SO You Want to Write a Romantic Comedy? by Sheryl Browne

As part of my book blog tour for A little Bit of Madness, 
I was invited to offer practical advice

 for beginning to write Romantic Comedy!.

As mentioned elsewhere, my road to publication has been a long one and it’s only now I feel qualified to impart such advice. My first ever romantic comedy was picked up by an agent, you see, who hailed it as a bestseller and was then possibly reduced to tears – along with yours truly – when it didn’t sell. Overuse of barbed wit and slapstick I gleaned from feedback was the reason why. I’ve been told by the BBC I have a flair for comedic situations vis-à-vis sitcom, but in regard to novel writing, back then, it was obvious I had some lessons to learn.

I wrote, embarked on a creative writing course, took on board every piece of advice and, finally, I think I got there. I’d like to share some of what of learned along the way, in the hope it might help make the road a little less bumpy for anyone else starting out on the romantic comedy writing journey.

So what is romantic comedy? It’s a boy-meets-girl, falling in love story. And as we know from as far back as Greek Tragedy, falling in love never goes smoothly. People do strange things when cupid’s arrow strikes. As much as any sensible woman knows that true love should be more than skin deep, she will probably decide her bum is too big and go on a crash diet – and then indulge in copious amounts of pleasure-inducing chocolate-coated endorphins when the relationship goes wrong.

Men flounder when love throws their carefully organised emotions into chaos.Suddenly, they’re indecisive. They don’t know what women want. They’re vulnerable. They’re human.

Based on my own experience then, along with feedback from publishers and agents, we have to stay away from slapstick and keep our characters real. When we laugh at characters in a romantic comedy, we’re actually laughing at ourselves. We’re amused because it’s familiar, comedic or embarrassing situation we could – maybe have – found ourselves in. That heart-freezing is-my-dress-tucked-in-my-knickers moment when exiting the loo at a posh do?

So, we’re highlighting the situation with caricature, yes, but in order for the parody to work, our characters need to be fully formed people our readers can relate to. Sex And The City pulled it off beautifully but, in reality, most women have never owned a Jimmy Choo shoe, nor could they aspire to. If a woman is a secretary, home-maker, mother, care-giver or bank-teller, she’s not likely to have a wardrobe stuffed full of designer – unless she’s robbed the bank, of course. Hmm? Could there be a story in there somewhere? Your heroine might be the ditzy blonde no man understands. She might be uber-efficient but emotionally deficient, but she has to have depth.

To illustrate my point – and at the risk of blowing my own trumpet, I’d like to use a couple of snippets from reviews for one of my books, Somebody to Love, a story around a single father and his autistic little boy:

Characters jump of the page & make you instantly care about them. Captures the essence of love, life, family & highs and lows of parenting a special needs child. Jonty - Associate Reader/Reviewer at Loveahappyending.com

…Autism spectrum disorder - the child in question quickly became my favourite character.
Me, My Books and I

Sheryl’s writing is fabulous. She manages to make you laugh out loud constantly and her stories are so natural and true to life.
All things Books – Kim The Book Worm

I feel that this story has been written with real warmth and heart, with a wry humour at the ups and downs that life throws at people.
The Little Reader Library

Time and time again, these lovely reviewers talk about the ability to portray real people they can relate to. Women, as we know, come with a whole gamut of emotion, as do men. They are real people with all the faults and flaws on show. Someone your reader identifies with and wants to get to know.

Readers want compelling characters, people they care about. They might seem to be incompatible, they might think that they are, but we need to believe love will find a way. The might start out as   emotionally vulnerable, incomplete people with necessary inner and outer conflict – think Notting Hill. William and Anna, worlds apart and the odd stacked against them. Plenty of outer conflict there. The inner conflict? Could a lowly bookshop owner from Notting Hill ever really be good enough for a film star from Beverley Hills? Could Anna ever hope to make him see she was ‘still just a girl standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her’? Basically then, we need to see the characters conflicts. We need to see them confronted and ideally resolved by the relationship.

And so, to the climax. Again, keep it real. Unless you can come up with a fresh take on kissing in the snow in your underwear, chances are it’s already been done, and done well.

In summary, Romantic Comedy tends to follow a formula: boy meets girl, boy gets girl, despite all obstacles, eventually. The difficult bit is making your reader laugh with your character as he/she falls over those obstacles, because the reader is empathising with the character, because they’ve been there.

Happy writing!

Sheryl