is a serious and beloved genre that explores the universal and timeless appeal of stories where love conquers all. Good historical romances have complex characters, inventive plots, important themes, and are historically accurate.
Myth
Historical romances are formulaic because of the tropes and beats.
Reality:
The inventiveness in historical romance comes from honoring the genre requirements as well as ringing the changes. When you know what the outcome will be from the beginning, you have to make the journey to that outcome engaging and surprising. That’s something understanding the structure of a romance helps you do. It frees you to be more creative—as the course shows.
Myth
It’s easy to write a historical romance.
Reality:
Writing any good story is not easy. The conventions of historical romance don’t make it any easier to write, especially because you have to do scrupulous research and take care not to jolt your reader out of the story with jarring anachronisms. In this course, I guide writers through the challenges of writing romance, providing tools for plotting and planning, plenty of analysis of examples, and useful resources.
Imagine if…
💗. You could finally get that couple you’ve had in your head together on the page in a way that is engaging, satisfying, and still surprising. 💗
💗 You could hold your book in your hands and know it’s as good as you can make it—and be confident about sharing it with potential readers. 💗
💗 Once you’ve written your first historical romance, you could be fired up to write another, and another, and have the tools and confidence to do it. 💗
💗 You could finally be able to call yourself an author of historical romance! 💗
All of that’s possible when you join
Join today —
doors close soon!
Who is this course right for?
Historical Romance Readers
Face it, you’re totally hooked on historical romance, and wish there were more books of the kind you love to feed your passion. Perhaps you’ve dabbled in fan fiction, or have written in another genre, and want to see if you can craft a swoon-worthy romance in the period you love. This course walks you through everything, step by step.
Experienced Historical Novelists
This is exactly who I was a couple of years ago! You find yourself eager to instill more romance, more love into your historical novels, and maybe cross the line into true historical romance for the pure joy of writing something where everything results in a happy-ever-after. This course can help you crack that code and embrace a more joyful writing experience.
Contemporary Romance Authors
Maybe you want to ride the Bridgerton train, but are intimidated by the research and world-building. This course will give you plenty of resources to guide you to creating your first historical romance—with confidence and joy.
Basically, this is for you if…
✔️ You love to read historical romance, but are intimidated by the thought of writing one.
✔️ You have a great idea for a historical romance and have started drafting it, but you’re not sure how to incorporate the conventions of romance in your historical story.
✔️ You write a different genre and are intrigued by the challenges—and joys—of writing a genre full of postitivity and love.
✔️ You’ve got a historical romance manuscript, but you aren’t sure you’ve ticked all the necessary boxes to make it appeal to a modern reader.
✔️ You want to gain a better understanding of how to craft a story where the ending is a foregone (and very satisfying) conclusion.
The Heart Of Historical Romance course is one of the best I have come across. This is not the first course I’ve purchased from Susanne and it will definitely not be the last.
Hi, I’m Susanne!
I’m an award-winning, multi-published author and an Author Accelerator Certified book coach who works with new and experienced writers on craft, story structure, and anything else they need in order to get their novels out of their heads and onto the page. I’ve helped many authors acheive their dream of writing a novel they can be proud of.
My own journey began over 20 years ago. I started trying to write a novel, fresh out of academia, before I knew anything at all about storytelling.
My first efforts were…embarrassing!
But I kept going. I studied, and read, and took workshops, and got great feedback, and I managed to write and publish 14 historical novels—six of them traditionally.
But that still wasn’t enough for me. I really wanted to share everything I’ve learned and honed in developing my own historical romances with more writers—writers who for one reason or another couldn’t do 1:1 coaching with me.
I firmly believe that if I could do it, you can too.
That’s why I created a method for developing, drafting, and revising your historical romance manuscript, a method I use myself.
It’s all in The Heart of Historical Romance.
Here’s what you’ll find in the course:
Module 1: SET EXPECTATIONS
An in-depth look at historical romance audiences and their expectations, as well as guidance on how to meet those expectations and stay true to history.
Module 2: ESTABLISH BOUNDARIES
Before you can write your draft—or revise it—you need to set boundaries around the basics: time period, location, socio-economic strata. This module walks you through those considerations, as well as helping you identify the telling details that will bring your setting to life.
Module 3: FALL IN LOVE
What makes for great historical romance protagonists? How do you build out antagonists and allies? And how should you handle backstory? This module shows you the way.
