In setting out to create and invent a story that deals with the human heart, your characters, their dilemmas and obsessions, and the world they inhabit are bound to be as original as you are an individual. In this sense, you’ll be entering and working with the more emotional arenas of your creative mind – putting your unique life stamp into the screenplay and onto the screen. So let’s start thinking about where you might get your ideas from, and your process and experience of exploring creatively the whole idea of romance, friendship and identity.
A key thing to remember is that you should try to find an idea that’s true to you – unique as a screenplay and something that ultimately reflects your vision and values about the human need for connection. In this case, you might well be experiencing, doing and feeling a lot of other things in the process of creating your unique romcom. These might include:
A good way to start is to think about the uniqueness of you, the screenwriter, and your own take on love, happiness and human connection.
VALUES
On one level, you’ll always be unconsciously or consciously processing ‘the times’, particularly values and attitudes to do with love, family, marriage, partnership and intimacy. As writers, the stories we create can’t help but be informed and influenced by the world around us – social mores, cultural expectations, etc. – but they‘re always ultimately skewed by our individual and unique perspectives, and by our values system.
For example, gay rights are most clearly in flux when it comes to the right for LGBT people to get married. As countries deal with legislation in different ways, it becomes a focus in the media. It also uniquely affects individuals on a very personal level as they try to protect their love and commitment to each other from changes and inconsistency in the law. At the time of writing this book, there’s certainly a rise in LGBT characters (if not protagonists) in different genres (such as A Single Man, Blue is the Warmest Colour, I Love You Phillip Morris) – so clearly, as writers, we’re being inspired by the increased focus in (predominantly) Western society on ‘gay rights’. We’re also perhaps inspired by – or angry about – what we feel is oppressive and unequal in other cultures.
EXERCISE – The values system of your romcom
This exercise is intended to get you thinking about your own values system, and how it might inform your writing. Answer the following questions and try to be spontaneous – write the first thing that comes into your mind.
VISION
The entrepreneurs behind start-up companies often ask similar questions in early brainstorms of their motivation, their market and finding a way towards a Unique Selling Point. This kind of approach can be useful for the screenwriter, too. What you write here (particularly if you haven’t begun your project) can form a useful core vision and values statement about a potential romcom. It can also be useful to refer back to during later stages of development, to remind you where your project came from and what it was supposed to be about.
EXERCISE – The vision
Ask yourself the following questions in order to understand your vision:
Keep your answers handy so you can come back to them later, once you’ve entered the development process and need to refocus on what story you’re actually trying to tell.
EMOTIONAL TERRITORY
You can’t write a romcom without embracing emotion, so, as the song goes, show some! If you aren’t a particularly emotionally expressive person, you might be fantastically expressive on the page. Perhaps writing a romcom is actually your way of showing emotion. A really emotionally expressive writer in real life doesn’t guarantee success in the genre, but it might help. We’ll be talking about the important element of comedic tone later, but for now think about how choosing a tone might be the result of your own individual ‘taste’ regarding the expression of emotions. See these emotional arenas as helpful and fertile sources for the originality of your romcom, particularly the characters and their dilemmas – which, as with any screenplay, lie at the heart of the story.
EXERCISE – Show some emotion
Here are some more questions targeted at helping you understand your attitudes and values towards emotion. Answer them honestly and thoroughly!
Hopefully these questions don’t trigger too much of an uncomfortable trip down Memory Lane! The main point is to get you thinking and feeling about your own personal experiences of happiness, love, connection, romance and intimacy. With any luck you may have gained some new perspectives – or just got yourself into the emotional territory that writing a romcom will inevitably lead you to.
QUICK INSIGHT
Suya Lee, a Melbourne-based writer and PhD student researching comedy and farce in screenwriting.
Sadie Hawkins says forget leap year, try today instead!
Let’s imagine reversing the traditional marriage proposal that we see all too often in romantic comedies…
Ladies first. Would you ask a guy to marry you? I dare you to step into the man’s shoes – plus a little extra.
