How to Write a Romantic Comedy

1. Welcome Video: How to write a romantic comedy. Hello, and welcome to the course. My name is Nina Harrington, an I am your instructor for this course. I sincerely appreciate that you decided to buy this course. And I do whatever I can to make sure that your time is well spent and that you are able to achieve your objectives with this course. My goal is to help you discover the story craft and romantic comedy conventions that will help you to create an engaging romantic comedy, novel or screenplay that will delight your target audience. In this course, we're going to be covering all aspects of romantic comedies story craft in module one and introduce you to the course and how to make best use of a course materials. In Module two, we're going to look at why a romantic comedy remains so enduringly popular in both film and fiction. It is also very popular in movies streaming TV, CVs, and multiple options in multimedia. We're also looking at the difference between romantic comedy and romantic drama or anti romantic comedy. In module three, we're going to look at a very important aspect of romantic comedy writing. Because I hope you'll agree that all romantic comedies or character driven stories, we're looking at character arcs and why they are so essential in Romans fiction and stories. And how to create a romantic comedy without falling into tired cliches using the power of character arcs. In module four, I'm going to take you through an in-depth appreciation of how you can use an eight step for acted strongly structure to create romantic comedies. In module five, looking at secondary characters, secondary characters are very important because they inform and support the romance relationship. In module six, I'm going to break down the screenplays and transcripts from two very popular romantic comedies, movie knotting Hill and the movie failure to launch. And a module seven, we're looking at how we can develop your romantic comedy around a theme, a popular romantic trope, or dramatic question, and also, how much explicit content you need to include in a romantic comedy. 2. Popularity of Romantic Comedies: The popularity of romantic comedies. If you look at recent trends, it is clear that romantic Communists have never been more popular. I believe the reasons are clear. Romantic comedies are upbeat, positive, kind, and fun. In the midst of a global pandemic when world health or education, business economy, and local job security are in turmoil. And audience will seek out an entertaining and frankly escapist emotional experience, which takes him away from ordinary life by a few hours. This is reflected in the popularity romantic comedy across multimedia. Bestselling fiction, romance fiction dominate the amazon.com Kindle charts and husbands OK. For many years, Ramos readers were very early adopters of e-books and especially feel good contemporary roamers and romantic fiction in multiple subgenres. This is still the case in March 2020. Contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy led the subcategory sales in Romans. And that trend has continued right through the summer months. At the time of writing, there are currently six romantic comedies in the best-selling ebook chart on Amazon.com store in the top 50 sales. This is remarkable. Room made. It ranked number three. And the entire Amazon.com Kindle Store. Riley Thorn and the dead guy next door. Number 13. Real fake is ranked 22. And drive me Wild is rungs 25. And you remember there are millions of books of hundreds of thousands of romances of the American US amazon.com store. The popularity of romantic comedies is particularly evident when it comes to movies and streaming services like Netflix, hallmark, Amazon Prime, and many others. The writing is called wrong calms, the hottest genre. And there have been remarkable box office successes of theatrical productions in major cinemas and could increase your, Which Asians book club and the big six. Romantic comedies are making a huge comeback for all kinds of audience. But this trend goes around the world. Clean fund. Romantic comedies are the basis for the Bollywood film industry in India. And there are a huge number of Romans, movies from Africa, Southeast Asia, and China. These movies are clean, wholesome, that don't show much central contact and have a deep emotional core and appeal to audiences worldwide. Because they are focusing on love, kindness, positive, feel-good feelings, which are universal. Hallmark has a huge variety of movies containing romantic comedy themes which appeal to all audiences from teens to seniors. They tend to have setting set in the US, but they're still appeal to both seasonal and current topics. But romantic comedies don't have to be light, escapist fluff. And most popular romantic comedy movies include very nuanced and complex relationships and trust and serious topics such as mental illness, grief and loss, Love at older people falling it perhaps bereavement and widowhood and sexual preferences. In fact, a romantic comedy scenario can be an excellent framework for novelists and screenwriters to explore complex issues and barriers to love in modern contemporary culture. And this goes around the world. Recent Netflix originals like the love birds. And already my maybe have challenged convention with that witty writing and outstanding performances. Role comes following. Lesbian, gay, and other gender neutral topics are also expanding with phenomenas like straight up and Alex Strangelove, exploring queer love stories in emotionally profound and creative way. If you look at the current Netflix romantic comedies, they include topical material such as blind date. She's gotta have it. I'll see you in my dreams. Sets it up. Tall girl, the incredible Jesse James, jessica james, happily ever after, isn't a romantic love guaranteed between online dating, The Kissing Booth, the teens, and many more recently commissioned romantic comedy movies. Plus, there are classics such as Groundhog Day, Sleepless in Seattle. How to lose a guy in ten days? And the Holladay. One thing is clear, if you have been working on romantic comedy script or novel, or even thinking about writing one. Now is the ideal time to learn about the current marketplace for romantic comedies. 