I love dark romance! It’s a genre that allows for the mind to run wild, all the while empowering (empowering! Stick with me!) its readers—primarily, women. In this essay, I want to discuss genre conventions while also touching on how dark romance fits into (and belongs in!) the romance space. Dark romance shouldn’t be talked about in dark (ha!) corners away from the light. It is not a shameful thing to write or to read. I want to use this essay about genre conventions to invite you to reevaluate your take on dark romance, if negative.

Recently, I’ve been completing a developmental editing course from Club Ed (which btw is AMAZING, thank you, Jennifer Lawler!), and one of the assignments involved picking a book with poor reviews to try our hand at developmental editing. I, of course, immediately veered off course and decided that I wanted to, instead, dev edit a book I just didn’t like to see if my dislike was based on dev issues or not. Thus, I arrived in a local used bookstore (shout out to Helen’s Bookmark) on the hunt for either ACOTAR or Divergent. I came across Fifty Shades of Grey first, and believe me, I genuinely considered it for a hot second.

From my reading and editing experience, here are my seventeen dialogue pet peeves (and solutions for writers encountering them) that throw me into the depths of despair (/j):

From my experience working with writers across all different stages of life and experience, here are the most common pitfalls I see from new and beginning writers.