You want this proposal to be both romantic and perfect. You’ve been suckered into the marketing ploys of saving three months’ salary for the right engagement ring. You’ve booked his favourite restaurant on your anniversary, plus his special table by the fireplace. And you’ve arranged with the manager to play his favourite song just as the desserts are served. You’ve spent the entire day getting ready for this one big moment, and splurged plenty. You’ve gotten your hair just right, a facial to perfect your glow, a pedi and a mani to match your red-hot sexy number, bought new shoes and had a fresh Brazilian wax.
Both of you order your respective favourite dishes and you’ve pre-ordered his dream champagne, just to make the whole ordeal go down more smoothly. Your boyfriend digs into the cheesecake. You get up, straighten your dress and get on one knee to propose. You make sure that your mini dress doesn’t ride up your ass – or worse. You say the precious four words, ‘Will you marry me?’, as you open the small box.
Gentlemen next. How would you feel about a woman proposing to you on bended knee?
You think she’s finally asked you out to dinner, meaning that she will pay. You think she’s gone all out with the steak and lobster, not to mention the champagne. You don’t notice the playlist that’s been blasting over the restaurant. You notice she’s stood up and think she’s heading to the restroom. She’s fallen on one knee – you should help her get up, but you stare at her boobs hanging out of her low cleavage. She’s just said something weird, and then showed you some shiny gold stuff that’s distracted you from looking at her chest. Hang on… she’s just proposed! The entire restaurant claps. What’s she doing? You don’t even live together. Do you run, laugh or pretend not to hear her? Instead, you choke on the cheesecake.
Since biblical times, there’s been the odd story of a woman proposing to a man. Why not more, ladies? Don’t want to seem desperate? Think it’s too bold? How about feeling un-feminine? Does it take guts to get down on your stilettos to ask a man for his hand? Isn’t this the 21st century? How about challenging the status quo… again? The screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s, such as Bringing Up Baby, bucked the status quo – but it didn’t last. How about challenging your romcom story in this day and age?
EXERCISE – A romantic interlude
The purpose of this exercise is to give your inner artist a romantic treat! We can ignore our own needs for pleasure and escapism, but then expect ourselves to be able to churn romantic experiences and characters’ enjoyment of these out onto the page. As most romantic comedies emphasise the need for self-love before you can love anybody else, you need to make sure that you’re actually treating yourself well!
Treat yourself for one day to a conventionally romantic experience on your own. Imagine what you would really love your partner or fantasy partner to do for you, to woo you and make you feel cherished. For example, breakfast in bed, a red rose on your desk, love songs, a candlelit dinner, etc. Alternatively, if you find conventional romance simply horrendous, try to work out the more appealing and non-conventional ways of being romantic with which to treat yourself. For example, the red rose can be wild flowers sourced from a country walk.
After the event, brainstorm in a written list all of the sensations and emotions you experienced. Then ask yourself:
How would another person make it better?
How would creating the experience for another person feel?
Hopefully the idea of this exercise isn’t too cringe-making! Have a go. Many writers can be quite self-denying, but for those of you who have no problem in treating yourself regularly, to music, art, flowers and great experiences, try to think about something you wouldn’t normally do. The whole point of this exercise is to feel and sense new experiences and emotions related to romance.
FINDING THE IDEA FOR YOUR SCREENPLAY
We’ve spoken quite a lot about ideas so far, and our approach to the book through ideation. But how do you actually find an idea for a romcom? Where do you start – and how do you know when you’ve started? Before we give you some specific pointers for finding ideas, let’s talk about ideas themselves.
Ideas for screenplays come from both outside and inside of us. As screenwriters we constantly think about what’s happening around us (socially, culturally, economically, politically), and what’s happening within us (emotionally, psychologically). When we put these two things together – processing events happening around you into internal thoughts and feelings – we get theme and meaning. And then when we put all of this into screenplay form, we get storytelling. And that’s why we love stories: because they tell us about the world we live in, and through a lens we understand (the human perspective). Our view on or interpretation of the world is different to the next person’s – and that’s what makes unique and refreshing stories.
