While we at Not Sorry feel passionate about Romance novels, we know that writers have romantic stories to tell centering characters who aren’t necessarily guaranteed their happily ever afters.

For the past two years, Not Sorry has offered a Romance Writing workshop in honor of November’s “National Novel Writing Month” (NaNoWriMo), and with this tradition in mind, we present “Writing Romantic Stories,” an eight week course that offers writers a chance to explore their own romantic stories in a supportive format, alleviating the pressure of worrying over the excellence and perfection of those tales.

We’ll dedicate the month of October to discussing the hallmarks of romantic story writing, and we’ll journey onward through November writing 50,000 words, sourcing inspiration and accountability from fellow cohort members. With four weeks of instruction and small group collaboration, followed by four weeks of writing using the pomodoro method, we believe these 50,000 words are entirely achievable – and what’s more, participants will have the encouragement of experienced instructors as well as a community of fellow writers offering support every step of the way.

Romantic stories range from small to operatic, but they are certainly where we explore how we feel about human connection. And as is true in real life, in romantic fiction, you can’t always predict how the story will end.