More helpful advice from Delia Darling on how to write a romance novel:

Hello romance fans.  Our topic for today will be the importance of hair colour in characterization.  Now I know what you are thinking.  I really do.  You are thinking what a silly old bat I am.  But believe me, if you ignore the vital importance of hair colour you are simply making a rod for your own back! 

Let’s talk about our red-headed heroine first.  She can be flame haired, auburn, or strawberry blonde, all perfectly acceptable.  Temperamentally she is feisty, argumentative and stubborn.  She may suspect the hero of seducing her sister or bankrupting her father. Heroines often suspect heroes of this kind of thing on the flimsiest evidence, or indeed no evidence at all. Heroines, of course, are frequently blonde but they are not BLONDES.  Blondes in romance novels are not dumb.  On the contrary, your blonde heroine is cool, intelligent and professional.  She looks good in business suits.  She is ice over fire and only the hero can melt her with his smooth, deep, velvety voice and flexible, skilful fingers (sorry, got lost in the moment there.) And last but not least the brunette heroine.  Always remember, brunettes are good girls.  They may be vivacious, they may be spirited, but when it gets right down to it they’d rather be baking an apple pie than having sex. 

To turn to our hero. As a beginner, you really can’t go wrong with the classic, tall, dark and handsome hero.   He is just so versatile.  He can be an Italian Count, a Russian Prince, an American billionaire or a concert pianist.  He rarely wears anything but perfectly cut suits or riding clothes.  His eyes are dark and gleam sardonically under their heavy lids, or blaze with passion when he takes the heroine in his strong arms and tenderly smoothes the flimsy fabric from her quivering thighs. Now don’t for goodness sake be tempted to make your hero ginger.  I’m sure we all personally know red headed men who are sexy as hell and charming to boot but the fatal flaw of the ginger haired man is …?  That’s right, no tan. You could just about get away with it if he were a Laird in the Highlands where it pours down constantly anyway, especially if he wore a green kilt, but on the whole you simply shouldn’t go there.   Blonde men must be tanned, and, of course, muscular.  They are ideal for surfer types, cowboys, or at a pinch, archaeologists.  Whatever he does for a living he spends most of his time in nothing but a pair of skintight blue jeans, which leave our heroine in no doubt whatsoever that, he is very, very pleased to see her.   He is honest, open and has a boyish grin.  He breathes the air of the wide-open spaces and sweat gleams on his smooth, brown, muscular chest. This type is extremely popular in Europe, where we have very few blonde, tanned muscular men with perfect teeth.   Except in Sweden, but strangely, I’ve never read a romance novel with a Swedish hero, I can’t think why.

This is all very well, you are saying, but how does this help me create drama, conflict, romance?  Oh ye of little faith!  How could you have more drama than by pairing your dark sardonic hero with a feisty red-headed heroine?  Or by taming your blonde, outdoorsy, charmer with a sprightly little brunette.  It really couldn’t be easier could it? 

I’m now going to set a little homework.  Re-write the first chapter of Gone with the Wind with Scarlett as a red-head, Rhett as a blonde and Ashley as a brunette.  Let’s see what happens shall we?