How to Write Romantasy: A Comprehensive Guide

Romantasy is a genre that has seen some explosive growth over the past few years. It’s moved well from being just a niche on BookTok and Bookstagram to becoming a dominant force in the publishing world. Walk into any local bookstore near you and you’ll find that romantasy is all over the shelves. Readers love romantasy as a genre because it combines the grandiosity and power of fantasy with the deep intimacy of romance. As a result, you get a reading experience that feels bold and emotionally charged. It’s not the same as writing a fantasy book with a romantic subplot, as in romantasy, romance is a central and key point to the story. To succeed in romantasy, you need to figure out how to balance the two sides of your story in a way that feels seamless and appealing to your readers. This post will walk you through everything you need to know about the romantasy genre as well as how to write a romantasy book. 

As a fantasy author myself with over 10+ years of writing experience, I’ve read a lot of romantasy books over the past couple of years. I’ve found that there are great things within the genre, but there are also weak points that I’ve identified that really do impact the way a reader interacts with romantasy. Furthermore, I think it’s important to hone in on the elements of fantasy that work. However, it’s also important to hone in on the elements of romance that work. If you can do that, you’ll be able to write a romantasy that really stands out from the crowd. 

If you sign up for my newsletter, I’ll send you over a free pack of 20 romantasy writing blueprints. They’re designed to help you get started on a book right away. By signing up, you’ll also get access to tons of writing insights and tips to help you with your book journey: 

If you think you’re ready to get started with writing your own romantasy book, then check out my Ultimate Guide to Writing Romantasy. It’s a 160+ page workbook that was designed with real lessons in mind and active learning principles to help you write and publish your own romantasy book. Grab a copy here → The Ultimate Guide to Writing Romantasy

What Is Romantasy?

Romantasy is basically a fusion of fantasy and romance wherein both elements hold equal weight. The world of fantasy with all its politics, magic, history, and danger isn’t just a backdrop in the romantasy pool. It’s effectively an active force that plays a role in and shapes the romance. 

At the same time, the love story is not a subplot tacked onto an adventure. It drives decisions, raises stakes, and changes the direction of the external conflict. A true romantasy novel cannot survive without either half of this equation. That’s something that I tend to find has been an issue with some romantasy books releasing these days. In essence, romantasy creates a reading experience where readers feel that the survival of the kingdom is just as important as the survival of the couple’s love.

Romantasy, however, isn’t truly a new phenomenon. We’ve been reading fantasy books with plenty of heavy romantic plots in them for years. I recall reading quite a lot when I was younger that if published today, would basically just be called romantasy. As a name, romantasy grew from BookTok (and Bookstagram if you’re big on that too). Prior to this though, we had books like C.L. Lewis’ Lord of the Fading Lands. There were hints at this sort of heavy fusion of fantasy and romance well before BookTok. 

I think the popularity and success of romantasy has really solidified the fact that romance is, and always will be, a massive genre. Romance will always be a genre that people enjoy and it will always be a big plot element in any story. Think back to when the YA dystopian novels were all the rage in the mid 2010s. One of the reasons those novels became so popular was because of the romantic element that people rooted for in the midst of a well-built dystopian society. 

While romantasy may be trending now, in general, it will still last because the idea of romance and fantasy combined is something that will always be popular amongst readers. 

That’s one of the reasons why I talk about romantasy so much because I feel like it’s a strong genre that could really continue to be big. That’s why I created The Ultimate Guide to Writing Romantasy, because I think romantasy can continue to grow. 

Romantasy vs. Fantasy Romance

Alright, so let’s try to understand what the difference between romantasy and fantasy romance really is. This is a big point of disagreement and debate, as the two sound pretty similar to a lot of readers. However, there are some fundamental differences that create a divide. 

Fantasy romance is mainly a romance novel. The primary question is always whether the lovers will end up together, and the fantasy elements serve as a stage to raise obstacles or add onto the atmosphere.