In terms of the romcom, your views, interpretations – and experiences – of love, romance and sex are bound to be ‘different’ in some way, and that difference is what an audience is seeking out. Although they probably won’t meet or even know what the screenwriter looks like, an audience desperately wants to hear their ideas. You have ideas – and so your audience needs you!
As we’ll outline below, story ideas come from a multitude of places and experiences, many of them specific to you and your life. The main thing to say here is that whenever you see, hear or feel a story, keep it tucked away somewhere to use later. You might come back to it another day, either as the starting point for a new story or to inject into a screenplay you’re already writing. You might also find yourself being asked for your next idea – by a producer, for example – so it’s good to have a bank of ideas somewhere.
IDEATION
An idea is only an idea when it’s got a future – when it’s got the potential to go somewhere. Otherwise, it’s just a fact – just a ‘thing’. An idea suggests intention – something that resides in the ‘thing’ that’s got the potential to become something else. In the case of a romcom, it’s a musing about a character or a plot or a theme or a world that will eventually become a funny and heart-warming screenplay. Because our ideas are intended for other people, they need to have something that’s going to interest and connect with them. Sometimes this is clear from the start. At other times, it’s going to take the advice of someone in the development process to help you. Either way, your idea needs to have some appealing qualities that will warrant the film being made. A crucial thing to consider here is its universal appeal. What’s in your idea that others will want to hear about, and possibly share? How will your romcom create an emotional connection with its intended audience?
This is where it’s useful to ask, what’s in the zeitgeist? What are people talking about at the minute? What are society’s concerns? These are useful questions to ask because you’re trying to reach out to people’s emotions and get them to feel what you’re trying to say. What’s being explored in your story might not necessarily tap into the specific consciousness of the people you’re writing for – though it should certainly tap into their emotions – but it should tap into the consciousness of the people you’re writing about. Films can easily fall down because they don’t feel relevant to the characters’ world.
For example, Australian romcom Any Questions for Ben feels really inappropriate for its characters. The film explores ideas of self-worth, social value and missed chances – all of which would suit a mid-life-crisis type of situation. But the protagonist, Ben, is 27, and practically all of his friends are around the same age. What’s worse is that Ben declares his love for Alex, telling her that he regrets never getting to know her at university, and how he remembers watching her in the canteen in-between lectures, and how he was enamoured of her. But because at 27 he’s likely to have left university only five or six years before, it feels contrived and convenient rather than credible and true. If the central characters had been shaped around the film’s core themes, making the world of the story much more believable, the film might have been much more successful – critically and commercially. That’s why it’s really important when developing an idea to allow time for the story to find a shape and a voice that speaks to its characters.
The more you let an idea gestate, the stronger it’s likely to be. Sometimes we make quick judgements and decisions, but it’s only when we let them brew for a while and come back to them that they find their own way. In screenwriting, this makes the film feel more original and true. If you let an idea breathe and morph, you’ll probably be happier with what you’re writing.
It can also be useful to read how other writers find and develop their ideas. Although everyone works differently, there are common themes – recognising when an idea’s good, first steps to developing that idea, probing and expanding the idea, knowing when the idea’s running out of steam, etc. Graeme Harper’s book, Inside Creative Writing: Interviews with Contemporary Writers (2012), asks a host of practising writers about the processes they go through when writing creatively. A book like this can be insightful and inspiring. Kevin Conroy Scott’s Screenwriters’ Masterclass (2005) and Alistair Owen’s Story and Character (2004) offer a range of interviews with well-credited screenwriters, and are really useful for understanding how writers work.
INSPIRATION
Idea inspiration can come in many forms and from many sources. Here we’ll outline just a few sources of motivation for your screenplay.
The light bulb moment
You’re on the train gazing out the window; you’re in the shower; you’re taking a walk; or you’re doing the ironing. Then, ping! Out of some dark hemisphere of the brain comes the most brilliant of ideas. You rush to your pen and paper or voice memo and get the idea down. It might just be a character – someone you’ve never seen before, someone so delightfully or crazily unique that you experience something like love at first sight.
