WeWriteRomance.com is full of interesting features for not only readers, but writers as well. One of which are articles on writing romance. Here’s an excerpt of one article by the wonderful Tanya Michaels. Here’s a little sampling and a link to the full article!
Being Funny (On Purpose)
By Tanya Michaels
They say write what you know/what you love to read, and some of my favorite authors (Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Judith McNaught) can move me to tears. When I first started writing seriously—emphasis on seriously—I penned tragic contemporaries full of loss, post Civil-War historicals in the devastated South. Real laugh a minute stuff. A critique partner finally informed me that my books suffered from multiple-personality disorder. “I want to buy into these tear-jerker scenes,” she said, “But then your hero’s brother makes a joke at an inappropriate moment, and I can’t tell if you’re being funny on purpose or not.”
I then realized those same authors with the ability to make me weepy also wrote scenes that made me laugh. Comedy, like angst, is still tapping into a reader’s emotion, just a different one. Looking at the smiley-faces contest judges had written on my manuscripts and considering my string of rejection letters, I decided it was now time for something completely different: romantic comedy. Panic ensued. What if no one got my sense of humor? What if I tried too hard to plot a humorous story, and it came off as implausible and contrived?
