DO YOU HAVE ROMANCE IN YOUR SOUL?

We love to read about love. According to RWA, romance novels grab a whopping 55% of popular paperback fiction sales, generating more than one billion dollars each year. If you regularly read these stories, you've probably considered writing one as well. All you need is a great heart-fluttering, chest-heaving idea, right?

Not so fast. Romances require the same amount of work any other story requires: sturdy structure, believable characters and, most important, enthusiasm for the subject. 

Take the quiz below to test your passion for writing romance.  

1.  High school sweethearts bump into each other at a baseball game. He's a widower. She's a divorcée with one child. The child, which she never revealed, is actually his. How does she greet him?

     a) "You lousy bum, how about coughing up six years' worth of child support?"
     b) "Oh my God, it's you! I can't believe it! This must be fate!" She burst into tears. "We're getting kicked out of our apartment on Monday and got nowhere to go! Can we move in with you?"
     c) "Hello, Dylan." She extended a shaky hand to the sports fanatic. "Come here often?"

2. A smitten filmmaker looks up the beautiful writer he met at a swanky party the night before. Her home turns out to be a two-room shack in a bad part of town. What does he say when she opens the door?

     a) "You live in this dump? You're kidding, right?"
     b) "Marry me! Marry me right now, and I'll take you away from all this and love you till death do us part!"
     c) "Good morning, sleepyhead." He handed her fresh flowers. "Do I smell coffee?"

3. Internet lovers finally meet in person. His face is terribly disfigured from a car accident. How does she react?

     a)  "No! Oh God, nooooooo!"
     b)  "If you'll love my stump, I'll love your hump."
     c)  "Come with me, gorgeous." She grabbed his hand and raced out into the street. "We're doing the town tonight."

4.  A security specialist is hired to outfit the country home of a newly divorced woman. He falls in love, but he has to move on to his next job. How does he tell her goodbye?

     a)  "Who we kidding? If I stay, you'll turn into every other nagging woman on the planet, making me wish one of us was dead."
     b)  "If you really loved me, you'd quit your job, leave this house, the cats, your family--everything--and come with me."
     c)  "I'll be back." A smile slowly spread across his face. "It's part of the maintenance agreement."

5.  A medical transcriptionist is stranded in the elevator with the handsome doctor she's been eyeing for months. How does she react? 

     a)  "Good grief. What else can go wrong today?"
     b)  "Oh, I'm so scared I could cry. Will you hold me?"
     c)  "So, doc." She slid to the floor. "Did you remember the doughnuts?"
       

If you chose the A answers, well, you seem to have some serious issues with romance. Perhaps candles, ice cream, wine and a 24-hour bubble bath will soften your mood? 

If you chose the B answers, you seem to be just a tad clingy. The desperate love-me-or-I'll-die-right-here-before-your-eyes approach may have seemed romantic ages ago, but these days, they call it stalking. 

If you chose the C answers, you are a charming hopeless romantic. You have the ability to make hearts sigh and smile and swoon. That's amore!