Or you might have an idea for a plot. Or you might have a strong feeling for theme. In this situation, two things can happen – either you get down to it and write, or, as with most of us, life takes over. The idea will still be there, but days pass. Or in some cases weeks… months… years! But something about the idea endures. Aspects of the story might begin to feel dated and will need adjusting, and similar films might come and go, but you feel your story is still original and deserves to find an audience.
Artistic admiration
The romcoms and dramedies of Diablo Cody (Juno, Young Adult), Julie Delpy (Before Sunset, Before Sunrise, Before Midnight), Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday, It’s Complicated) or Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Vicky Cristina Barcelona) might have great aesthetic resonance for you in how they approach love and comedy. In other words, you’re a fan and you want to write like them. Rather, you consciously want to write something similar and potentially as successful, but with your own distinctive take on character and story. Writing that’s borne out of admiration is a very different creature to that which is just a pale imitation. If you break down the elements of what you admire in a writer or director’s work (e.g. tone, style, theme, characterisation, etc.) and why you admire it, you can apply these qualities to your own original writing.
Your life
In the context of screenplay ideas, there might be a specific relationship you’ve personally experienced that triggers the need for resolution through writing. Perhaps you have a need for vengeance as you feel betrayed? For mourning the loss of love? Or for celebrating finding ‘the one’? Perhaps you still long for ‘the one’ and writing a screenplay is a way of filling that void. In Ruby Sparks a lonely and emotionally remote writer does exactly that as he simply can’t attract the right kind of woman.
Sometimes emotional wounds can last a long time, and are so deeply buried we don’t know we’re carrying them around with us. They’re part of our unconscious and come alive in dreams and fantasies, and affect how we relate to others. As suggested above, for writers emotional wounds can be the underlying layer for a story idea. It’s kind of obvious therefore that romantic comedy is an ideal genre for characters that need to work out emotional issues that keep getting in the way of love. Only you can say if you’re choosing romantic comedy – in its broadest definition – to explore, if not heal, some of your own heartache, and also to what extent your main characters reflect your own emotional pains or relationship patterns. The character of Shakespeare in classic bioromcom Shakespeare in Love needed to feel love, pain and loss before he could access his inner muse.
EXERCISE – Where are you at?
This exercise encourages you to define where you are at emotionally, at the time of deciding to write a romcom. Read the following statements and see which might reflect ‘where you are at’.
Wherever you are at, this place will inevitably be part of your motivation to write a romcom. In particular, it will influence your themes and messages – happy or sad!
There’s nothing wrong with being too close to home in subject matter, so long as you can remain objective in terms of what’ll work as a film, and can find ways of making it interesting and relevant to others, not just yourself. Another important point to remember is that if you’re using the screenplay as ‘emotional payback’ – to make yourself feel better in terms of retaliation – it might not be emotionally well balanced. The sour feelings you have might leave a sour taste in your audience’s mouth – which often isn’t a good thing. Personal responsibility – ‘it takes two to tango’ – and forgiveness of the self and others are central ingredients of many successful romantic comedies, and especially to the ‘feel-good’ buzz in an up-ending love story. Having said that, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a good example of the ‘retaliatory romcom’, in which the protagonist just needs to get over being treated really badly by a cheating ex before he can move on (while she ends up with the deserved fate of being sad and alone).
The great idea
Finding an idea that you feel will speak to many people’s experience of love, but which hasn’t been ‘done’ – or done with your unique voice and vision – could be your original motivation. Similar to the Light Bulb Moment, the Great Idea is more of a considered and rational approach. It can come as a result of creative brainstorming between a writer and a director, or a writer and a producer. It might be a helpful friend who has a Great Idea and gives it to you because they know they’re not a writer. Very often, the Great Idea supplied by others is based on some of their own crazy or memorable experiences in relationships. They might have been dumped by text or tweet. They had a weird meet as opposed to a ‘meet cute’. Then the usual ‘rules’ apply – only convincing characters, not ones just based on your friend or colleague, will pull it off. If the Great Idea comes to you alone, then it’s a good idea to test it out with friends. Other people, and the films they know about, can be surprisingly helpful in ensuring your Great Idea hasn’t been done already.