Romantasy, by contrast, is a hybrid. The love story matters immensely, but so does the external conflict. Readers expect the romance to develop at the same time as the political intrigue, war, curses, or quests. Survival, destiny, and power struggles are as much a part of the journey as the love confession is.

That is why books like Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses are considered romantasy, while something like The Winter King sits more firmly in fantasy romance. Both categories are valid, but they deliver different experiences and your readers will notice the difference. 

Romantasy vs Fantasy with Romance

Romantasy and fantasy with romance are also a bit different in some ways. Fantasy with romance is basically a standard fantasy novel that includes a romance subplot. The romance is just tacked onto the main story and removing it wouldn’t really impact the main plot much at all. In this case, it’s there more as a device to show character development, growth, and relationship dynamics.

Romantasy’s different from fantasy with romance in that it requires the presence of romance. Think of it like this: Romantasy is just two plots melting together into one while fantasy with romance is a main plot with a romantic subplot. There’s a lot of fantasy books that fall under the category of having a romantic subplot out there. For instance, The First Law trilogy had a romantic subplot while something like A Court of Thorns and Roses required the romance for the plot. The Cruel Prince also falls somewhere in the fantasy with romance category, as it was mainly a political fantasy with a romantic subplot added.

Fantasy with romance is also kind of different from fantasy romance because fantasy romance is still primarily a romance while fantasy with romance is primarily a fantasy.

Why Romantasy Works

Alright, now why does romantasy work so well for readers? Obviously, the powerful growth of romantasy didn’t just come out of a void. So, let’s try and break it down.

The appeal of romantsy comes from its ability to satisfy two fundamental reader desires at the same time. Fantasy has always been a genre that promises escape. It includes new worlds, sprawling kingdoms, epic battles, etc… Romance promises intimacy and emotional connection. Romantic conflicts are often different from pure fantasy conflicts. For instance, a romantic conflict might be a breakup as a result of a dark secret. Meanwhile, a fantasy conflict might be soemone attempting to take over an empire. 

When you combine the elements of romance and fantasy in a hybrid structure like what you find in romantasy, you find that each one really enhances the other. A duel with a dragon will matter more to the reader when a love interest’s life hangs in the balance. A forbidden romance feels more powerful and impactful when the consequences could start a war. The emotions of romance make the fantasy stakes feel more personal, while the danger and grandeur of fantasy make the love story feel monumental. 

Romantasy is also great because it allows for emotional extremes to be basically justified. In a contemporary romance or a romance that’s just based on our reality, certain levels of passion might seem unrealistic and unhealthy. But in romantasy, you can have things like soul bonds, curses, fated mates, etc… These things give leeway for more passionate romances to spawn. 

If you want a bit of a stepping stone in your next romantasy book, I recommend grabbing a copy of my 50 Romantasy Writing Blueprints. Each blueprint is a story starter on its own, with protagonist ideas, love interest ideas, trope ideas, and conflict ideas. 

What Do Romantasy Readers Want?

Understanding your audience is a crucial piece to writing a successful romantasy book. Readers who look for romantasy come to the genre seeking a specific emotional experience that both pure fantasy and pure romance don’t really provide on their own. Readers want to see the romance and swoon for the love interests while also immersing themselves in the complex world of the fantasy conflict at hand. They like being invested in an intimate relationship while also being invested in the world. 

Romantasy readers often describe the genre as basically showing emotional payoff through epic stakes, and that’s pretty much what it delivers. Romantasy readers love situations where: 

• Love conquers impossible odds
• Personal growth happens both through love and battle
• Enemies become lovers and transcend battlefields
• Where magic and fate intertwine with hope and love

In romantasy, you’ll be more likely to find things like morally gray characters, complicated political situations, and relationships that develop through shared danger and mutual respect. Attraction is a big thing in romantasy, and you’ll find that a lot of them set up the love interests to be attracted from the onset. However, the buildup and eventual “confession” scene so-to-speak matter much more to romantasy readers. 