3. Character Arcs in Romantic Comedies: Today I want to chat with you about how to use character arcs to create a compelling, emotional hot at the center of your romance novel. Please note there is a comprehensive handout available in PDF form for this presentation. What is a character OK. To me, the transformational character OK, is the deep, emotional and psychological change your protagonist goes through on their journey from the first sentence to the end of the story. The third person, they were in their ordinary world and the beliefs they held when the story opens, we'll have fundamentally changed by the time they reached the end of the last page. Because of the interaction with the romance character and the romance relationship. For example, a character who's afraid to trust will learn to trust. A counter with low self-esteem will gain confidence and self-worth. For example, I'm showing you one other story of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte. James starts out as the unwanted, unloved, unloved child in a great house where her aunt despises her. She ends up as an independently wealthy woman, married to the man she loves. But on her terms where she is in control, how she moves from one state of fear to another form of confidence and control is the backbone of the story. How did you get the strength to stand up for herself and the truth? What would the crucial events along the way which made her the woman who turned out to be. This is the character arc or character change that readers want to see in a romance. Let's agree about one thing. Romance fiction is character-driven. Without compelling characters, you don't have a romance story. A readapt picks up a Romans to share the emotional journey the hero and the heroine will take as they fall in love or overcome deep inner conflicts to challenging, sometimes very challenging, transformational character arcs before they are ready to commit to a real long lasting, loving relationship. Combine character arcs with story structure to create a Romans which is well-motivated, real, and engrossing for the reader. We had to show on a page how much of a journey that person is going to have to make, and how much they will resist the pain of having to face their fears. The bigger the fear, the greater the challenges and emotional satisfaction for the reader. By when they close the pages of the book. The process starts by identifying the inner emotional conflict of both the hero and the heroine at the start of the book. And how will this will be transformed by the end of the book? These are the start and the end points of the character arc journey. What is the limiting belief? For me? I have my own definition. Each of us lives within an operate out of a complex set of beliefs and assumptions that define us and our interaction with the world in which we live. Our beliefs are linked to our feelings of self-worth and self-esteem and how we believe other people in the world cs. A limiting belief is a powerful and deep-seated belief that we are not worthy. We're not capable of doing something or being something or becoming something of feeling something. A limiting belief therefore holds us back from achieving what we are capable of. In most cases, the limiting belief we have is based on our personal past experiences and the lessons we learned dealing with people and situations before the story begins. Here are two examples of limiting beliefs in action. And the first example, our heroine works for brand management company. As a teenager, she was repeatedly ridiculed and told at school and began a tone, she was without any musical talent and she was wasting her life trying to become a singer just to get a real job. Over time she became depleted. This is fact. She truly believes she has no musical talent. This belief will be challenged by the rock star who she has to work with in the brand management company. In the second example, our heroine is a wedding planner and a tilted bright. Her fiance run off with their pretty at younger sister that night before they're waiting, leaving her to clear up the mayhem and the financial disaster of the wedding. She had both planned and paid for. In the backstory, her father walked out on who when she was 15, live in herds, look after her mother and sister. She truly believes she's not worthy of love and is not going to put a softer position. Where should be yet again rejected and have a heartbroken and be abandoned. Now you know what character, how a character arc works. You can get started by building out a powerful emotional experience for your reader in your story. Character story maps. This is how I use character arc to build on the classic story structure. A four-stage story development process. I recommend this is the simplest way and fastest way to dive into a story. You start with one character. Your main character is usually the character is going to be transformed the most by the Romans relationship. Most cases it is the Ke, heroin. There doesn't have to be, by the way, I'm using the terms hero and heroine in the presentation. But everything I say can be applied equally to same-sex relationships. Then you sketch out an emotional story map for the journey that your character is going to take. What choices we are character make under pressure. And that's why each romance is unique. There unique people that make different choices. There are no formula here. Here the story maps, I use the very simple and the equate to classic for Ax, story structure, but with the emotional storyline overlays on top of them. Stage one, show the hero and the heroine in their ordinary life. When the story opens, they come onto the page and onto the stage with all the limiting beliefs they have created to protect themselves. At the end of stage one, there was some commitment they have to make, which we'll lock them together. The rest of the story. Stage two, is the falling in love. Stage equates to act to, in a for actual demonstration structure. Show how the hero and the heroine start to see that our lives can be different if they let go of their old beliefs. But there's still hanging on to them, is that their protection mechanism, which taken years to develop, it's going to take a lot to get through that barrier. Stage three, commitment and communication. The development commitment to that other person, leading to increase vulnerability. They open up alittle that Barry sought to break down and they let the other person in. But then something happens with challenges them all over again. This is the dark moment. In stage four. They take a leap of faith and do what they always wanted to do because of their growth as a character who just happened. Because the Romans relationship and the plot events you have