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Romantic Comedy Help?
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    Posted: 25 Jan 2023 at 7:08am
Hey Booklover13 -

Thank you so much for posting your query. I have the same problem (and we are in the same group).  I can't wait to see how the writers in our group approach the same prompts if/when the post them here after submission..

My other big problem is that romcoms seem to require complication - and it's difficult to fit it all in 2,500 words...

Sigh. I can see some big cuts in my future.
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When I was stuck on Rom Com I googled a lot and found the common tropes helped me find an idea - enemies to love, the best friend all along, the meet cute, unrequited love, love triangle, forced or stuck together, childhood sweethearts, opposites/rivals. 
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Originally posted by taaaylor taaaylor wrote:

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

Okay, these were ALL SO GOOD. Totally worth the reads! 
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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. 
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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
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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!!
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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! 
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Thanks for the shout out Taaaylor! That was one of my favorite rounds group-wise! 
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Thank you! 
2nd Place, SS, R1, G161 - We Found Love in an UberPool (RomCom)
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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?)
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