Romantasy readers also tend to be across many ages. They’re older than typical YA romance readers, but they might be a little younger than more “hardcore” fantasy readers. That’s not to say that hardcore fantasy readers don’t also read romantasy (I’m one of them), but they tend to be more active on social media. 

Romantasy readers are often found on platforms like: 

• TikTok
• Instagram
• Goodreads

They’ve historically probably been big fans of fanfiction and building communities around shared favorites. That’s really why you see BookTok’s success so much because of that community aspect.

How to Write a Great Romantasy Book

Reflect Fantasy and Romance

The first step to writing a romantasy book is choosing where your story sits on the spectrum and what you lean towards more. If you lean toward romantic fantasy, then the external conflict drives the plot. The romance in this case complicates or deepens the protagonist’s journey. If you lean toward fantasy romance, the love story is the core arc with the fantasy elements shaping and testing the relationship at the same time. 

Your premise for your romantasy book should be clear enough that it reflects both halves of the genre. In my 50 Romantasy Blueprints, you’ll find that I’ve written the romance arc and the fantasy arc as two separate sections but both interact with each other for the ultimate story. 

World Building is a Key Component

The next step to successfully writing a romantasy book is to handle the world building the right way. World building is one of the biggest things that I think has been sort of lacking in some romantasy books, so this is something you want to pay attention to. In romantasy, your setting can’t just be a generic small town. Every kingdom, court, or academy must shape the romance in specific ways. 

Cultural traditions, political systems, and magical laws are there to create barriers or opportunities for the couple. If your couple could exist in any other backdrop without changing the story, then the world isn’t really actively participating yet. 

There are some essential elements in world building like: 

• Magic systems
• Countries
• Politics
• Religion
• Culture

For instance, when it comes to magic systems, these are vital in a lot of romantasy stories. That’s why it’s important to take care and actually flesh out the magic system in a full way. Magic should have costs and consequences and logically flow with the rest of your world. 

For instance, a forbidden power might endanger one of the love interests. A curse that exists because of magic might bind two characters together against their will. Whatever your world systems are, you must work to pressure the romance and the fantasy plot at the same time. 

If you want a full system for world building, The Ultimate Guide to World Building is a 340+ page workbook that I created based off my 10+ years of writing and world building experience. It includes everything you need to know to create a world, no matter what project you’ve got in the works. 

Write the Characters the Right Way

Equally important to your romantasy story is the arcs of your characters. Each protagonist must have goals, flaws, and backstories that help to justify their current behavior. Beyond this though, you need to justify their attraction to each other. Growth should come not just from battling monsters or solving a political crisis, but from learning to trust, forgive, or sacrifice for one another.

The love story should change the characters just as much as the external conflict does, and that requires you to build your characters and make them engaging and interesting. Each character needs to have an arc, a personality, and things that make them unique to themselves. A big mistake some romance writers make is to have one of the characters basically serve only as a romantic interest with no agency of their own. 

Writing characters that are engaging to your readers doesn’t mean that your characters are “good” people. They just need to be well-written. You can easily have a main character be the villain, just as much as you can have the main character be the hero. 

Consider the Stakes

For a romantasy, the characters often have higher stakes tied to their romance. For instance, let’s just say that your main character is a princess and she’s expected to marry a prince from a faraway land. However, the princess is secretly in love with the knight that’s been assigned to protect her. This is a pretty basic premise, but the knight might also be secretly in love with her. The princess might feel like her sheltered life has led her to fall for this knight, and she may resist the crush at first. However, with forced proximity, she may begin to truly fall for him. The knight, on the other hand, is more steadfast and believes that he needs to refrain from this romance for whatever political reasons there may be. 

In order to achieve this though, you need to build your characters up properly. Their stories didn’t just begin with this romance arc and they won’t end with this romance arc (unless one of them dies or something). They need to make decisions, feel independent, and actually act like humans would. 