created. Like to think that these four stages of any Roman story as turning points on a journey. The light tent poles holding up the rest of the story. As the conflict increases, it attend pulls all on one side of the tent and the whole thing collapses. Instead you won't destroy it. We balanced, balanced movement. These five turning points and a four-stage technique helps us set milestones on the journey your counters are taking. In stage one, they, in their ordinary life, something remarkable happens which spins out of the ordinary life. This is the inciting incident that then make a commitment to some joint venture or opportunity, which leaves into stage two. In stage two, the hero and heroine are locked together in some way. This is the falling in love stage. Stage three districts increase. The climax of the turning points of the highest point of the story where something dramatic happens, which threatens to break their precious relationship. And in stage four is the falling action phase. Because hosting events that lead to the ending, the conflict will increase, the emotional pressure will increase as the story progresses through. From stage one to stage two to stage three. 4. Story Structure for Romantic Comedy: So where do we start? First of all, let's be clear. We're writing for readers and Romans, readers expect to be entertained. There are certain storytelling conventions which become ingrained into our minds. And they do that every book ever read, every play we've seen, radio drama, TV show, movie from cartoons when a toddler's right, the latest special effects blockbuster, story structure and story pattern is ingrained in our subconscious. We may not even be aware at the subconscious expectations because they're totally enmeshed in our brains. But as readers, we expect the steroid we developed in a certain pattern and a sequence of events and revelations in stages to be completed. All the reader cares about really is the emotional experience that you've created for them on the page. That's all they worry about. They come to you to deliver that experience. Otherwise, I go to a movie or a film or a TV drama. So now's the time to get started working on this. Draw the structure of your working draft so that you can take your hero and you're heroin on an emotional journey to love, which demonstrates the full potential of your characters onDestroy situation that you have created and that combination is unique to this story. This means that the first draft of your novel needs to have a number of key dramatic twists or revealed called turning points, where the story shifts or something is revealed and the stakes increase. In this way the story moves on him, builds of a no sacking middles, but a controlled pace. By the way, I'm using the term hero and heroine here. But everything I say applies perfectly equally to same-sex relationship and romance novels. For my experience, the best analysis of story structure comes from screenwriters. There job is to choreographed and control the emotions of the audience who is watching the movie at every minute of that movie. I call this story magic. Strongly structure magic. How a story's really structured. And how can you work out the right structure for your story? Or the good news is, that's already been done. Frameworks have been created for you to use. I spent years studying the best drawing telling teachers like Joseph Campbell, Robert McKee, John Tooby, Blake Snyder, and Christopher Vogler. Plus at the published full-time Roman source there with Milton Boone and Harper Collins. I worked with several terrific authors. And terrific editors who I shared with me in-depth information about story structure, character development, and how to write compelling romance fiction, where I started out, this was gold. It allows me to combine story structure from screenwriting and novelists with the romance stroke development I needed. I learned how to combine story craft with Roman specific story structure to create award-winning romance fiction. Imagine that you are building a house. You start at the bottom of the foundations, the groundwork for floor layout on the underpinnings of the building. Then the brickwork starts. You can build an office block, a residential home, or a retail store, whatever your architects blend dictates. But some nations are exactly the same. Story structure is the foundations which underpins all of your work. On top of those foundations, you can build any kind of fresh and new store you like of any length and an, any Roman sub genre. The foundations of the story are the same. And that's crucial fact. The straw you build on those foundations is your creative genius. But you need a story structure to support your work. Does that make sense? I hope so. Storage structure is a solid foundation underpinning for your aromas. The story, idea and the characters may sound great as an idea, but without structure, you'll end up sliding down the side of the mountain as this shellfish and bond was just about to do in recent holiday in Switzerland precoded. So how can we use stories, craft techniques from screenwriting? The good news at the same storage strategy tech news use by screenwriters can be applied to fiction and especially commercial genre fiction such as romance. Why? Because the goal of the screenwriter, the objectivist screenwriter, is precisely the same as a novelist and asked to create a compelling emotional journey for the audience and our case readers. And there can be no better journey than the ups and downs roller coaster ride of romance fiction. That job is to choreograph and control the emotions of the audience watching the movie in every single scene. I think it was Joseph Campbell who said that. A movie is made up of 62 minute great scenes. It is a scene by scene analysis of the emotions. Don't have to do that with our work. But you can see the fundamental similarity. In a properly constructed movie or any story. The story consists of six basic stages to defined and broken up by five key turning points in this plot. Not only are these turning points always the same, do the same function, they occupy the same position and the story more or less. I'm not wonders writers who says it has to be exactly this percentage, but it's more or less the same position in the story. Wonderful screenwriter, Michael Hague, who was, has wonderful story classes, has a diagram below which describes classical story structure. What he's describing is a structure made up of sequences of scenes which combined