What I Learned Writing RomCom

                                              

                                                                Picture by Adonyi Gabor

What I learned from writing romcom is that it is hard. All writing is hard, but trying to write something actually funny is on another level. I decided to try my hand at writing romcom because it is a popular sub-genre in the romance genre, and I like to think I have a sense of humor.

My short romcom is the first story in my Virtue series. It is the Capital virtues I am writing about, and the first story is about patience, which is the virtue, not the name of the character who finds her patience being tested in a few ways while also finding love with a beautiful man. There were four things I learned. Read further to find out what they are.

Being Cute is Not the Same as Being Funny

I thought that a cute idea would naturally translate into something funny. It does not.  It translated into awkward situations that fell flat.  My solution was to settle for cute. My reasoning was that cute can be funny, but maybe not the laugh-out-loud kind. This is my first romcom, so I decided to give myself a break, and that cute would be enough.

 The Setup is One Thing

The setup is one thing, but the execution is another. For example, there is a banana peel on the floor, and a man comes along and slips on it. Is that funny? I never thought so because the execution is off.  So, my heroine in my Virtue Series does not want to have sex before marriage. What does the hero do? I can’t tell you it will spoil the story for you, but it sets up several situations where something funny could happen. If not, the laugh-out-loud kind, at least it could give readers a few chuckles.

What Exactly is Funny?

I have a sense of humor, but what is funny to me, would it be funny to readers? Have you ever been told a joke by a friend and they are laughing their butts off, but you’re not because it's not that funny to you?  Well, that is how it felt writing my romcom.  I never knew when writing if my humor is everybody’s humor. I have to go forward and hope that my funny prose does not have readers saying, “Huh!”

Trying Too Hard to Be Funny

I had to ask myself while writing if I was trying too hard? Honestly, I don’t think so but that could be a bad thing. I think rewriting is where the refinement of a story comes in, but I do believe one should try to make an effort in their first draft. It is like writing a love scene. As a writer, you try to make it scorching hot, so the reader likes it, and you do the same with a humorous scene.

Conclusion

As I said( have I mentioned it a hundred times?), writing romcom is hard, but with time and effort, I hope to get better. The other stories in the virtue series, I don’t know if they will be romcom’s except for one.

Want to hear a joke” What do you get when you cross a piece of candy with a romance novel?”

A sweet romance.

Happy reading and if you have any good jokes leave them in the comment section.