Jennifer Dugan: On Shifting From Young Adult to Contemporary Romance
Author Jennifer Dugan discusses discovering the similarities and differences in YA and adult romance during the writing process of her new adult romance novel, Love at First Set.
Jennifer Dugan is the author of the young adult novels Melt with You, Some Girls Do, Verona Comics, and Hot Dog Girl. She is also the author of the YA graphic novel, Coven. She lives in upstate New York with her family. Follower her on Twitter and Instagram.
In this post, Jennifer discusses discovering the similarities and differences in YA and adult romance during the writing process of her new adult romance novel, Love at First Set, her advice for writers, and more!
Name: Jennifer Dugan
Literary agent: Sara Crowe
Book title: Love at First Set
Publisher: HarperCollins / Avon
Release date: May 23, 2023
Genre/category: Contemporary Romance/Adult
Previous titles: Some Girls Do, Hot Dog Girl, Coven, Melt With You, Verona Comics
Elevator pitch for the book: Love at First Set is a queer rom-com about a gym employee who accidentally ruins her boss’s daughter’s wedding, then even more accidentally falls for the runaway bride. It’s full of all the tropes and shenanigans you love in rom-coms, while also tackling issues surrounding complicated family dynamics, economic disparity, and identity.
What prompted you to write this book?
I was having a great time writing YA romance, but I could not get Lizzie and Cara, Love at First Set’s main character and love interest respectively, out of my head. I was obsessed with the idea of a wedding meet-cute with a runaway bride, so I realized pretty early on this wouldn’t work for young adult!
I had also spent a lot of time at a very welcoming gym before COVID. I plotted a lot of this book during the lock downs, so setting it in a gym—a place I was really missing—seemed like a natural decision.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I definitely played with the idea for a while before I decided to make a serious go of it. I was so comfortable working in the YA space—it felt daunting to start over working in adult.
I also really wanted to send out Love at First Set to editors as a complete manuscript since this would be a whole new category for me. That meant I had to chip away at the draft in between my contracted projects. It was truly a labor of love.
It was nice to be working on a story that was “just for me” again, since I’m often working on a tight deadline. Once I had a finished draft, things snowballed very quickly. Altogether, it will be about two years from draft to publication.
The idea did change slightly during the process. It definitely needed to be streamlined a bit. In my excitement, I had thrown in every trope and idea I could think of in the early drafts! My agent Sara Crowe, and editor Sylvan Creekmore were both wonderful at helping me identify the true heart of the story I was trying to tell.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
Every book’s path to publication has its own quirks, and I’m continuously finding things to be surprised about with each one! For Love at First Set, I was surprised by how fast the adult romance book world moves compared to YA. All the behind-the-scenes processes happen at a much faster pace. It’s interesting because while there are a lot of overlap and similarities between the adult side and the young adult side, everything is just different enough to keep you on your toes.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I’m lucky to have nailed down a writing process that works for me—a combination of plotting and pantsing that involves a very, very basic Excel spreadsheet and a few notecards. I gave myself a lot more time to wander in the early drafts since I wasn’t on a deadline, but in general I kept to my usual routine.
I did have to recalibrate the way I handled certain aspects of the romance, though. The pacing of relationship development, and the way I depict physical intimacy, is very different between my adult romance and young adult romance projects.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I write imperfect romances for imperfect people, and I hope my readers are able to see themselves in my stories. As a human disaster myself, I gravitate toward messy, complicated characters trying their best. I hope that will resonate with adult readers the way it does with my young adult readers—everyone is a work in progress, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t deserving of their happily ever afters too.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Finish the book! I know that sounds obvious, but in the early stages of my writing career, I was very hung up on eternally revising… which meant a lot of books were left unfinished.
You learn so much from seeing a story through—even if it’s going to take a lot of polishing after the fact. There’s always time to clean it up later, but you can’t revise words that aren’t there!
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