interact. So you write your scene, you write number of scenes and let them together to make the sequence. Then those sequences combined to react. Doing writers combine to Act Two and Three in many cases, but not always. It most fiction will be four acts. If you're writing a long novel, it can be three or four sequences of scenes per Act. Was a short story or short novel may only have one sequence broken up into small chapters. But the fact is true in classical story structure, scenes are collected into sequences of scenes. Was a start, a middle, and an end to each collection of scenes. Each sequence ends up the turning point that hooks on to the next scene sequence. That worry that I'll explain that in much more detail in a moment. The goal is simple. We're going to use story structure to deliver a compelling emotional experience for your reader. They will want to step in your hero or heroine shoes. Curiously fall in love at the same time as your characters. They want to be swept away by your story. And the story structure use helps you to do precisely that. Here is the process I use and I would recommend it to you. Let's say it's a 60 thousand word romance novel. We have four act. And in those acts, there are eight sequences of scenes. This is a very simple story plan, but it works and I would recommend it to you. The first act, we introduce and establish our hero and our heroine in their ordinary world, that ordinary life. We hook the reader with interesting characters. Usually we start with one character and makes sure the reader understands this is the character that going to be most engage with. Usually it's the heroine and, but it may not be in many books I used the hero. We then builds sympathy and empathy for that character by showing they're lacking something that come onto the stage with their own needs, their own wants and expectations for the future. By the end of this first collection of scenes, the reader should know the external conflict about characters and their internal conflict. What is missing in the life and the psychology of the protagonists with the other person will fulfill. This is the started that character arc. This first sequence ends with a plot point or turning point called the inciting incident. From screenwriting. Something unusual happens in this ordinary world which completely turned their life around, has to be something completely out of the blue. This usually happens about ten to 15% of the way through the book. That's sequence, one. Sequence to our hero and heroine are usually together at this point, we've introduced them both. They have to react to this new situation, this startling new event, this inciting incident. But they don't want to change. They're going to resist moving out of their established lives. So something has to push them to commit, to train, to change, and try something new. This linked to their motivation and needs at this point where the story begins. But one thing is very clear from now on, their lives are going to be different. They're going on a journey for at this point, they have a very specific objective to achieve and decide to go for it. This is the external plot that brings a hero and heroine together. That story situation. What it does is forces them to stay locked together. The romance then truly begins from this point. This is a turning point too, about 25 cells the way through the book, quarter, the book, the rest of your story builds out from your turning point at quarter way through the book to actually was a falling in love stage the book, this is the fun part of the book. This is why readers come to us. The first sequence, sequence Ry, is, I call connection and communication. In end of Act One, we've locked together in some sort of project or initiative, or some way where they are forced to communicate and interact with one another. At this point, they're still relying on their old self protection mechanisms. But in this sequence three, they start to see another side of the person as they are forced to work together and communicate. The sorts of get attracted to one another. They start to notice more things about the other person. How they talk, the tone they use, the words they use, and how they act. Sequence three ends in a small turning point called a pinch point, where something changes in their relationship, which locks them even closer together, is usually around 40% part in the book. Again, not being prescriptive. The seconds parts back to sequence for is recognition and communication. They recognize the value in the other person. And it's thought to communicate like human beings, that connection and that dialogue and their actions build acceptance and trust with one another as the adjoining beam with the other person. The key thing about sequence for is that it ends with a major shift in the external plot and the relationship which locks the hero and heroine together in a very powerful way. This could be a sexual moment, a close Bowman, intimate, or personal moment. But it has to be a fundamental shifts or changes the entire direction of the story. This is slum bank, in the middle of your book, is known as the mid point of no return Turning Point Reyes, halfway through the book. They cannot go back from this point. Everything else that follows pivots on this midpoint seen right in the middle of your book. That's how important it is. And also make sure there's no sagging middle. Something seriously happens in the middle of your book. Which moves us onto three. Enact three. The arco does have to react to what's happened at that scene. And the midpoint. The stakes increase at several levels. The relationship starts to grow and is threatened, but they go against that threat. The limiting beliefs and fears are overcome by deep connection. They step outside their comfort zone and start to disclose and share their life with the other person. Usually there's intimacy and passion, foreign mother leaving to a strong, trusting a bond between them, lincoln them even closer together. One or the other of the characters is trusting enough and vulnerable enough to share their background story. And the cause of inner conflict. In screenwriting terms is called the ghost because it's something which happened in the past, which still haunts that character. Let's say it's the heroine telling the hero about her tilted wedding and the fact that her sister betrayed her with her boyfriend and her fiance. Bit-rates are with his sister. He has to respond. Tenser leads the revelation with warmth