Romantic comedies seem to take over where the fairytales of childhood left off, feeding our dreams of a soulmate; though, sadly, the Hollywood endings prove quite elusive in the real world.
— Mariella Frostrup
I think that romantic comedies have a special place in most people's hearts, especially the younger demographic.
— Noah Centineo
I love romantic comedies. I have a deep respect for them. I think they're really difficult to write and write well.
— Rashida Jones
Workshop #9 was on writing romantic comedies, or Rom-Coms, presented by Farah Heron. While I took lots of notes in this one, once again I apologize if they seem a little choppy. It’s hard to write both fast and legibly.
Romantic comedy is a sub-genre of romance. It’s a comedic work where the main plot follows two people falling in love. To be a true romantic comedy, romance must be central to the story and it must come to an emotionally satisfying ending. It’s not just a funny romance, the humor is built into the plot/premise.
Elements in your rom-com that you need to consider before you start to write:
1. Subgenre/age
Though it’s usually contemporary, the rom-come can be historical, paranormal, or even sci-fi. As well, the age category can be adult or young adult. But it must reflect the values of the day – for example, if it’s historical you need to follow the morals of that time period. The reader must respect the character and be able to relate to them.
2. Rom Com tropes
Common tropes include (but are not limited to) fake dating, enemies to lovers (banter and conflicting goals), forced confinement (tight spaces, frayed nerves), grumpy one soft on the sunshiny one, forbidden love, best friend’s sibling, never been kissed, love at first sight, love triangle, and secret identity. Use a trope in a fresh, new way
3. High concept logline
A logline is a one sentence summary that distills the story elements down so they can be easily digested. A logline formula: When X happens, your protagonist tries to get Y but gets Z instead. Rom Com is not really a high concept, it’s actually more character driven.
4. Setting
Consider where it’s taking place and when it’s taking place – now, in the future, in the past (historical). Where do most scenes take place – indoors, outdoors, in an exotic location? What are the defining characteristics of the setting? Some settings are well suited to comedy such as the circus, a county fair, the zoo. If you’re going for dark humor, try a funeral home. Think about the atmosphere you want to generate – mysterious, cute, happy, heartwarming, sunny.
5. Characters
Rom Com is the most character driven of all the romances. The characters come from the premise or trope, but you need to bring the readers close to the characters so they feel the feelings of love, hope, redemption, etc. Archetypes can be used to help create character. Sorting people into categories is human nature – it’s a shortcut to characterization. The reader needs to fall in love with your characters.
Romantic Archetypes: Alpha (hero), Beta (hero), Virgin, Girl Next Door, Awkward Nerd, Bad Girl/Boy, Wisecracker, Hot Mess, The Charmer, The Square, the Every Person/Pollyanna, and the Cinnamon Roll (someone who is perceived as gentle and kind – gruff on the outside, soft and squishy on the inside).
Rom-Com characters often have strong personalities. When these personalities come in conflict with each other, as in an enemies-to-lovers story, the tension generated between the two might cause you to write an unlikeable character. You can fix this by having them do something heroic early in the story. Make sure their actions are justified and the justification is sympathetic.
Don’t prevent your reader from falling in love with your characters. Funny things can happen to your character, but don’t humiliate them. If there’s no getting around their humiliation, make sure to keep them likeable.
The compatibility gap is the thing that stops your characters from being together right now. It might be confliction goals or personalities, or something in their back stories.
And unless they’re stranded on a deserted island, there are bound to be other people around. The BFF and friend groups are an important part of the story, and can add humor in their own way.
6. Intimacy Level
The Rom-Com has varying levels of explicit sex. It can be sweet, clean, and wholesome, or take place behind closed doors. Or it can be steamy, spicy, hot (1 to 3 sex scenes), or erotic (more than 3 sex scenes – sex is a big part of the story).
7. Comedy Types:
Situational – sit-com type comedy, comedic situations that are awkward, inescapable, and lighthearted
Banter – dialogue based, the playful and friendly exchange of good-humored, teasing remarks.
Observational – humor that revolves around the ordinary and commonplace aspects of everyday life. Often used by stand-up comics.
Physical – relies on the use of the body to convey humor – slapstick, clowning, mime, pratfalls, making faces.
Satire and surreal comedy do not work well in the Rom-Com.
Three things to keep in mind:
1. It’s okay if the first draft isn’t funny. Comedy is easier to do in rewrites
2. Let go of your inhibitions. Turn off your inner critic and write with abandon
3. Never forget this is a romance
Farah’s Tips:
Lower your inhibitions – be weird.
Check early with beta readers to see if it’s working.
Take risks.
Read romances.
Read rom-coms.
Watch Rom-Com movies.
Practice – write lots
If you’re thinking of writing a Rom-Com of your own, Farah has some work sheets to help get you started. You can find them HERE
And for further reading, you can check out the following books:
The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes and Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes, by Caro Lafever, Tami D. Cowden, and Sue Viders, or Romancing The Beat: Story Structure For Romance Novels, by Gwen Hayes
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
WORDAGE REPORT
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
I had a strong start to my week last week, but too many grey days in a row tanked me towards the end.
