When Writing Through the Will of the Heart.

An essay for the romantic in you.

Feb 11, 2026

Note: This is a guest essay from Wild K. Nebula. If you’d like to have an essay featured on BookStack, please reach out to me here.

Also, this piece contains CWs such as: Sexual imagery, themes, erotica and so forth. Please read only if you’re comfortable with it.

When you hear romance what do you think of? Do you jump to social media, literature, cinema, meticulously hand-carved sculptures or artistic prisms boldly brushed onto a canvas?

Perhaps it’s something as simple as, “do they pass the vibe check,” “sigma with ‘gyat energy only,” or “bodacious babes” with trim figures and teased hair.

Modern romance has taught us through “modern” dating that being shallow and appearance driven is how it’s done. Dating apps get you to swipe left or right, Hollywood shows you boobs, butts and f*cking, social media filters life and feeds the subconscious highlight reels. Over the years, romance as a genre has drifted further from the heart and now leans heavily into the “sex sells” marketing scheme.

I’m here to tell you that romance isn’t lust, just like lust isn’t love. But, in many ways they connect together to form a mosaic type of beauty. Broken pieces–polished or dull–allow something spectacular to happen when souls fuse together. There is a special type of glue that locks it all in, I believe this special glue to be the will of the heart.

This can be seen across all platforms of artistic expression. Romance, like many genres, is a rather large umbrella term that holds a plethora of sub-genres. And for a vast majority of creatives and consumers, it can be difficult to navigate.

Romance as a Genre.

So where do you begin?

Firstly, it’s important to understand romance as a whole, and the categories that come with it. Here’s a brief list of romance sub-genres that you can research independently:

Contemporary
Historical
Paranormal
Rom-Com
LGBTQ+
Fantasy
Holiday
Sci-fi
New Adult
Young Adult

Romance vs. Smut.

You may have noticed that in this list I have left off spicy romance AKA smut. There is a reason for this. In my personal opinion, smut is not romance, but in fact its own genre: literature porn AKA erotica.

It can be beautiful, gentle and sweet, to monstrous, mind-bending and psychologically dangerous (depending on what you’re into, which is none of my business). But, regardless, it is explicit in nature and serves more than the purpose of satisfying the heart and mind, but also one’s flesh.

What’s in the Heart of your Characters?

This brings me back to the key feature of romance as a whole, the human condition pertaining to matters of the heart, mind and soul.

If you are interested in diving into expanding your writing skills to romance, the rest of this article will cover in simple language how I like to do this. And I first start off by asking myself what is at the heart of my characters?

As a creative who is constantly learning and honing in their writing style and craft, across the board my work can always be described as character driven. Because at the end of the day, most stories hook us not because of the elaborate world building and political system, they hook us because of the characters. How real they feel and seem. The way they make us envious and angry, dumbfounded and proud, or scared and understood.

Ask yourself who do I want this character to be? What do I want them to learn? What do I want them to teach others? How can I bring to life your decisions and make my readers feel what you feel?

What is the sole motive of your protagonist?

Find the Motivation.

With all these questions, where to begin? A story can start at the end, middle, or even years in the past well before the beginning of your character’s experience.

But, we’re not talking about the fundamental structure of your story. I’m not talking about the plot, or the profound message you want to leave your audience with. That’s a different article, for another time, written by someone other than me.

We’re talking about what I know how to do, get into the hearts of your character. The first step to this is more than appearance and upbringing. Those things fall into place easier when you have addressed the motivations of your character.

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Start by asking why, how and what questions. What do you want out of life? Why do you want to make someone feel something or nothing at all? How do you want to be perceived by the world? Do you even care?

Ask your character, who are you questions. You may come up with simple things like their motivation is to pay for their family’s debt, forget a past lover, grief over a family pet, be the best student in their class, break up a marriage, escape reality, or pick every purple flower they see.

Once you find the core motivation, you can branch off from there and make them more complex with multiple layers of needs, wants, traumas, coping skills (or lack of) and dreams. Finding their motivation will help you move on to the next step into making a dynamic character who is ready to develop their sixth sense.

The Sixth Sense in Romance: Thoughts and Decisions.

Now, it’s important to note that these tips are not and should not be limited to romance books.

It doesn’t matter the genre, our readers become addicted to our stories because of the way our characters interact with the environment, themselves and others.

It is also important to me to preface by saying that, I’m no expert. I don’t have a degree. I’m not world famous, nor am I an influencer to any extent.

But when talking about emotions, I feel as a human being who experiences them, I have earned the right to give you my perspective.

Refer a friend

Simply put, emotions create a physical response.

An emotion is emoted through our bodies based on how we perceive things through our senses. We have our senses for a reason and we are taught 5.

See as listed below:

eyes (what do I see?)
ears (what do I hear?)
mouth (what do I taste?)
skin (what is the environment?)
nose (what do I smell?)

I ask, are we limited to these 5 senses? Is it not true that something inexplainable stirs inside us when something is… off?

A sixth sense:

instinct (how am I to protect myself or another?)

I begin to wonder, but what if we can not hear? If we can not taste, see, touch, or smell?

Does our essence not feel?

Here’s how I’ll break it down for you to understand emotions how I have come to understand them.

Emotions come from thoughts. Thoughts create rooted beliefs. Beliefs create deep emotions.

feedback loops by Estefania Loret de Mola.

Our body may or may not correctly reflect this…

So if this is true that we can say one thing and our body gives us away. Is it not true that we can say a truth and our body does not comply?

Questions emote emotions. Internal dialogue emote emotions.

How do we bridge the gap?

Metaphors, similes, symbolism, etc.

Why? Why are these important?

Because cultures and experiences create different thought patterns that create rooted beliefs.

An emotion needs more than 5 senses. It needs the perspective that comes from several different places. It needs life.

The world around us does this. But, in my opinion. What is crucial is the world in our mind.

Play around with this. Weave these elements throughout your piece. See what works, see what doesn’t.

A Space for You.

I have a budding romance community on Substack called Tides of the Soul. Every Friday I encourage writers to expand their work to matters of the heart and try their hand at romance by participating in the weekly prompt challenge.