Writing an Inspirational Romantic Suspense

Hi, this is Margaret Daley.  My favorite type of book to write is a romantic suspense one. I have a copy of them out right now. Sometimes people ask me what is an inspirational romantic suspense.

An inspirational romantic suspense has three main elements: a suspense (and sometimes also a mystery), romance and faith element. For me that means I have to juggle three aspects of a story within a 250 page manuscript for my shorter Love Inspired Suspense. In my longer books for Abingdon Press in The Men of the Texas Rangers Series, I have at least a third more book but the plot is more complex. Not an easy task and one that requires a lot of planning and thought whether a long or short romantic suspense.

In a suspense, pacing is so important. A reader expects to be taken on a merry ride where the hero and heroine are threatened, running for their lives, trying to solve something, trying to save someone. In a mystery, which I call a whodunit, the action might be more sedate but not necessarily. My stories often combine the elements of a suspense and a mystery. However, in a romantic suspense the suspense must be stronger than the mystery.

A romantic suspense is usually fifty percent suspense and fifty percent romance. So often the problem arises when you are working your way through the suspense part of your book and you forget to have your hero and heroine fall in love. It can be harder to show it when they are being threatened or running for their lives. But if you have a furious pace throughout your book, it will overload your readers. I have read many romantic suspense books, and there should always be moments of down time. That can be when you build the romance between your hero and heroine. Even when they are running for their lives, it is a good thing to keep them emotionally connected and aware of each other.

In an inspirational romantic suspense you must also delve into the spiritual growth of your hero and heroine. I find it is easier in a romantic suspense because of the heightened action and often the life and death aspect of these type of stories. We turn to the Lord in times of trouble and when we need Him. This can feed very naturally into your story.

But again I will stress because you have to juggle faith, romance and suspense, you must plan. In a lot of stories, you will need to give false information and clues as well as real ones. Readers like to have a chance to figure out who is behind all the commotion in your story. I do realize in some suspense (not mystery) books the reader will already know who the villain is and that is fine. An example is the heroine being stalked by an ex-husband or ex-boyfriend. She knows who he is, but she is in grave danger.

So where do you start?  The first thing I usually come up with is a premise for my story.  Sometimes it can be something as simple as a favorite setting like the jungle in Heart of the Amazon or an occupation in Saving Hope (Texas Ranger) and in Guarding the Witness (a female bodyguard). In Scorned Justice I came up with the premise how far would someone go to get revenge.  Or in Vanished, the premise was what would happen if a sheriff had to be both lawman and father when his daughter is kidnapped by someone from his past. Usually it is easiest to come up with some kind of concept and build a story from there.