and understanding, showing that she was right. It's okay to trust this person. It's okay to be vulnerable. Birth this person. This leads us and see a bonding, intimacy and sensitive, deep, possibly even protection. And this sequence five, ends in a pinch point, a small turning point. Something changes in the relationship about the sixty-five percent point in the book. It could be great disclosure, explosion of emotion. It could be a revelation, a copy, the fact that they share the story, this backstory. But is it a major event in the relationship? Will then move on to the second part of Act Three, sequence six, square. The relationship starts to have problems. The stakes run pop. The problems ramp-up. As external and internal conflict increases, as their passion for another develops, they grow mutually dependent on one another or natural bond between them. They really have fallen in love at this point. They both moved away from that limiting beliefs and grown as people into a trusting relationship and a trusting state. The other person will share their source of pain and internal conflict in a major revelation scene. But then something happens. Something major threatens their relationship as usually to the external conflict. But it directly challenges the internal conflicts and fears of one of them. It could willing to revelation about the character's backstory or betrayal of trust. Or they think it's betrayal of trust, or a real attack on the person's self-worth. For example, the find out the other person who has been keeping a great secret from them or not telling them the whole truth. But it's a major setback. It threatens the relationship, it destroys some elements of the trust there. One of them steps back from the relationship and retreats back into the old self protective mode because of this event, sequence six ends with turning point for the major setback at about 75% through the book. This is known as the dark night of the soul or the black moment. And as the compulsory plot points in any Romans, it's a big threat to the relationship. It deserves to habits moment. We then move into act for in-app, for everything they gained in the story and relationships so far seems at risk. They're under attack. All left fields, fears and deep concerns about being vulnerable are back in place. They tried to go forward and grow and it's all come back and bitten. They feel miserable again. Now, the old belief systems threatened to destroy the relationship. Now the chance they have to regroup and work out whether they want to do something to save that relationship. The, what they do now is in the final push, the use of the new strengths and lessons they have learned in their character growth. They're not the same person there were, were destroyed, began, there have changed. Which means they have to take everything they have learned and take a remarkable leap of faith. And the other person. Sequence seven ends in the turning 0.5. The climax decision. This is do or die. At this point. They commit the compromise or the walkaway. It's as simple as that. Usually this happens at 90% points in the book as the action of ramps up towards the end. Sequence eight is the final scene. Sequence is the aftermath and resolution. After the climax decision, the hero and heroine can, which lie on another and find delight to work together in some way. They have resolved. What's happened at the end of the previous scene. Are the hero or heroine or both. And it's much better if it's both. Have a self-revelation and new discovery, which drives them to become the person who represents their true self. They have to show how they have grown, overcome their obstacles, and conquered the old beliefs. They have earned their happy ever after. And this is h. This is the end of the book. Her while I to say that I've just hit you with lots of information about four Act Structure and 18 structure. But basically it's about conflict, emotional conflict drives any Romans enact one. The hero and heroine are leaving their ordinary lives than they meet. Something happens in inciting incident which completely frozen mouth guard turns on outer that ordinary life as the point of the plot that begins a storyline that lock together in some way enact to fall in love. The conflict increases as the stakes increase. The turning point is where they have to decide and make a commitment to love of revert back to that old way of living and their old belief systems. And in that for the falling action phase, it's the events that lead to the ending. It's all about conflict. And the four Act eight sequence structure bills that conflict and gives you the strength you need. I've talked about turning points here. I think at these turning points as tent poles, if you've ever gone camping and have a tent, or been to a circus where there's a big tent. You need to hold up the tent with poles. These tent poles hold up the rest of the story as the conflict increases in the tent, poles are all in one side of the tent. And the whole thing is completely unbalanced and it will collapse. We've all read Roman stories where the setup an ordinary world seems to take forever. Then Sony, the love story and the dark moment and the resolution is crammed into the end. No, don't do that. Use these techniques, use these turning points techniques to set milestones on the journey that the counters are taking and it's balanced out. Across your eight sequences. Your story will meet the expectations of your readers who want to see the characters battle against the odds and make the wrong choices before they can come together. The greater the battle, the sweeter, the end result. Let's think about that. If you're here on her ring get-together, on Guan, fall in love, get married and happy. Sorry after. Thank you very much to the end. There's no emotional conflict there, there's no story. That's not what we want to see. They want to see these characters and their love and their Romans. Here's a great demonstration of those ten pegs, tent poles from story fix. The major turning points are there. And the plot shifts. The greater the battle, the sweeter the end result. Here is a reminder or a very simple story map, if it helps to make it clearer for you. We have four acts with two sequences are seen. Pr act for, let's say, a short novel of say, 6 thousand words. The number of scenes in your book could be very different, but the basic structure still applies. Act One. We have our characters in their ordinary life with their limiting beliefs all in