RomComs? No, that is not something from Star Trek

When I was asked to write something about tragedy, I could not think of a single thing to write about. Not one. Tragedy is just not my thing.

If I want to cry while reading something, I want it to be about a girl not getting the guy. Or vise versa. What can get me crying is when a writer can get me to fall in love with two characters simultaneously as they are falling in love with each other, but then in the end for some strange reason they decide they cannot be together and so go their separate ways. That is tragedy for me. No one has to die. Unless you call my aching soul as someone, but most people wouldn't.

If you can see through my words, what I am trying to get at is about writing in the sub-genre, RomComs (as screenwriter Bill Mernit has dubbed them) or what they are more commonly called, Romantic Comedies.

There are several factors that add to the make-up of this genre: knowing your audience, chemistry, unpredictability, wacky secondary characters, an underlying worldly message, conflict, sex and spice, and lastly humor.

First we will be discussing the audience. Straight out front I'm going to say it. Usually Romantic Comedies are written for women. To capture that yearning romantic woman reader, entwining her in your story, and all the while getting her to laugh is your goal. Most commonly the readers are young to middle-aged. So this means you need to put yourself in their mind set. Write something that they can relate to. You want them to laugh with the characters not at them. You want them to feel for your characters.

Next, probably the second most important factor would be chemistry between your characters. It is a must. If they don't have chemistry, they don't have love, no love means no romance. You also need chemistry between your reader and the characters. You can't have a girl falling in love with a jerk. Readers don't like jerks, they won't want your leading female going out with one. You must have your readers craving for them to be together because they are right for each other.

Now, a major part that makes a romance into a Romantic Comedy, is unpredictability. Predictability is your worst nightmare. Remember that, write it down. Take a left turn when you have the urge to take a right. Write that down too. Mix in the unexpected, some sort of wackiness that brings the two lovers together- or maybe apart?

You don't have a story without characters, and the more the better when it comes to RomComs. You just can't have too many secondary characters. Add in the parents, the siblings, second cousins... ex's, children, old friends, new friends, taxi drivers... you cannot go wrong. They are a great place to bounce jokes off of. Make them as wacky as you can, and don't forget to include how your lovers react to them. Do they like them? Are they completely disgusting to them? Also, what is their sexual orientation? Secondary characters are just about as important to develop as the lead characters.

Next I will be talking about plot.

Number one, who is chasing who? Is the woman chasing the man or is the man chasing the woman? Women readers relate better to the woman chasing the man, but women react well to men chasing women because it is something that they wish would happen to themselves.

After you have decided that, you will want to add an underlying worldly message. Perhaps a cliche. "Beauty is only skin deep" is a classic. Remember- women love to read about themselves, so think about what is affecting women in today's society.

And don't feel like you can't cross into other genres. Add some action, murder, politics, or history. There is nothing that says your piece has to be contemporary and politically correct.

Finally for the plot, you must have conflict. It's not much of a story if you have them meet on the street, fall in love at first sight, get married, and be happy. (Although that has been done.) You must have the characters be different from each other. Maybe the main character has not been feeling complete, and when they meet the other, the other fills that gap. Playing with the reader's emotions is what you want to do. We all live on a roller coaster when it comes to love. You may want to refer back to the predictability paragraph now.

I'm going to talk about one of those no-no's now. Sex. Sex and spice, in fact. It's what romance is. If you were thinking that romance was just roses, you're wrong. It has to have spice. Pretend that your Romantic Comedy is carrot cake. You've added eggs, flour.. all of that stuff, (I'll be talking about the carrots next) but you have to have spice to make the cake complete. Embarrassment involving sex and one, or both, of your main characters is always a plus.This is a good place to bring in one or more of your secondary characters.

Okay, up to now we have talked mostly about romance, but what about the other half of Romantic Comedy? The carrots? The humor part, remember? This may be a bit hard to swallow for some of you, but the comedy part is the smallest and least important part of the story. Don't get me wrong, it is important, but if you have a good plot, great main and secondary characters, the humor part just falls in place. When writing the humor part you want a joke or at least a smile on every page. You don't want your reader falling out of their chair constantly- you wouldn't have any romance if that was the case. A writer should not try to focus on the reader laughing at the character, you want them laughing with them. I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, you must write something that your readers can relate to. Get rid of most of the slapstick, focus on funny dialogue and a tiny bit of subtle physical comedy. Most of us don't go around tripping all the time, we prefer not to get hurt.

So, if you follow these pointers that I've given and remember the main ideas: knowing your audience, chemistry, unpredictability, wacky secondary characters, an underlying worldly message, conflict, sex and spice, and then humor, you will have a great, hilarious romantic comedy. Oh, and don't forget, it's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it. Good luck.

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