High-concept
You might find an amazing ‘high-concept’ idea that springs from the zeitgeist or from a ‘what if?’ brainstorming session. A high-concept romcom is one where the external situation facing the character is almost as dramatically intriguing and important as the character themselves. Situations can be high-stakes or conflict-ridden, or just plain funny. There’s generally an element of dramatic irony in the mix. The Change Up is a good example, where two men swap bodies as the result of a lightning strike. The sexually active bachelor Mitch takes the form of the happily married Dave, who finds himself in Mitch’s body. With funny results, lightning legitimises Dave’s newfound freedom, while Mitch learns the qualities of commitment through being married.
Another example of high-concept is the film It’s Complicated, another ‘retaliatory romcom’ in which a divorced middle-aged woman has a secret affair with her ex-husband, thereby gaining some revenge in the process on both her ex and his younger lover. The affair gives the character closure and helps her to move on and find new love. It also manages to ensure her husband is the ‘ultimate loser’ in that he turns out to be single, alone and without a family – the children pretty much take their mother’s side. The comedic triumph of the dumped middle-aged woman adds to the intrigue of the high-concept situation.
FINDING THE TITLE
Finding the perfect title for a romcom is a bit like finding the perfect partner – you can strike lucky first time around, or you’ll go through a laborious process of trial and mainly error until you find ‘the one’. In general, titles for romcoms tend to be:
Short
Short and snappy tends to be more memorable. You can’t get shorter than Ted – a film about a teddy bear, but There’s Something About Mary and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are great examples of titles that flout the rules. On the whole, using a character’s name is easy, and tends to be the fall-back position for biopics or dramas. But, then again, there’s always an exception, such as the romcom Annie Hall, which won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Kissing Jessica Stein, and Along Came Polly suggest to the audience the life-changing magnitude and importance of the loved one or ex. Notting Hill conjures up the iconic London area in which the film is set, and it also happens to be very much a Notting Hill type of love – a superstar who can afford to live there, and an eccentric, floppy-haired bookseller.
Literal
These types of title tend to say exactly what the film is, which might link well to the premise it’s being sold on. Four Christmases, for example, is about exactly that. The content is certainly what it says on the tin.
Metaphorical
A literal title can also be a metaphorical one, where the title suggests a deeper meaning that might emerge before or after seeing the film. Four Christmases raises an eyebrow as we normally go ‘somewhere’, i.e. one place, for Christmas. The fact that this is going to be about four Christmases immediately tells us that things are going to be complicated. The Holiday is about a holiday, a break from the routine of life. In the case of its heroines, this holiday changes their lives forever.
Austenland is another example of a metaphorical title. It’s witty in itself – there’s no such place but it does sound like a country. Yes, it’s a Jane Austen theme park, so it’s literal, but it also suggests a mindset of the crazy fandom surrounding Jane Austen. The fact that the film is about Americans obsessed with anything and everything related to Jane Austen, and a particular version of British culture, is also indicated in the title.
The notion of baggage – a character’s baggage – in the title neatly conjures up ideas of unresolved emotional wounds that are going to get in the way of love. An example of this is Baggage Claim.
Archetypal
Many film titles have something that conjures up a well-known if not universal element of the story or premise. Bad Teacher invokes the familiar archetype that most of us have encountered – a teacher that has failed us or him or herself in their educational role. Young Adult is a stage we’ve all been at – a rites of passage to maturity, and as a film title it also hints at arrested development, which is certainly the case with protagonist Mavis.
The archetypal nature of the title can also be a well-known expression, such as Something’s Gotta Give or Whatever Works. On one level these are conversational generalisations, but on the other hand they’re truisms that make sense in the context of the minefield of modern relationships.
Ironic
The Five-Year Engagement is ironic in itself. It suggests that problems and obstacles beset the days from the proposal/decision to marry right through to the wedding day. Four Weddings and a Funeral reveals a dramedic quality, though as a joke in itself we know the film isn’t going to be too sombre. Bridesmaids suggests sisterhood, dresses, cakes and hen parties. The film flips the idealised feminine dream on its head with extreme irreverence.
