NYC Midnight : Creative Writing & Screenwriting Homepage
Forum Home Forum Home > GENERAL DISCUSSION > Creative Writing Corner
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Romantic Comedy Help?
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Romantic Comedy Help?
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  12>
Author
Message
  Topic Search Topic Search  Topic Options Topic Options
booklover13 View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Regular
NYC Midnight Regular
Avatar

Joined: 06 Apr 2022
Status: Offline
Points: 282 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote booklover13 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Romantic Comedy Help?
    Posted: 21 Jan 2023 at 12:46pm

So I was one of the people to get Romantic Comedy. Yay. I have no experience whatsoever in writing romance or comedy (I feel like both sound simple but in reality are extremely nuanced and difficult to carry out well). Do any of you guys have Romantic Comedy stories that placed well as an example? Maybe even with judge feedback? I appreciate all responses :) 

(My prompts are Romantic Comedy, Happenstance, An operagoer - they seem like they have a lot of potential but I just need a bit of help) 
2nd Place, SS, R1, G161 - We Found Love in an UberPool (RomCom)
Back to Top
taaaylor View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 14 Jul 2018
Location: Idaho
Status: Offline
Points: 5511 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (4) Thanks(4)   Quote taaaylor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jan 2023 at 1:12pm
Hello! :) I have a couple examples

My entry for flash fiction was romantic comedy / a museum (location) / a scarf (item to include). I got 1st: https://forums.nycmidnight.com/r2g19-honor-among-thieves-romcom-15-pts_topic23399.html

My entry for a short story contest was romantic comedy / a lapse in judgment / an ambulance chaser. I got 2nd: https://forums.nycmidnight.com/g29-never-felt-so-alive-romcom-2nd-w-fb_topic39457.html

NERDling, my groupmate in that romcom round, got 1st and wrote this amazing email-based romance. Highly recommend: https://forums.nycmidnight.com/r2-g29-please-respond-romcom-1st-w-fb_topic39456_page1.html

Finally, here's a micro I wrote for the prompts romantic comedy / wearing a sleep mask (action) / batch (word to include). I got 1st: https://forums.nycmidnight.com/topic46679_post491396.html#491396

Last of all, check out the Author Archive! A lot of people have shared links to their work along with a record of how that story performed. https://forums.nycmidnight.com/author-archive_topic43498_post454898.html

Good words!! I hope all of this helped


Edited by taaaylor - 21 Jan 2023 at 1:12pm
MFC100 R1: A Dad Joke Too Far

SSC R2: Titan Armstrong & the Communist Robot

SSC 2021 winner
Back to Top
booklover13 View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Regular
NYC Midnight Regular
Avatar

Joined: 06 Apr 2022
Status: Offline
Points: 282 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote booklover13 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jan 2023 at 1:20pm
Thank you so much! This is super helpful :) 
2nd Place, SS, R1, G161 - We Found Love in an UberPool (RomCom)
Back to Top
NERdling View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 10 Dec 2014
Location: Chicago
Status: Offline
Points: 2275 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote NERdling Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jan 2023 at 1:21pm
If you look in my archive, I got first place in R2 of the short story contest in 2020 a Rom Com called Please Respond. In R3 that year, I also got an honorable mention for one called Soul Searching. 

My favorite parts of my favorite RomComs are usually the banter between the main characters and when the author takes the awkward moments of a new introduction or interaction and makes them funny. Dialogue in particular doesn’t have to be laugh out loud funny, it can also skew more sweet. 

An interesting meet-cute is usually what sets the tone for me straight away. Also, I would suggest looking up common RomCom tropes so if you use them, you can make them more interesting (ie. A clumsy woman has been done a million times because it’s easy to get funny moments out of physical comedy…if you use that trope, how can you make it original?)
100 R1
My Archive
Back to Top
booklover13 View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Regular
NYC Midnight Regular
Avatar

Joined: 06 Apr 2022
Status: Offline
Points: 282 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote booklover13 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jan 2023 at 1:23pm
Thank you! 
2nd Place, SS, R1, G161 - We Found Love in an UberPool (RomCom)
Back to Top
NERdling View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 10 Dec 2014
Location: Chicago
Status: Offline
Points: 2275 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote NERdling Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jan 2023 at 1:23pm
Thanks for the shout out Taaaylor! That was one of my favorite rounds group-wise! 
100 R1
My Archive
Back to Top
KJZen View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Groupie
NYC Midnight Groupie
Avatar

Joined: 21 Jan 2023
Location: Maine
Status: Offline
Points: 173 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KJZen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jan 2023 at 2:41pm
Thanks for asking this question.  First timer here, looking at "action/adventure" and clueless as to how to handle this genre in such a short space. Will definitely look through the archive now.

Good luck! 
Back to Top
WhistlerCrowe View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Addict
NYC Midnight Addict
Avatar

Joined: 08 Dec 2021
Location: North Carolina
Status: Offline
Points: 817 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote WhistlerCrowe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jan 2023 at 9:36pm
Hi! It's not long-form unfortunately, but I did place 2nd in my rom-com group in round one of Micro 100 with this story: 
R1, GR111, "Love, Lust, and Pixie Dust" (Rom-Com) - NYC Midnight Forums : Writing Competitions - Page 1

My advice is to make it unique and as Nerdling previously stated, banter really helps in my opinion. Best of luck!!
He Who Walks on All Fours - SS R1
All my NYCM Stories
Back to Top
CamsynClair View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Black Belt
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 20 Jan 2022
Location: Bowie, MD
Status: Offline
Points: 2582 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CamsynClair Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Jan 2023 at 2:31pm
Super helpful advice as someone who also pulled RomCom this time around! Thanks everybody; I'm excited to check out some of the awesome stories that y'all linked! I love RomCom but am def intimidated by the whole 2500-words business LOL
MF100 R1 (Romance) | SS R2 (Romance) | Archive
Back to Top
KJZen View Drop Down
NYC Midnight Groupie
NYC Midnight Groupie
Avatar

Joined: 21 Jan 2023
Location: Maine
Status: Offline
Points: 173 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KJZen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Jan 2023 at 6:53pm
Originally posted by CamsynClair CamsynClair wrote:

Super helpful advice as someone who also pulled! RomCom this time around! Thanks everybody; I'm excited to check out some of the awesome stories that y'all linked! I love RomCom but am def intimidated by the whole 2500-words business LOL

And I'm struggling to fit my ideas into such a small space.

What I found interesting is that the 99% of the examples of narratives in each genre listed on the competition page are novels or long, complex movies.  But sure... Let me squeeze an entire quest into 10 pages. I'll just drop that little explosion into paragraph 10  and the car chase into 18-23. LOL

This is definitely stretching my writing muscles. 
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  12>

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 12.05
Copyright ©2001-2022 Web Wiz Ltd.

This page was generated in 0.188 seconds.