How to plot your romance

Now that you have an idea for your story, it's time to turn it into a manuscript. Because guess what: you cannot sell an idea to an editor - unless you're really famous and your book is going to sell millions of copies while you sleep.
Gathering your thoughts into a coherent plot that grabs reader interest and keeps it for 300+ pages, is no simple task, but if you have a pen and some paper handy, it can be accomplished.
Here's how I do it, and I'm not saying this is the best way or the only way. It's just one way - the one I'm going to show you.

First, before I start plotting, I decide how many words I'm going to write in total. My full length novels range from 90,000 to a little under 100,000 words on average. So let's say I'm going to write 94,000 words and I want to do it in two months (eight weeks discounting weekends = 8x5 = 40 days of writing. So, 94,000 divided by 40 = 2,350 words per day. I bet you were wondering when you would get to use those excellent math skills of yours - right :)

Now that I know how much I HAVE to write per day (I usually write more - somewhere closer to 3,000) and how long it will take me to complete my first draft, I start plotting. Generally, my chapters are roughly three thousand words long, so 94,000/3,000 = 31.33... So let's say the book will contain 32 two chapters for the purpose of plotting.

Part 1 - Jot down the key characters. These are:

The hero

The heroine

The villain (if there is one)

Part 2 - Make sure you know who these characters are! Understanding them and giving them depth will go a long way toward getting your reader to care about them as much as you do.

Part 3 - Jot down the key plot elements. These are:

The problem the protagonist faces

The protagonists first attempt at solving this problem

Further complications of the problem

The protagonist's second attempt at solving the problem and additional failure

Worsening of the problem

Dark night of the soul - the part where all hope seems lost

The brilliant moment when the protagonist rallies, overcomes the obstacle and wins

Part 4 - Grab some paper and jot down the numbers 1-32. Next to each of these numbers, write a paragraph outlining each corresponding chapter, distributing the above mentioned elements throughout and adding hooks. This will make you think more clearly about each aspect of your book and whether or not it will make sense or leave you stranded in a corner you can't write your way out of. Remember - and this is based on experience - the more action a chapter outline contains, the easier it will be for you to spend 3,000 + words on it. By that I mean, jotting down - hero meets heroine in the park - doesn't really involve much writing unless they have a specific reason for meeting there, something interesting to discuss that pushes the plot forward and maybe additional information to reveal to the reader.

Overall, this plotting process takes me a few days because there are always problems that have to be muddled through, but if it's done well/thoroughly, it helps me stay on track and avoid having to re-write too much of the book later on.
Any questions? Let me know in the comment section below and I'll do my best to answer them in a timely fashion. Thanks and good luck with your plotting!