place. Act two is a falling in love stage. The counter see how their lives could be different if the let go. The old beliefs in Act three, they really are falling in love now, building commitment to the other person and also that means increase vulnerability. But something happens with challenges them all over again and revert to their old protection mechanisms. In at four, they take a leap of faith and do what they've always wanted to do because of their growth. Because the Romans relationships and the past events. So let's get now you know how classical story structure works. You can get started on building out a powerful emotional experience for your reader in your story. And that's what we're going to do next. 5. Story Deconstructions: Hello and welcome to module six. In this module, I'm going to share with you my personal deconstruction of the screenplays and transcripts from two popular romantic comedies, nothing Hill and failure to launch. I want to demonstrate that the same story structure principles is in place in both movies. And how the eight turning points that described in module four on story structure move both the story and the character arcs for both characters forward using a simple four act structure. These deconstructions are available for you to download as PDF files so you can save them and print them out. I hope that you find them useful. 6. Secondary Characters: How to use secondary characters. There are two main characters in any romantic comedy, but secondary characters play a special role in this form of romance. How to use secondary characters? First of all, they give main characters someone to bounce ideas off. Should I shouldn't die. What do you think of him, what you think of her? What do you think I should do? They also act as a proxy for the audience who wants to ask questions and challenge the protagonist. Get the questions to the secondary characters rather than having the character in the text. Secondary current is also reveal aspects of the main characters that not apparent because they know them for so long. French can also try and prevent the couple of lumping together out of misguided opinions about who and what is best for that person in their life. They are dramatic tension by adding to the internal conflict of one or both main characters. This can be feelings of guilt, remorse, misunderstanding, et cetera. Building on the internal conflict and stress already exists because the Romans relationship. Secondary characters hold the relationship to the light in the end of the story when they're having a critical decision to make. That secondary carried there can show the two couples, or at least one character, what they have created, how special it is, and what they could have it they commit to the relationship. That can be characters can also reveal secrets, will hold information that destroys the relationship, and they may do so after the best will for that person. Family and friends are most of the people who are already known to the main characters. These are people whose judgments the characters trust and rely on. Those are the people our hero or the heroine will come to when they are hit with diseases, experience of falling in love with someone. They confuse, they're making mistakes or having a life turned upside down. The characters wanted to get back to that ordinary safe world. Whether knew how to act and who to love and how to behave and speak. I don't get this disease experience where they totally out of control. So the chair back to the people who know them to get advice. Of course what happens is that their friends and family will respond according to their own beliefs and judgment, which may or may not want to see these two people get together. In my fat Greek wedding, for example, the heroes close family is very possessive and our Father has created an expectation that she should only be attracted to men with the Greek heritage. This has a built on her inherent in security to the point where she feels guilty, stepping outbursts, published life, go into computer classes at college, and then dating a very English but handsome high school English teacher, not a Greek person. The internal conflict and the external conflict from her family have to be resolved before the relationship can can can succeed. Her father has to accept a non-Greek. The hero has to accept her huge family. And the heroine has to accept herself to the family ability on both internal and external conflicts. In the movie When Harry Met Sally, Billy crystals, key concept is that men and women can't be friends after they have had sex. So when they sleep together, the first thing we do, but Harry and Sally phone their friends to ask for help and explain to them what a terrible mistake they have made my sleeping together. In doing so, they express to their friends what the audience wants to know. How did they feel when they made this terrific step? B also, or terrible mistake? They think it is. In the same way in knotting Hill. William has a sister and group of best friends who encouraged and sympathizer william at every stage of their romance with the wonderful honor Scott. When a relationship breaks down, they try and set them up with other dates out of love and friendship, but it only shows him how much he still in love with honor. Plus William has a larger, the Welsh largest spike. He's exact opposite of William. But spike is the one who sees things clearly and simply and encourages him to go after Anna at the end, before he loses her. Another example in the film, as good as it gets. The business topic and grumpy, Melvin comes to see his gay artist neighbor Simon as a real friend after abusing and for years. And it's Simon who was the one who gives him the advice that he is forced to admit he needs and persuade them to declare His love for waitress Carol. In Sweet Home, Alabama, a young woman who has reinvented herself to New York City socialized, must return home to Alabama to obtain divorce from her husband after seven years of separation, before she can marry her hands and rich fiance. Only when she gets back to Alabama and her old life. Her friends reminder, the kind of love Jed wants known with her husband and the family. She left behind when she left New York, which is extremely powerful. Not all romantic comedies are about single men and women. Existing partners can be very important secondary characters. Many of the popular movies in this genre and books have main characters who are engaged when they meet, already have a boyfriend