Fountain of Knowledge

Well, Fadz has an entire theory of why they're different and how they're different, so I won't rain on his parade, and instead I'll just talk a little about each.

To me you have to distinguish between what you might call commercial romances (the ones in the grocery store with names like The Scandalous Sinner), and what I'll call classical romances for lack of a better term.

For instance, Jane Eyre or Jane Austen's novels. They're all about love and marriage, but only obliquely about sex. Well, ok, you can argue with me over whether the sexual tension in Bronte stays oblique, but they were Victorians. Hard for them to come right out on the page with it. In these stories, and their modern counterparts, although the romance is the reason for the book existing, the book still looks at other aspects of the human condition.

In the instance of commercial romances, you have some that are very light and innocent and some that cross the line to softcore porn, but they are all narrowly focused on the relationship between two people. They don't try to examine much about the world. I've looked into writing these, actually, as a side business/moneymaker. Harlequin, a major publisher of what I would call commercial romance, has strict guidelines for each of its "lines". (Sort of like flavors of story.) They say specifically that people read these books as an escape, for pleasure, and to relax--so don't hit us over the head with grim wartime reminisces, murders, and issues of social justice.

It's harder to write one than you might think, mostly because you have to cram the story into a fairly short wordcount, follow the publisher's ideas about when or if the couple is supposed to get into bed together, and fit the style and feel of the "line".

So having pointed out there are two kinds of romances, I still would agree that a love story is different than a romance. A romance happens between a couple who are or want to be in a sexual relationship. A love story can happen between a person and any other person or any thing, really--

I'd say, for instance, you could have a love story where a person loves a boat or a dog or a farm, or where they love another person but not romantically. Or where they do love another person romantically, but perhaps it's not the main point of the story.

Personally I think it's semantics; if you can sell your story to a romance publisher without ever mentioning a dude's rippling biceps or a chick's heaving bosom, then good on you. If you can sell your story as a love story without killing anyone in the end, also good on you. :)

I actually like all three kinds of story, btw--the classical romances, the commercial romances (older ones--I like Georgette Hyer's Regency novels), and love stories.

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