076: The trouble with writing romcoms (plus 3 tips for writing humour)

For today's episode of Indie Author Weekly, I want to talk about the trouble with writing romcoms, and also 3 things you can do if you’re writing humour; I’ve got 3 tips for you when it comes to writing humour into your stories.

When I first started writing romance novels a couple years ago, I didn’t really know what the subgenre was. I referred to them as “contemporary romances” and “new adult romance.” Sometimes it takes a while to hone in on our niche. I didn’t even know that “romantic comedy” was a genre of novels, in fact! About a year ago, I happened to be reading a book by an indie author who calls her stories “romantic comedies,” and I realized that my style could totally be considered romantic comedy.

At the same time, I also wasn’t sure if I was funny enough to write romcoms. I mean, I certainly amuse myself, but it’s tricky to know whether your sense of humour is going to be well-received by readers.

And that’s what leads to today’s episode topic: the trouble with writing romcoms. Because the most challenging part that I’ve found with writing this particular genre is that there’s a delicate balance between writing jokes that are obvious enough that your reader will understand the humour, and also subtle enough that you’re not over-the-top with them. At least, assuming that you’re going for witty humour, rather than slap-sticky humour.

This gets even more difficult to assess, the more rewrites and edits you do on your own book: you KNOW the joke, since you wrote it... so, trying to take a step back and figure out how it will “land” for your reader is a lot trickier.

Resources & links mentioned in this episode:

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