Indicative of genre
Romantic comedy titles mainly have a tonal quality that suggests the film is lighter and deals with romance, such as Wedding Crashers and What’s Your Number? On the contrary, dramatic romance Autumn in New York hasn’t got much that’s amusing about it, nor any irony. With this title we might instead think of the looming bleakness of winter, the seasons of life, and the romantic elements of New York in late Autumn – fitting for a love story about a dying girl.
EXERCISE – Finding a title
Nobody can come up with anything good when sitting at a desk, staring at the wall or even out of the window. This is a fun and unpredictable, ‘free yet contrived association’ exercise to nudge you to think outside the box when it comes to titles. Don’t try to be clever, or overthink it. There are really no right or wrong answers!
Cut up lots of small pieces of paper. On each one, write the answers to the following brainstorms or questions, and put them in the respective jars, or just piles, folded up. Try to put one word on each piece of paper.
Jar One
Jar Two
Shake both jars and start selecting from each jar to form phrases. Remember, it doesn’t matter if they don’t make sense! Write these down and see if any trigger some interesting thoughts on titles.
CASE STUDY: Valentine’s Day
Values
Valentine’s Day is an ensemble romantic dramedy set over one day in Los Angeles. Its large, star-studded cast leads the multiple storylines of characters making their way through the day and dealing with the emotional situations of their love lives. Because Valentine’s Day is traditionally the most romantic day of the year, what this special day means for the characters, and how the day itself is a catalyst for solving matters of the heart, provides the ‘engine’ of the film.
For screenwriters who aspire to write studio-style mainstream films for a large worldwide audience, Valentine’s Day is a good example of the ingredients required for a successful, mainstream romcom. The film was followed by New Year’s Eve, another highly successful romcom.
Vision
Valentine’s Day is a traditionally romantic, feel-good and easy-going film. It’s the ultimate date night movie. LA looks beautiful – the sun is always shining and the spirit of romance is everywhere. The actors that have been cast are supremely attractive. Being happy in love, finding your soulmate and going the distance for the right partner are the romantic ideas forming most of the storylines. The messages that emotional truth is important, knowing yourself will lead to happiness, and having the courage to communicate your needs are emphasised by the happy resolutions of the multiple storylines. The vision recreates the fairy tale of happy-ever-after, and lives that are probably very different to those of most of the audience.
In other words, the ‘vision’ of Valentine’s Day can be seen as making a promise to deliver big on the feel-good factor for audiences who like upbeat, emotional and sentimental films. And there’s nothing wrong with that!
Audience
Valentine’s Day successfully appealed to a big and broad audience of viewers. It offered moviegoers an escape into feel-good and positive messages. Worldwide box-office takings were over $200,000,000. The core audience was probably women, who are typically the main ‘consumers’ of the romantic comedy. In terms of age, the audience could be anywhere between 15 and 50 – but that’s not to exclude young girls or boys who might fancy Ashton Kutcher, older people who love escapism and romance, and fans of Julia Roberts. The point is that Valentine’s Day achieved its objective to gain massive commercial success, have huge internal reach, and provide its audience with a feel-good Hollywood experience.
Critics
Critics’ reactions to Valentine’s Day were extremely negative. The website www.rottentomatoes.com gives the film only 18% on the tomatometer, with a fairly disparaging overview: ‘Eager to please and stuffed with stars, Valentine's Day squanders its promise with a frantic, episodic plot and an abundance of rom-com clichés.’
When looking at individual extracts from critics, the biggest issues cited seem to revolve around the emotional subject matter and the perfect world – in other words, the exact ‘vision’ the film was trying to promote. Box-office statistics clearly conflict with this negative perspective, showing that Valentine’s Day didn’t please all people all the time, but it did deliver on its vision’s promise to its audience.
Title
The title says it all. Simple, evocative, known the world over and hasn’t been done (at least in the recent past).
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