As well as getting my blog posts done early, I also wrote a rather lengthy snail mail letter to my sister and did a bunch of reading and stitchery. Then I decided that what the big bookcase behind my desk needed was an extra shelf so I could get the books off of my desk and the floor of my office.
So following my stitchery meeting on Tuesday, I went to Home Depot and they had the perfect shelf for me. My plan was get the bookcase squared away in the afternoon, finish my sister’s letter in the evening, and then I could start Wednesday out right – in my office.
However, things never work out that well for me. The shelf was perfect, but the pre-drilled holes in the bookcase weren’t. I needed more drilled, and the hubby was off helping a friend and he’d taken his drill with him. By the time he came back and drilled the holes for me, it was dinner time. So I finished the letter in the afternoon (while I waited) and I read in the evening.
Wednesday I got my bookcase squared away in the morning, and for good measure got my desk cleaned up properly (as in found homes for all the papers and notebooks on it instead of just moving them around) in the afternoon. Then Thursday, while I was sitting in my office working on the installment for The Pond, it occurred to me that the little two shelf bookcase I use for my tea station would be more efficient if it had an extra shelf too. I didn’t have the same good luck with that one, but after the hubby cut down the shelf I found to size, it worked fine. And yesterday I got my CDs moved over and all is right with the world in my office now.
NEW WORDS:
2194+523+456+814=3,987
DOWN 354 – words from last week
While I’m not displeased with the words I wrote last week, I would have liked to see more of them. And by more I mean words on things other than blog posts. If I can write 5,000 words to my sister, surely I can write a couple of thousand on a story of some kind.
But like I said, I had a strong start to the week, but then between bookcase reorganization and cleaning off my desk, and then one day too many of grey dismal weather . . . so what should have been extra words turned into extra gaming and reading.
Goals For Next Week:
Get all my blog posts done and maybe a few extra words besides.
EDITING:
0 hours
I keep thinking about those historic records I want to cite at the beginning of each chapter of Elemental Spirit. Seeing as this book is supposed to tie all the others together, it might be a good idea to figure out what the actual prophecy was that started the whole thing.
Goal For Next Week:
Get back to work on An Elemental Spirit.
POETRY:
Well, I found a new form to share and it was neither too short, nor too long – it was just right. Not as easy as some of the ones I’ve been doing lately, but not as hard as a coded Welsh form. :-)
I did not work on expanding the poems I started in the Duende workshop, but I have a very good reason for that. I, uh, kind of lost them. Not lost as in gone forever, just . . . I don’t know where they are. They’re in a notebook somewhere, but part of cleaning off my desk and organizing my bookcase involved putting away the notebooks I had laying around, so it’s just a matter of figuring out which notebook they’re in and where I put it.
Goal For Next Week:
Find another new poetry form to share. Expand on the poems I started during the Duende workshop.
CRAFTING:
I joined an embroidery group on Facebook and have been getting a lot of posts from another one in my feed. So I may have spent a little more time than I should have admiring other peoples work last week. But they did inspire me to think beyond samplers or bags. I’m not saying I want to start stitching on sneakers or hats, but I do have a number of plain shirts that could use a little spiffing up.
I did spend some time on my zentangle sampler, but again, not as much as I would have liked. And there was stitch-in at the library that I went to where I actually got some stitching done, not just talking.
Goal For Next Week:
Keep working on my sampler; decide which shirt I want to enhance.
WHAT I’M READING:
I’m still reading The Book of Magic, by Alice Hoffman. And as I predicted, I zipped through Croc’s Return, Panther’s Claim, Python’s Embrace, and Gator’s Challenge by Eve Langlais.
Goal For Next Week:
Keep reading.
THE WEEK AHEAD:
I followed my lists last week, and I gotta tell you it feels really good when I can cross things off of it. Too bad most of them were mundane things like water plants, clean kitty litter, do laundry. LOL So this week my goal is to be able to cross off things like edit Elemental Spirit and update writing journal.
And I’m looking at another week where the only thing in my day planner is my stitchery guild’s regular meeting. Unless the dentist’s office calls with an appointment with their periodontist. *sigh*
The weather is supposed to be a little sunnier, but I’ll believe it when I see it. But my office is all squared away, so there’s nothing stopping me spending more time in there this week. The possibilities are endless.
I can see that track clearly from here, maybe this will be the week I step back on it.
Banter – dialogue based, the playful and friendly exchange of good-humored, teasing remarks.
Observational – humor that revolves around the ordinary and commonplace aspects of everyday life. Often used by stand-up comics.
Physical – relies on the use of the body to convey humor – slapstick, clowning, mime, pratfalls, making faces.
Satire and surreal comedy do not work well in the Rom-Com.
1. It’s okay if the first draft isn’t funny. Comedy is easier to do in rewrites
2. Let go of your inhibitions. Turn off your inner critic and write with abandon
3. Never forget this is a romance
Farah’s Tips:
Lower your inhibitions – be weird.
