Hello! I’m Marina Ford and I’m touring blogs right now so I can tell about my new novel, Marry Him.

This is my third full-length novel, and my second romantic comedy.

It’s about Joe and Harry and how these very different characters, from extremely different backgrounds, find each other and all the things they’re looking for. Via every kind of comedic disaster.

That’s how romantic comedies work, and you’d think that knowing this, it would make the whole process easy, right? Below, I’ll share some tips about how to get comedy in romance right!

Here is something awesome. You can win a $15 Riptide voucher! On a Venn diagram, where one circle is “I love amazing love stories” and the other is “Free books! Brilliant!” this voucher, my friends, is where the two circles overlap. Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts about your favourite romantic comedies and you might well win!

Enjoy! J

 

1. Voice

The first thing I do when I want to write a comedy is to play around with the voice. It feels a little like tuning a piano. You write a little, you tweak, you save as draft 1 and start a new draft, from scratch. Try again. Sometimes they come at once, sometimes I sit down already “hearing” the character in my head, almost fully formed. Sometimes I have to work on it.

Senses of humour differ between personalities, and a strong voice will make the jokes flow out of you naturally. When that happens, they tend to work much better, too, because they feel organic. Moreover, and I can’t stress this enough: people’s ideas of what’s funny differ. What you think is hilarious other people might think is offensive. You’re not wrong, they’re not wrong, you’re just tickled by different things.

If you write straight up jokes, chances are, you’ll have a few hits, and a few misses, and the experience will be meh. If you write in your character’s voice, even if you’d don’t hit the bull’s eye with every one of your punchlines, each punchline will further the reader’s understanding of your character.

2. Not really jokes

Of course, romantic comedy isn’t really about jokes. Nobody sits down to write a romantic comedy, starting with “knock, knock”. We don’t tend to plan scenes around jokes, the way a stand-up comedian might. Everything we write, including the funny bits, should ultimately work for the romance, not the other way around.

What makes romantic comedy good aren’t outright jokes, but the little funny touches that spring from quirks of character.

For example, in my first novel, Lovesick, I introduce a grouchy main character, Leo, whose voice is defined by a low-level pessimism and a self-destructive streak. Here he writes in his diary, after his parents came to see him:

“My parents’ visit lasted about four hours, which included dinner and my slow decline into schizophrenia.”

This isn’t really a joke, of course, but the humour flows from the type of person he is and the way he views the world. The humour of this statement is inseparable from Leo’s voice.

In Marry Him, I first “heard” my main character, Joe, properly when I wrote:

“In my dreams I meet the perfect guy by looking across a crowded room. Our eyes lock, there are sparks, we smile, moments later we find each other by pretend-accident at the buffet or champagne table. We talk, there are more sparks, and then one thing leads to . . . well, shagging. And the rest becomes history.

This is not that story.”

Suddenly, there he was, fully formed and ready to fall in love.

3. The Side Characters

I love a good, strong side-character. Here is where you can straight up craft actual jokes. This still doesn’t mean that you get to just throw random things in for them to say, of course. Anything they say will work best if it is also in their respective voices, with their distinct characters in mind.

From My Lavender Boyfriend:

“There are rules, Simon!” [Jon] said, sounding offended. “If either one of us has the opportunity to be on speaking terms with a major hunk, we let the other one know! You’re breaking the rules! Do you remember when Claire Duncan’s brother came to visit and he was like seven foot tall and a fireman? What did I do? Hmm?”

“You shagged him.”

“Yeah, I did,” he sounded pleased again.

This exchange comes quite early in the novel and is the reader’s first real introduction to this character. Sure, it’s a joke, but it’s carrying a lot of character-building weight with it too.

4. Banter

I love banter. Often, when I am in the day-dreaming stage of the writing process (that is to say, I haven’t written a word yet, I’m just playing around with idea) I’ll start writing down small bits of banter that come to my head. Sometimes I’ll hear a funny conversation in real life, and I’ll make a note of it, for future use. Then I deploy them strategically in the right moments.

Banter is essentially what makes romantic comedy what it is. It’s as crucial as magic is to fantasy, or sex to erotica. It’s what we’re all here for.

This is where the air crackles, the chemistry happens, the tension grows. When done well, this is also what will slowly get your heart racing for your main characters.

In many ways, this is as organic as real love. If you have written your character voices credibly, and if the two characters really do suit each other, when they meet, the banter will naturally happen and will work the way it’s meant to. If it’s not working, it might very well mean that you need to go back to working on your characters’ voices.

This all might sound like I’m saying: if you’re doing it right, it will simply happen. But like all kinds of writing, this is a skill, which you can hone by practice. The more you do it, the better you become at it. Write a lot, every day, as much as you can, whenever you can. Secondly, read. Pay attention to what others are doing right and what they’re doing wrong. Make a note of the moments that make you smile, or laugh or feel warm inside.

Blurb:

Joe Kaminski likes to go with the flow, a good trait to have as a young artist living in London. His laidback approach to life makes him a fish out of water when he’s hired at P&B Designs, a high-powered PR agency. The money’s good, but with his poor planning skills, he doesn’t see it lasting.

Harry Byrne likes his life the same way he likes his PowerPoint presentations: structured. Known for his dynamic personality, Harry suffered a blow when his seven-year relationship fell apart, souring his mood. The last thing on his mind is getting into another relationship, especially with a man who can barely make it to the office on time.

They’re not even supposed to like each other. But five years later, Joe and Harry are getting ready to tie the knot. They should’ve known it was only a matter of time before everything starts to fall apart: obstructive friends, well-meaning but meddlesome family, a hovering ex, international incidents, fires, pregnancies, and an airport chase. It seems their “I do”s were doomed from the start.

Available now from Riptide Publishing!

AMAZON

Marina Ford is a thirty-three-year-old book addict, who would, if permitted, spend all of her time in bookstores, libraries, or in her own bed with stacks and stacks of books. Luckily, she has a husband and a dog, who force her to interact with humans of planet Earth from time to time. In fact, she so enjoyed falling in love with her husband that she can’t resist evoking those same feelings in the love stories she writes. She does not believe in love at first sight—but she does believe in the happy ever after, though it must be earned. She likes her stories to be light, since real life can be miserable enough without making up more of it in fiction.

She lives in England, loves rain (gives one an excuse to stay at home and read books, right?), long walks (when it doesn’t rain), history, Jane Austen, the theatre, languages, and dogs. It is her dream to one day possess an enormous country house in which each room is a library (okay, maybe except for the kitchen), and in which there are more dogs than people. A smaller and perhaps more realistic dream is to make people smile with the things she writes.

To celebrate this release, one lucky person will win a $15 gift card to Riptide! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on March 7, 2020. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. For more chances to enter, follow the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!