I write contemporary Christian romance novels for Love Inspired, which is the Christian imprint of Harlequin Books. Love Inspired novels have been around for almost 25 years. They are considered category novels.

In case you’re not familiar, category novels are:

Love Inspired and Love Inspired Suspense, as well as other Harlequin imprints, do not require an agent to submit your manuscripts on your behalf.

If you’re interested or planning to write a category romance, you will need to be aware of hooks and tropes that work best for the line you’re considering.

Hooks are keywords that grab a reader’s attention, such as single parent, twins, cowboys, Amish, babies, dogs, law enforcement, military, etc.

Tropes are plot elements that help set up a story. Some examples of tropes are reunion romance, friends to lovers, marriage of convenience, rags to riches, mistaken identity, etc.

When I’m considering my next story, I look at what hooks and tropes will work best for Love Inspired novels, and I weave several into my novel for the best reader engagement.

Once you’ve settled on what type of story you want to write, consider your characters. Get to know them from the inside out—their internal goals will drive the external plot of the story.

The best way I’ve found to get to know my characters is by figuring out their SEQs, or story equations, based on Susan May Warren’s, The Story Equation. Getting to know your characters hinges on one critical question—who are you? From there, you can get to the root of their internal wants and motivations.

Once you have the essentials for your character’s inner journey, you can focus on his external journey that will move the story forward. Remember—your character needs both internal and external goals. Personally, I like to create a GMC statement that I learned from Debra Dixon’s Goal, Motivation, Conflict book for both the internal and external journeys.

Character wants ___________ (goal) because ____________ (motivation) but ___________ (conflicts or obstacles).

Their external story goals needs to be S.M.A.R.T.—specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely or time-sensitive.

Be sure your hero and heroine meet by the end of the first chapter, but Love Inspired editors like to see them meet within the first few pages. That allows more time for your characters to be together as they begin their story journeys. Make sure their external story goals, motivations, and conflicts are clear by the end of chapter one.

Just as your characters need overall story goals, your characters need to have a smaller goal, motivation, and conflict in their POV scenes. End each scene with another problem or obstacle. Otherwise, you risk having an episodic scene that doesn’t move the story forward. Also, ask “what’s at stake for my character in this scene?” That allows you to put the necessary obstacles in place.

Keep your characters together in most scenes or at least have them thinking about one another. Their storylines need to intersect so you’re not creating a parallel plot.

As you move closer to the final act, your character’s greatest fears will come to life once again. Then she will need to listen to her voice of truth, overcome her fears, and achieve her happily ever. Think about the one thing your character does at the end that she can’t do at the beginning. This action will show her willingness to change and grow to become a better person.

This is a very basic overview, but one of the best suggestions to understand what works for the category line you’re considering is to read the books they put out every month. By reading those novels, you’ll understand what the editors are looking for and how to tell a complete story with a tight word count.