Check early with beta readers to see if it’s working.
Take risks.
Read romances.
Read rom-coms.
Watch Rom-Com movies.
Practice – write lots
If you’re thinking of writing a Rom-Com of your own, Farah has some work sheets to help get you started. You can find them HERE
And for further reading, you can check out the following books:
The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes and Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes, by Caro Lafever, Tami D. Cowden, and Sue Viders, or Romancing The Beat: Story Structure For Romance Novels, by Gwen Hayes
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
WORDAGE REPORT
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
I had a strong start to my week last week, but too many grey days in a row tanked me towards the end.
As well as getting my blog posts done early, I also wrote a rather lengthy snail mail letter to my sister and did a bunch of reading and stitchery. Then I decided that what the big bookcase behind my desk needed was an extra shelf so I could get the books off of my desk and the floor of my office.
So following my stitchery meeting on Tuesday, I went to Home Depot and they had the perfect shelf for me. My plan was get the bookcase squared away in the afternoon, finish my sister’s letter in the evening, and then I could start Wednesday out right – in my office.
However, things never work out that well for me. The shelf was perfect, but the pre-drilled holes in the bookcase weren’t. I needed more drilled, and the hubby was off helping a friend and he’d taken his drill with him. By the time he came back and drilled the holes for me, it was dinner time. So I finished the letter in the afternoon (while I waited) and I read in the evening.
Wednesday I got my bookcase squared away in the morning, and for good measure got my desk cleaned up properly (as in found homes for all the papers and notebooks on it instead of just moving them around) in the afternoon. Then Thursday, while I was sitting in my office working on the installment for The Pond, it occurred to me that the little two shelf bookcase I use for my tea station would be more efficient if it had an extra shelf too. I didn’t have the same good luck with that one, but after the hubby cut down the shelf I found to size, it worked fine. And yesterday I got my CDs moved over and all is right with the world in my office now.
NEW WORDS:
2194+523+456+814=3,987
DOWN 354 – words from last week
While I’m not displeased with the words I wrote last week, I would have liked to see more of them. And by more I mean words on things other than blog posts. If I can write 5,000 words to my sister, surely I can write a couple of thousand on a story of some kind.
But like I said, I had a strong start to the week, but then between bookcase reorganization and cleaning off my desk, and then one day too many of grey dismal weather . . . so what should have been extra words turned into extra gaming and reading.
Goals For Next Week:
Get all my blog posts done and maybe a few extra words besides.
EDITING:
0 hours
I keep thinking about those historic records I want to cite at the beginning of each chapter of Elemental Spirit. Seeing as this book is supposed to tie all the others together, it might be a good idea to figure out what the actual prophecy was that started the whole thing.
Goal For Next Week:
Get back to work on An Elemental Spirit.
POETRY:
Well, I found a new form to share and it was neither too short, nor too long – it was just right. Not as easy as some of the ones I’ve been doing lately, but not as hard as a coded Welsh form. :-)
I did not work on expanding the poems I started in the Duende workshop, but I have a very good reason for that. I, uh, kind of lost them. Not lost as in gone forever, just . . . I don’t know where they are. They’re in a notebook somewhere, but part of cleaning off my desk and organizing my bookcase involved putting away the notebooks I had laying around, so it’s just a matter of figuring out which notebook they’re in and where I put it.
Goal For Next Week:
Find another new poetry form to share. Expand on the poems I started during the Duende workshop.
CRAFTING:
I joined an embroidery group on Facebook and have been getting a lot of posts from another one in my feed. So I may have spent a little more time than I should have admiring other peoples work last week. But they did inspire me to think beyond samplers or bags. I’m not saying I want to start stitching on sneakers or hats, but I do have a number of plain shirts that could use a little spiffing up.
I did spend some time on my zentangle sampler, but again, not as much as I would have liked. And there was stitch-in at the library that I went to where I actually got some stitching done, not just talking.
Goal For Next Week:
Keep working on my sampler; decide which shirt I want to enhance.
WHAT I’M READING:
I’m still reading The Book of Magic, by Alice Hoffman. And as I predicted, I zipped through Croc’s Return, Panther’s Claim, Python’s Embrace, and Gator’s Challenge by Eve Langlais.
Goal For Next Week:
Keep reading.
THE WEEK AHEAD:
I followed my lists last week, and I gotta tell you it feels really good when I can cross things off of it. Too bad most of them were mundane things like water plants, clean kitty litter, do laundry. LOL So this week my goal is to be able to cross off things like edit Elemental Spirit and update writing journal.
And I’m looking at another week where the only thing in my day planner is my stitchery guild’s regular meeting. Unless the dentist’s office calls with an appointment with their periodontist. *sigh*
The weather is supposed to be a little sunnier, but I’ll believe it when I see it. But my office is all squared away, so there’s nothing stopping me spending more time in there this week. The possibilities are endless.
I can see that track clearly from here, maybe this will be the week I step back on it.
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