If you want to learn how to write characters that are engaging, interesting, and fully fleshed out, I recommend you check out my workbook → The Ultimate Guide to Character Creation. 

Create Meaningful Magical Systems

Magic systems are something that I think we should talk about a lot when it comes to romantasy. I’ve read quite a good number of romantasy books and something I noticed was that it was clear when a magic system was well-done compared to one that wasn’t. Your magic system needs to have some key elements and components, and this is sort of part of the art of world building as well. 

First, the magic system needs to do more than just provide spectacle. It must create opportunities and obstacles for romance. Consider how the magic might affect relationships. For instance, does casting spells require some sort of price that could affect the romance? 

You need clear rules for your magic system as well. If magic can heal, what price does the healer pay? If it can create mental bonds, what are the dangers of such? Costs and consequences are big parts in magic systems that need logical workflows to make sense of. Logic needs to be based in your world as well, so you need to keep this in mind. 

Some romance stories also like to use magic to reflect the themes of the romance, which is something that you can do. I don’t necessarily think this is a big thing to think about though, but for example, maybe the magic requires sacrifices and that reflects the theme. 

If you want a good worksheet for building magic systems, I recommend you check out my Magic System Builder Worksheet. It’s a customizable Canva template (free and pro users) and it’s great because it walks you through everything you need to build an entire magic system easily. 

Tropes in Romantasy

Alright, let’s talk about tropes, because that’s usually a big point of discourse amongst the romantasy community. Tropes are pretty much central to the romantasy genre, and it’s part of the reason I believe romantasy was able to grow so much. Tropes are very marketable. You can easily just say that you’re writing an enemies-to-lovers romance and this will immediately reel in people who are interested in reading books about enemies who become lovers. 

Alright, but psychologically speaking, why do tropes resonate so much with readers? They sound like good marketing tags, but what calls out to the readers so much? 

Here are some common tropes and why readers love them:

• Enemies-to-lovers: The tension of enemies sustains the narrative until the intimacy feels earned. The stakes tend to be higher. 
• Fated Mates: Characters are forced to wrestle with the concepts of destiny and free will. 
• Forbidden Romance: Longing is tied to wider stakes, ensuring that every encounter could lead to doom. 
• Forced Proximity: Characters being forced to be around each other gives more chance for romance to spark. 

Tropes are often part of the structure of a romantasy book, but they should not be what you build your entire story around. Sure, you can throw in some tropes and in fact, I think that’s normal, but you need to work with and around the tropes as well. 

A little tip I have here is to think about how your chosen tropes tie in with the world building. For example, an arranged marriage in a court-driven novel could become the stage for political negotiation. This ties the trope of arranged marriage to the world building of your story. 

Common Mistakes in Romantasy

Where I often see the biggest mistake occur in romantasy is failing to balance the two halves of the genre. Some produce sweeping fantasy novels where the romance feels like an afterthought, robbing the book of its emotional heartbeat. Others write love stories with some haphazard magic and maybe a different cultural name or something, which frustrates fantasy readers. 

Another common pitfall is shallow world building. If the setting is interchangeable, the story loses depth. Magic without cost is another misstep; without consequences, neither the plot nor the relationship feels urgent. Above all, avoid imbalance. Readers pick up romantasy because they want both genres to matter.

Another mistake is over-relying on tropes without giving them fresh expression. Readers may adore enemies-to-lovers, but they will not forgive lazy execution. If your enemies are enemies for four pages, that’s not enemies to lovers. Just keep that in mind when you’re working with really any trope.

Finally, be wary of pacing. Because romantasy must juggle two demanding arcs, stories can easily drag in the middle or rush to a conclusion. Outlining is something that I think is really important for saving time when writing a new book. 

Case Studies From Popular Books in Romantasy

There are quite a good number of romantasy books that exist out there and you’ll find that you’ve heard of a lot of them lately. For me, some that stuck out to me are actually books that I reviewed as well. 

