ROM COMS: A FACEBOOK DISCUSSIONS

Romance! Do you, or have you ever, written romance, or romantic comedy? If you've got some experience in this department, please share what to do and what not to do. Also, do you like using romance in your B- story?

• • Several of my screenplays have romantic elements, but only one could really be considered a romantic comedy. I think every film needs a little romance. It doesn't have to be a love story about two people: every journey can be seen as romantic, whether it’s about passion for another person, an art form, or an idea.
    
    Or maybe I’m just romanticizing! ;)

    
    
  • In the middle of optioning my rom com now but rewriting. I like usiing romance in the B story only if it reflect and moves the main story forward. Here's an exceptional article on writing romantic comedies by Michael Hauge:

    
    
  • I have a Rom-Com that has investors interested, but I need to do another rewrite of it. Rom-Com's follow the basic formula, so I focus on making it high concept. The logline for the script made the Top 50 loglines of 2010 for Creative Screenwriting Mag. Hopefully it'll make it to a theater near you soon my friends. :^)

    
    
  • Michael Hauge's link on writing rom coms isn't posting but you can go to his website storymastery.com and click on his article "Writing Romantic Comedies".

    
    
  • My first script . Keep it simple in RC not like that Reese Whiterspoon pending movie. A-B-C works when D doesn't want A to be with B. The wedding planer etc. Four Weddings and a Funeral.
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  • How to do a romcom in one sentence: Keep the two people apart until the end of the movie.

    
    
  • I tend to use the end of romance as a jumping off point for all my scripts. Somehow it's become my thing to start a script off with a break up.
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  • Not a rom-com writer, but definitely use romance in my B-stories!

    
    
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  • Howard Casner I've never really written a rom com, so can't comment from that perspective. But I can share a couple of things I've noticed in reading a ton of rom coms where authors err. One is that they don't give the audience a reason to want the two people in the story to be together; the author often just assumes that the audience will automatically want the two leads to be together, when often I have to tell the writer the audience may actually want them to end up apart. The author doesn't resolve the real issues keeping the two love birds apart for most of the movie; i.e., when the movie is over, I often go, I'll give them three months before they break up. The author gives the female lead two choices, character a or character b, when in reality she often has the much superior third choice, neither one (the author just assumes that a woman will want to be in a relationship). Authors often don't realize that the least sympathetic characters are the ones who desperately want to be in a relationship; they assume we will automatically be on their side, when the audience will often want the character to get a life. In relation to this, I've noticed that for some of the greatest rom coms (It Happened One Night, The Awful Truth, His Gal Friday, Bringing Up Baby, Top Hat, Roman Holiday, Breakfast at Tiffany's), it's not about people looking for love or looking for a relationship, it's about people who happen to fall in love while doing something else.

    
    
  • modern rom coms follow a formula like this: antipathy, antipathy, save the cat moment - wow, I see them in a different light, grow together, secret complication, grow together, fall in love, secret complication revealed, romance over, struggle with emotional fallout, true love grows, struggle to win over, big moment - wow, I was right to fall in love, back in love, the end.

    
    
  • Howard Casner I prefer the more simpler boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl.

    
    
  • I think it's important that the stakes be very high. What do your characters stand to lose if they do not end up together. It can't be, oh they just go date other people.

    
    
  • Can't do romance. But passion... ;-)

    
    
  • I'm not a romantic, but the romance I have incorporated into my not-so-romantic scripts usually involves two people who are comfortable together without words. I usually get positive comments on those moments, so I agree with Howard about giving the audience a reason to want these two people together. My characters are rarely seeking love for the sake of being in a relationship. An example that got positive feedback was between two characters, one in an abusive relationship with her exhusband - who still lived with her, the other who loved her but had self esteem issues and therefore never treated their friendship as more than that. The story wasn't about the two of them getting together. It was about her standing up for herself and him feeling better about himself. And the 'romance' between them just developed out of that... if that makes sense.