or girlfriend when they meet that new love interest. Don't fall into the trap of making these significant others horrible. They can't be too terrible or undesirable as an excuse for our character leaving them to be with our loved new interest. After all, why should our attractive, lovely hero or the heroine have a relationship with someone who they don't like or admire I want to be with. No. The challenge to the writer is to make their new Romans relationships so compelling that they're willing to break up with their sweet existing partner, do with this new person in their life. So don't make the existing partner horrible or unattractive, undesirable. In fact, do the opposite and show what our two characters had. That is so special that you'll put everything else in their life at risk to be together. One example is, isn't movie Sleepless in Seattle? Meg Ryan already has a safe, sweet fiance who clearly loves her. He treats us so well and cares for her deeply. He has his own idiosyncrasies, but he's kind and attentive. She breaks up with him in the middle of their Valentine's Day dinner for someone who has not even met. Another example is the wedding planner. Mary fury is San Francisco's most successful wedding planner. She knows all the rules, but then she breaks those rules by falling in love with the group of the wedding she's planning. She breaks up a relationship to be with this person. And most importantly, he breaks up a client relationship. She breaks up to a fiance. This is clearly very powerful. Here's a character exercise that may help you get around your head of some how other writers have used secondary characters Ju, inform and support the Romans relationship. Three steps, this exercise. First, make a list of your top ten favorite Romantic Comedy books, novels, movies, TV shows, etc. Scan through each book or movie and make a note of how the writer has used secondary characters to support the two main characters. It could be a subplot, or it could be just advice, or could be someone who would literally holding the hand of that character and saying, Do this now, but how they used it? And thirdly, what type of interaction impacted both the internal and external conflict for the two main characters. And how was it resolved by the end of the story? Secondary characters can really have a major impact on your romantic comedy. Or Eric courage you to study them and use them. 7. Anti romantic comedies: Anti romantic comedies at the end of a classical, upbeat and positive romantic comedy, one or both of the two main characters has some sorts of self-revelation where they recognize that they have finally overcome their own internal limiting beliefs. And the internal conflicts were battling with, at the very start of the story. They can now commit to be with the love interest. De facto battle hard, derive. At this point in the story, the audience wants to see how these two people will have their joyful reunion and find happiness together. They want to see on the page how these characters are grown, gone to a positive transformational character, OK. And inhabited who they truly are. Because of the romance relationship. The two main characters are not only fallen in love, but they've also achieved their mission. They've got what they wanted, and they've also got what they needed in life. You've taken the audience and a core idea at the start of the story and shown them that has paid off at the end inorganic, real and authentically emotionally powered way. There is, however, another type of romantic comedies story, where the characters do not get together at the end of the story, but they do get what they need. Let's look an example. 500 days of summer. At the end of 500 days of summer, there's a scene where the hero has a self-revelation that you will never be with summer, the love of his life, who he believed was his soul mate. He was destined to be with summer. He comes to realize they're intensely three, wonderful relationship might not have been all, but he thought it was. He's only remembering the wonderful magical moments, not how wretchedly felt when she rejected him. This scene goes back in flashbacks and shows how Summit was slowly pulling away from the hero, indicating to him that they're not meant to be together despite what he thinks he needs. The hero therefore for fails in his mission to get somewhere back in his life. But the resolution of the story complete because he understands at the end what he truly needs and what you want emotionally in his life. The end of the relationship with summer helps him to arc into different person which is more self accepting. Here's another example, My best friends wedding, where friends, Women's longtime friend reveals is engaged to be married. She realized that she loves him herself and sets out to get him with only data for the wedding. Hermitian is a breakup her best friend's wedding. This is not a very sympathetic character. It's not sympathetic goal, but it's positively cruel. The skull of a writer is to make this character somehow sympathetic to the audience. Who knows what she's doing it every step and understand why she's doing it. The writer makes her motivation clear. Hermitian is clear from the start, breakup, the wedding. That's what you want, but it's not what she needs. At the end, we have to show that Julia Roberts can become a better person. And half are self-realization moment and except situation that she is alone and that's okay. There are many other examples, such as the breakup. Could you stupid love, Modern Romance, all still fit the mode. You can create an engaging son, emotionally evocative romance. But the reservation of the character, OK, at the end of the story usually turns on a self-realization that these people are to not to be together. They're not meant to be with a love interest. And the resolution follows that track. It's an alternative way of looking at romantic comedy, but it can be extremely powerful because the conflict is inbuilt into the story. 