Heartless Hunter was a romantasy with an enemies to lovers forced proximity situation that I enjoyed quite a lot. I thought the world building was engaging and the magic system was fleshed out properly. The characters were well-written and had agency and lives of their own. There were some little nitpicky things that I didn’t like, but overall, this is one of the more 5/5 romantasy books that I think worked because of the fact that it balanced the conflicts well. 

The Foxglove King is another romantasy that I really enjoyed. There were elements about it that were lacking for me, but overall, it hit the nail on the head with the magic system, the world building, and the character arcs. Things were also paced well in that book. 

You can check out my book reviews here if you want more opinions on what books I enjoyed and my breakdowns of them → Book Reviews

Marketing and Publishing Considerations for Romantasy

Alright, so something important about romantasy is marketing and you need to understand how to position your book in a wide marketplace. Marketing is also very important for any author to know about. I personally studied finance for my undergrad and part of my courses covered marketing. Marketing tends to be where a lot of writers trip up, but there are some things you should know and consider in this topic. 

Before I dive into this section, I have a free marketing checklist that you can grab to help you prepare for launching your book! I designed it based off of genuine industry-level marketing techniques that work specially for authors, so be sure to grab your free copy by signing up below: 

Book Cover Design

Cover design is a big one. This is the customer’s first primary point of contact for you as the writer. Yes, we all know the saying of “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but guess what? People judge books by their cover. So, starting with cover design is a huge one. 

Romantasy book covers tend to be very dramatic with a blend of romantic and fantastical elements. You’ve got flowy, calligraphy typography with dark colors and reds. Lots of reds. You tend to also have imagery that invokes the fantasy feel like swords, crowns, dragons, etc… There’s also lots of background details, textures, and patterns. 

Marketing Copy

The next thing you want to think about is the marketing copy. Marketing copy is basically the blurb of your book. It’s the promise that you’re delivering to your readers. After the cover, if the reader is interested or intrigued, they’ll pick your book up and flip to the back. There, they’ll see the blurb. Don’t stuff your blurb with testimonials, readers don’t care for those. What readers want to know is: What is the book going to promise me that will appeal to me? 

In this part, you want to mention tropes like enemies to lovers but without literally saying: ENEMIES TO LOVERS. For instance, maybe introduce the two characters and explain how they’re from opposing nations and then they have to work together. I instantly know what to expect. 

Social Media Marketing

Another big one for romantasy authors is definitely social media. Romantasy became huge because of social media, so naturally, you need to hone in on your social media game as well.

TikTok remains the biggest one for romantasy, but Instagram is also big as well. You want to make posts about your book and try to appeal to your audience there. TikTok is easy to sign up for and if you don’t already have one, check out TikTok here. 

Your goal is to engage with your potential readers and engage with the communities where those readers are. You want genuine participation though, not just promotional posting. If you’re posting an Instagram reel about your book, that’s when you want to promote your story. 

Conclusion

Romantasy will continue to be one of the biggest genres in literature for a while. It embodies the danger and intimacy of fantasy and romance and creates a powerful hybrid structure that readers absolutely adore. You want to try and make sure you’re doing it right though, so you can actually stand out in the sea of romantasy writers out there. 

Part of doing that is ensuring you’ve structured your book properly. This involves character creation, world building, outlining, etc… You need to be aware of the challenges of the balancing game while still delivering an interesting and engaging story. 

Romantasy is more than just a label as well. It’s basically a promise to the reader and many readers want to pick up romantasy for that promise. They want both fantasy and romance but in a way where neither is the center over the other. Both need to exist in harmony. 

If you’re ready to get started writing your next best romantasy book, be sure to check out The Ultimate Guide to Writing Romantasy. It’s a full system that includes over 160 pages of educational material and worksheets so you can learn and build all at the same time. 

Be sure to also sign up for my newsletter and get access to exclusive discount codes, product launch updates, writing insights and more. Plus, when you sign up below, you’ll get 20 free romantasy writing prompts to help you start your next book fast! 

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