Module 4: WELCOME THE TROPES
Here I explore the role of story tropes—and why you should know about them—as well as delving into ways to create narrative drive so your reader stays glued to the page.
Module 5: MAP THE BEATS
An in-depth look at romance story beats and how they relate to historical romance—with loads of examples and explanations to appeal to plotters and pantsers alike.
Module 6: EMBRACE INTIMACY
Sweet or steamy, you have to get desire and chemistry on the page. This module gives plenty of masterful examples at all heat levels.
Module 7: REVISE THOUGHTFULLY
I help you analyze and plan your revision in this module, using tools and strategies I’ve honed over time, and offer guidance about getting beta readers for your work.
There’s more! You’ll also get…
The Historical Romance
Planalyzer
A proprietary, pantser-friendly tool to help you brainstorm and plot, then analyze and revise your manuscript (an $1,800 value).
In-Depth Analyses
A deep dive into examples from the best historical romance novels—what makes them tick, how they use the beats, and more ($850 value).
Historical-Romance-Specific Exercises
Thought-provoking exercises to apply to your own work—the result of my years of coaching other writers and teaching many workshops ($1,600 value).
Private Facebook Group
Join a community of eager writers in a safe space to talk about the course, or just historical romance in general—and ask me questions!
Historical Romance Guided Co-Writing
Included in one 6-week session of three-hour guided co-writing sessions on Zoom, where I give prompts, we write for two hours, and chat and share for an hour at the end. ($180 value)
Tools to Use Again and Again
The Inside Outline for Historical Romance and other reusable plotting tools ($1,200 value).
A total value of $5,670
Get started today for just
$99!
Six monthly payments, or save when you pay in full, $579.
Still have questions? Here are some answers.
Q:
I haven’t even started my manuscript. Will this course work for me?
A:
Yes! I cover lots of basics as well as more advanced writing concepts, and give you tools you can use at the planning stage.
Q:
I’ve already written a historical romance. Would I still find this course useful?
A:
The tools in this course are great for putting a completed manuscript that’s ready for revision under a microscope, making sure you’ve hist all the necessary beats and milestones, and that your protagonists pass the fall-in-love test.
Q:
Although I love reading historical romance, I’m a little wary of the research I’ll have to do. Will this course help with that?
A:
My background as the author of over a dozen historical novels has given me lots of insight about how to focus your research so it’s manageable, and it serves your story. If you can do an Internet search, you’ve got what it takes to start your research. This course can help you feel confident that the history police won’t come after you!
Q:
Will this course teach me how to write?
A:
This isn’t technically a writing course. I don’t teach grammar, dialogue, description, and other craft elements. The focus of this course is on writing a complete book—which assumes you come to it with some basic skills.
Q:
How long will I have access to the course?
A:
All students have lifetime access to all materials in the course, including any future updates.
Q:
How is this course different from other romance-writing courses?
A:
There are many tools and courses out there that help you craft a contemporary romance, and they can be useful to you. But this course focuses specifically on the unique qualities and needs of a romance that is integrated into a historical setting—which changes the nature of some of the usual romance-writing requirements.
Q:
What if I start the course and find it’s not for me?
A:
I offer a full refund within 14 days to anyone who starts the course and realizes they’re not writing—or don’t want to write—a historical romance, or beef up the romantic elements in a historical novel. You just have to email me and explain.
Q:
I write historical fiction with romantic elements. Can I learn anything helpful from this course?
A:
Absolutely! Even if the romance itself isn’t at the heart of your story, understanding the way a true historical romance progresses, how to get the desire on the page and put the couple through the ups and downs of true love, can help you integrate romance into your historical novel.
14-day Money-back Guarantee:
If you’ve done the first module of the course and you decide it isn’t for you, within 14 days I’ll give you a refund. Simply email me your reasons for leaving the course and I’ll take care of it.
If you’ve read this far…
You have two options:
1. Try to do it on your own, hoping you’ve crafted a story that will satisfy the exacting demands of historical romance readers…
Or,
2. Get step-by-step guidance and insight from an award-winning author and certified book coach who understands the craft and the market, so you can be confident your story ticks all the boxes.
Are you ready to…
…create compelling romance protagonists?
…build a believable and accurate historical world?
…seamlessly integrate the expected milestones and beats into a story your readers can’t put down?
…hold your finished book in your hands—and know it ticks all the boxes?
Then you’re ready for…