8. How to Use Themes and Tropes: How do you use romantic tropes and themes in your romantic comedy? A great romantic comedy will have a powerful, demotic, dramatic question at the heart of the story. It isn't enough to contrast people such as that early or late for meetings that clean or messy, organised or chaotic. There should be a larger question by a setup at the beginning of the story and then have to answer by the end. The secret you're writing a great romantic comedy is to make the thematic question a universal problem any audience in the world can relate to as human beings. And then see that theme played out from the point of view of your two main characters. The nature of that question sets the theme for your book or screenplay, and acts as both a source of external and internal conflict for both of your main characters. Those stories will act out through those characters on the page. The characters will spend that time articulating their point of view, perhaps debating this theory. And the purpose of the story is to prove or disprove that theory. That's why provides conflict throughout your story. Here's an example of a theme. Can men and women be friends? It had become lovers. Can they stay friends or to become lovers? Or the sex get in the way. Example, in When Harry Met Sally, hurry believes that many women cannot stay friends if they become lovers. Harry and Sally do become the best of friends. I wanted to sleep together. Both of them believe that they have made a terrible mistake. It has completely ruined their relationship. They then have to fight back from that to get back together again. It provides a powerful backdrop conflict throughout the whole story. Here's a second example. Can you get over the woman of your dreams? If you believe that you are fated to be with her, that issues your soulmate. Example isn't a film 500 days of summer, where summer is the heroine. The main romantic interest. Summit does not believe in romantic love. The hero believes in destiny and true love with the perfect person, soulmate, he truly believes it only one person in the world. For him. His mission at the staff, the story is to win some are back after she breaks up with him. And that sets the entire conflict and the driving force for the story. Here is an example of a theme. Is it possible to have a baby first and then build a relationship after that? In the phone knocked up. The last thing I heard once is to get pregnant by a loser on one night date. How can we build a relationship when they are so totally differentiate every way? That's a great question. And it provides the fundamental backdrop theme for the entire story. Isn't an example. Can you fall in love with someone who has lied to you about who they are and what they do. Deception is a very popular theme in many romantic comedies. Someone pretending who they are to be someone they are not. Sample, Working Girl, one a sec, countries idea is still know by her boss. She sees this opportunity to steal it back by pretending she has her manager's job while her bosses incapacitated due to a broken leg and ends in a love triangle, which competing with her boss, the love of the Romans character. But there are many other examples available. For example, what do you do things differently if you knew what the other person was thinking in a relationship. Example of a movie is when a woman want when a chauvinist stick executive has an accident. And now here the thoughts are women. He completely changed his point of view about his daughter, his colleagues aren't his dates. Now, all those questions have to be answered during the course of the project. One we're getting quickly into that theme is by using strong romance tropes. A trope is basically a shortcut that tells you a target audience exactly what kind of Romans destroy will deliver. Romans, readers and cinema goals have developed a clear understanding about what particular romance story ideas appeal to them the most. They love particular themes and storylines. And we're actively seek out more of their favorite kind of Romans. A trope is therefore a shortcut. Your tongue them in a few short was exactly what kind of story you're going to deliver. The trick is then to use the Romans 12 as a source of the conflict, but external conflict and internal conflict for your characters. Writers who want to create commercial relevance projects will then deliver the promise of those specific ideas, infection and screenplays, but in a fresh way which will appeal to noon readers, but using the same trope as a shortcut into their story, as a hook into their story. Here's a few examples. Friends or lovers, age differences. Fake boyfriend and girlfriend, very popular. So is fake beyond saying fake wedding, major convenience, a secret baby. Vacations and seasonal romances are super popular, especially at Christmas time, but also some are beach resorts and ski resorts. Opposites attract very popular theme, very popular trope to people. How the exact opposite, each of each other are attracted to one another. The idea being that when you put positive and negative poles together, you create sparks at generate magnetic pole. Think of the movie Jerry Maguire and alphas pulsation already has a very rich girlfriend and a secretary, single mother comes, support him when he leaves the work. And the example is made in Manhattan. The business staying in the hotel and the home, the hotel maid who works not hotel. Another example of a trope is second chances and missed opportunities. This can be the entire storyline of the entire film. For example, four buttons and a funeral. Hugh Grant plays a bumbling, posh Englishman who can't work out where his true affections lie until nearly too late. And another type of family based around romantic comedy, Mrs. doubt fire. Husbands enacted. Daniel is separated from his wife. He has the court order limiting his visits to his children who he had doors. As a result, he dresses up as a Scottish nanny and gets worked his ex-wife to connect rezone kids. It's a second chance during your night with his wife. One very popular trope is linked to the weddings and wedding industry as a wide range of story ideas which are commonly used in romance fiction and Roman screenplays linked to weddings, bridesmaids, maze, avant-garde runaway bride and groom's, wedding planners, bridal shops as a huge scope for any creative writer. Another common theme is workplaces. Office romance may not be so popular now because it's actual Horace Mann tissues. But the two single people, or can be both creative and you can turn around to something fresh. For example, the film, the proposal. They already know each other in the ordinary world. But something shifts the exciting incident, which locks them together in some new way. They see each other in a different way. The key thing is to use the romance theme or trope as the hock that attracts your ideal audience to your 10k romantic comedy. It is a hook, but your creative genius and creates a unique, fresh story in a new way for that audience.