writing ideas

A Guide to Writing Romantic Comedy…

Hershman Rights3 Comments

Let’s get our romance on! In the spirit of the coming love holiday let us take a step into the world of romantic comedies. A genre designed to give anyone butterflies, has a very straight forward plot. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy tries to get girl back. We have seen it over and over and yet I always find myself being drawn towards these novels. Now, we are not here to take an in depth look at my personal library but instead how you can get started on creating your own rom com!

In terms of the structure a typical rom com goes as follows:

Introductions: The reader meets the characters individually, before they meet each other. 

The meet cute: This is when the two characters meet and sparks fly! The “meet cute” is memorable for the characters. For example, in Romeo and Juliet when they meet for the first time and lock eyes followed by a kiss all within 5 minutes of meeting each other!

Falling in love: This is when the lovey-dovey love sequence happens in movies. Where clip after clip you see them simply being in the act of love with one another. Now, in terms of a novel we have a little more time to grow the chemistry between the characters. So, let their relationship grow!

Conflict: Of course there has to be a turning point. The hurdle the couple must go through where an argument or an act threatens their relationship. For example, one of the characters can’t let go of a past relationship. 

Breakup: More often than not the characters breakup or are separated briefly. But this gives them time to realize what they are missing!

Happy ending: The conflict is resolved, and love is back!

Now that the basic structure of the novel is out of the way…how do you make it entertaining for the reader. Because as I said, most of the time the structure is the same, it’s how you build the story that makes it worth reading. 

Here are some more tips…

Make it relatable. Why does the reader find love? Are they lonely or went through a bad breakup recently? Give them a reason to find love. 

The sidekick! There’s almost always the friend who gives bad advice or lightens the mood. But the character needs someone to depend on when the conflict arises. 

Give them romance. This might be a given but the reader knows they picked up a romance so give them a romance! Create memorable scenes to make a compelling story. It’s okay to be over the top romantic too!

Stay true to your character. Don’t lose sight of your character just because they are in love. It’s okay for them to grow individually..but still together.

I hope this helps you on your journey of writing a romantic comedy!

Happy Writing!

Great Podcasts for Writers and Book Authors

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There is so much writing advice out there! You can read a book or articles, watch Youtube videos, or listen to podcasts! They are great for when you don’t necessarily have the ‘time’ to read. You can listen to them whenever you are available. However, some podcasts do have reading transcripts available that way you can get the best of both worlds. 

Now here are some great podcasts available!

The Self Publishing Show (Mark Dawson and James Blatch)

Frequency: weekly

Average length: 50 minutes

Transcript available: yes

Best for: self-publishers

Writers on Writing (Barbara DeMarco-Barrett)

Frequency: weekly

Average length: 55 – 60 minutes

Transcript available: no

Best for: fiction writers focused on their craft

The Portfolio Life (Jeff Goins)

Frequency: weekly

Average length: 30 – 40 minutes

Transcript available: no

Best for: writers looking for inspiration and encouragement

Helping Writers Become Authors (K.M. Weiland)

Frequency: three times a month

Average length: 15 – 20 minutes

Transcript available: yes (the podcast is a read-aloud version of K.M.’s blog posts)

Best for: fiction writers

The Creative Penn (Joanna Penn)

Frequency: weekly

Average length: 60 – 70 minutes

Transcript available: yes (for the interview portion of the episode)

Best for: fiction-writers; writers who are interested in self-publishing

Bestseller, from Reedsy

Frequency: roughly weekly while the season is running

Average length: 20 minutes

Transcript available: no

Best for: self-publishers, novelists

There are podcasts for everyone, whether you are just starting to listen or you’ve been listening forever! It doesn’t just end here. 

Tell us some of your favorite pdcasters!

Happy Listening!

Cash In With Your Own Billionaire Romance – With Recs!

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The world of Christian Grey has opened and created an entire universe of billionaire hunks in the romance department (but we all know millionaire or financially stable hunks will also do the trick). If you are thinking about, or already started writing your own next billionaire must read then let’s find out how to make that happen!

The appeal is already there. A character who is highly successful, but lacks the personal life of a ‘nice guy’. Now in most cases the billionaire is male, but there’s no saying you can’t switch it up. That is a whole other door waiting to be opened! 

But back to the what’s what. 

There is more often than not the Cinderella story in this array of romance. The hero has financial security, and tends to offer the heroine security of some sort. That security often ranges somewhere from a business arrangement of getting down and dirty, some form of employment, or the heroine has some family member they have to save. 

Now here comes the nitty gritty. We don’t want a hero that we hate from the start with too much macho. Tension between the hero and heroine is always a plus, but try and stray away from too much of one trait. While the book can be focused on the financials of the hero, money shouldn’t be the main factor for the romance. We need more! The love, passion, secrets and everything that comes with it. Handing stacks of cash up front is an easy game to play. Now throw in an exciting cover and you’re good to go!

Happy Writing


Here are some recommendations from our own authors!