So, You Want to Write a Rom-Com?

But—You're Just Not That Funny!

Let me guess. You believe that love stories are best served with a side of laughter. You think the path to true love isn’t just paved with passion and angst, but with witty banter, clumsy mishaps, and at least one spectacularly public, heart-stoppingly embarrassing declaration of love.

If you just nodded enthusiastically, welcome. You’re in the right place.

Romantic comedy is the champagne of the romance world—bubbly, intoxicating, and guaranteed to leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. It’s the genre of Nora Ephron, When Harry Met Sally…, and that book you stayed up all night to finish because you had to see how those two adorable disasters would finally get it together. This guide will show you how to mix your own perfect literary cocktail.

The Rom-Com Contract: A Vow of Laughs and Love

Like any romance, you’re promising a Happily Ever After (HEA) or a Happy For Now (HFN). That’s non-negotiable. But with a rom-com, you’re adding a crucial second vow: you promise to make the reader laugh. The journey to the HEA must be as entertaining and amusing as it is emotionally satisfying.

Act I: Assemble Your Adorable Misfits

In a rom-com, the characters aren’t just flawed; they’re walking, talking charm-bombs of delightful imperfection.

Give Them a Quirk That’s Actually Their Kryptonite

Your characters have a “flaw,” but let’s give it a rom-com makeover. Their flaw is a deeply held belief or habit that is both relatable and a hilarious obstacle to their own happiness.

• Example: Your heroine isn’t just independent; she’s a fiercely organized project manager who has a colour-coded five-year plan for everything, including falling in love. Her kryptonite? A chaotic, go-with-the-flow musician who accidentally spills paint on her pristine planner on page five.
• Example: Your hero isn’t just a workaholic; he’s a grumpy bookstore owner who believes all the best love stories are in books because real-life relationships are messy and illogical. His kryptonite? A cheerful, hopelessly romantic baker who moves in next door and keeps trying to pay for books with cupcakes.

Give Them Goals They Think They Want

Often, the external goal is a red herring. It’s the thing they are chasing that they believe will make them happy, but it’s really the romance that will give them what they truly need.

Pro-Tip: The best rom-com characters are “adorkable.” They’re a little awkward, a little nerdy, but so earnest in their ridiculousness that the reader can’t help but root for them.

Act II: Orchestrate the Glorious Shenanigans

Plot in a rom-com is a series of escalating, often humorous, situations that force your characters together. Think of it as weaponized awkwardness.

The Rom-Com Plot Toolkit

1. The Meet-Cute (or Meet-Disaster): Their first encounter should be memorable and probably go horribly wrong. They spill coffee on each other, they’re rivals for the same promotion, one of them is the vet who has to treat the other’s strangely flatulent pug.
2. The Forced Proximity Predicament: Trap them together! Think of The Proposal, where a high-powered boss has to pretend to be engaged to her assistant and live with his family in Alaska. They get stuck in an elevator, they’re snowed in at a cabin, or they have to co-chair the town’s disastrously underfunded pickle festival.
3. The Midpoint “Moment”: This is often the first kiss, but it rarely goes smoothly. It might be interrupted, happen at the worst possible time, or be so surprisingly perfect it terrifies them both into running away.

A brilliant guide for the specific beats of a screen-style rom-com is Billy Mernit’s Writing the Romantic Comedy (Mernit 41).

Don’t Forget the Wing-Peeps: Your Supporting Cast

A rom-com is rarely a two-person show. The supporting cast provides comic relief, acts as a sounding board, and often pushes the protagonists toward their happy ending.

• The Best Friend: This character is the ultimate cheerleader or the brutally honest cynic. They’re the one who listens to the post-date rants, deciphers confusing text messages, and tells your hero to get out of their own way.
• The (Sometimes) Antagonist: This isn’t always a villain. It might be a well-meaning but overbearing parent, a romantic rival, or a work competitor. Their purpose is to create external conflict that reveals your main characters’ internal flaws.

The Secret Ingredient: World-Class Banter

Banter is the heartbeat of a great rom-com. It’s the rapid-fire, witty dialogue that reveals character, builds sexual tension, and makes the reader fall in love with the sound of your couple.

• Telling: They had good chemistry.
• Showing (Banter): “You know,” he said, leaning against the doorframe, “for someone who claims to hate me, you sure do spend a lot of time in my bookstore.” She didn’t look up from the book she was inspecting. “It’s not my fault you have excellent taste in literature and abysmal taste in everything else.”

Pro-Tip: Great banter feels like a tennis match. One character serves an observation, the other volleys back with a witty retort. Keep it moving, keep it sharp, and make sure it reveals something true about them.

Act III: The Grand, Probably Embarrassing, Gesture

The climax of a rom-com isn’t just a declaration of love. It’s a full-blown, public spectacle where one character must swallow their pride and prove they’ve grown. They might have to sing a terrible song in a crowded airport, give a speech at a wedding they intended to crash, or finally admit their prize-winning orchid is a plastic fake from IKEA. The point is, they conquer their core flaw in a big, swoon-worthy way.

Tropes to Handle with Care: Avoiding the Cringe

Tropes are the building blocks of the genre, but they can crumble if mishandled. Here are a few common pitfalls:

• The Big Misunderstanding: Be careful with conflicts that could be solved with a single, honest conversation. The obstacles should be rooted in your characters’ core flaws and fears, not just a silly lack of communication. If they can clear it up in 30 seconds, it’s not a strong enough conflict.
• The “Quirky” Heroine: A character’s uniqueness should feel authentic, not like a checklist of clichés (e.g., “She loves pizza and video games!”). Avoid the “Not Like Other Girls” trap, which often puts down other women to elevate the heroine. Her quirks should be genuine and integral to her journey.
• The Stalker-ish Grand Gesture: A grand gesture should be romantic, not terrifying. It must be something the recipient would actually appreciate, proving the gesturer has truly listened and grown. Running through airport security is romantic; showing up unannounced at their apartment at 2 AM after they’ve said “no” is not.

Essential Reading for the Aspiring Rom-Com Auteur

To sharpen your comedic and romantic sensibilities, these resources are your new best friends:

• Books on Craft:
  • Writing the Romantic Comedy by Billy Mernit: The absolute bible for the genre. Mernit breaks down the structure and “seven basic rom-com story archetypes” with brilliant examples.
  • Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody: While for all genres, its plot-beat-focused structure is perfect for the highly structured nature of a great romantic comedy (Brody 25).
  • Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes: Excellent for ensuring that underneath all the hijinks, the core emotional arc of your romance is solid and satisfying (Hayes 10).

The Final Swoon

Writing a romantic comedy is about creating joy. It’s about building a world where love and laughter are the most powerful forces in the universe. So embrace the awkward, orchestrate the chaos, and craft that witty dialogue until it sparkles. Give your readers a story that makes them giggle, swoon, and close the book with a happy, hopeful sigh.

Now go write something funny.

This article was developed through an iterative collaboration between our Editor-in-Chief and multiple AI language models. Various LLMs contributed at different stages—from initial ideation and drafting to refinement and technical review. Each AI served as a creative and analytical partner, while human editors maintained final oversight, ensuring accuracy, quality, and alignment with AuthZ's editorial standards.