Writing a Hilarious Romance: How to Build Comedic Timing

A couple covering their heads with paper bag | Photo by julio andres rosario ortiz on Unsplash

Writing a hilarious romance is not an easy task. As a writer, it requires you to look into situations that can capture not only the hearts of the reader but also tickle their funny bones.

Do you intend to create a relatable romance story that also permeates comedy? Laughter is always the best medicine. It also gives way to a more positive outlook in life, helping you develop as a better person. As a writer, writing a hilarious romance might help you share this positivity as you introduce a tale to discover.

Stephen Lloyd Auslender’s humorous wartime Love Story Dick and Jane Go To War is an example of a romance-comedy novel that lets its readers experience the wonders of love and the power of comedy. Dick and Jane follows two fighter pilots, Reginald (British nobility) and Vivian (Austrian Countess), who meet in Paris and become lovers. The couple did fight for their countries when World War I broke out in 1914. They have unusual adventures as they embark on their own paths, both separately and together, including encounters with ghosts.

When writing a hilarious romance, a writer must see that the story still follows the paths of the main characters. It is important for the readers to still recognize who the protagonist in the story is. For romance, you have a couple who would walk the challenging path of love. Adding humor to a love story is one thing to keep the readers in their seats.

Here are ways on how to build comedic timing in your romance story:

Opposites Attract

Speaking of main characters, your protagonists should have distinct features that set them apart from the others. Here’s one secret… main characters are not perfect people. Did you know that if your characters don’t have flaws, they become boring? Set up the differences between your characters to give them more life and make them more interesting. You can start by creating totally conflicting characters and then find a way how to make them mesh together.

Creating differences in your main characters helps build the Will They/ Won’t They trope, compelling your audience to get to know them better despite their contrasting characters. These differences should build the tension between the main characters, giving your audience the idea of following their stories.

Timing is Everything

When writing a hilarious romance, you must remember that timing is everything. You can give silent pauses that let your character think. Or let them interrupt another character’s line. Great timing creates dynamics between characters.

How to write comedy – Jodie Houlston-Lau |video by TED-Ed on YouTube

Misunderstanding and Malapropisms

We have talked about creating distinct characteristics for your protagonists. To create a hilarious atmosphere, you can play with confusion. Don’t be shy of making your characters get confused with words thrown at them. Misunderstanding a word and associating it with another idea can help your protagonist become more human and relatable.

The Power of Tropes

When writing a hilarious romance, you should definitely make use of romance tropes to your advantage. A trope is a literary device that conveys familiar ideas, themes, and characters to the audience. With this, you can let your scenes and characters become more relatable to your readers. Kiss in the rain? Touching hands while picking up a handkerchief? Don’t be shy of using these ideas to your advantage. They might be cliché, but they are always effective.

Inner Monologue

A compelling story has a great sense of telling the tale based on the perspective of the character. When you are writing a hilarious romance, you can make use of your protagonist’s inner monologue that gives them a command on what to do, but they would sometimes not do it. You can explore how you use the inner monologues that should add to the comedic timing.

Slapstick – The Physical Comedy

Sometimes, the jokes in your story aren’t always told by a character. There are those that are physically done through mistakes, confusion, or misunderstandings. Writing a hilarious romance can level up with the use of slapsticks, which are initiated quickly by a character, adding to the ridiculousness of the scene.

Embarrassing Situations

Every story has a conflict. In romance-comedy tropes, an embarrassing situation can introduce the characters to an awkward meet-up, building their story together. The awkward moments can help you find a way to let your protagonists meet again and embark on the hilarious adventure together.

Repetition for Effect – The Rule of Three

When creating lines for your characters, you must try repetition of words. To do that, you must remember the rule of three, where the character saying the line would repeat a line three times but with different intentions. This method allows your character to tell a story with a single repeated line, giving way to realization or development. Try it. Try it! TRY. IT.

Pop Culture References

When writing a hilarious romance, the limit does not exist! (Yes, this reference might be old, but Mean Girls is timeless!). Explore what’s on pop culture. It allows you to connect more with your readers, creating an atmosphere that makes it so relatable.

Expectation vs. Reality

Writing a hilarious romance does not always mean your characters get what they want right away. You can set an expectation vs. reality that should help develop your character more. Plus, it adds to the comedic value of your story. But you must see to it that everything is still well-connected.

If you want to learn more about writing a hilarious romance, you can always read books of your genre. Try checking out Stephen Lloyd Auslender’s Dick and Jane Go to War to help you bring out the hilarious writer in you.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Writing a hilarious romance is not always the easiest. It allows you to explore different characters and situations that let you understand the real world. Give yourself time to delve into the world of stories and learn the different effective devices you can use to hone your storytelling.