Love at First Draft
by Michael Hauge
Reprinted from Writers Digest

Screenwriting hopefuls in search of the Next Big Thing always ask me, "So what's hot in Hollywood right now?" And my answer is always the same: "Don't try to figure out what's hot now -- write what's always hot."

Namely, love and laughter -- romantic comedy. Look at last summer: As wildly expensive comets, meteors, spies and slashers came and went, There's Something About Mary steadily inched its way past $150 million at the US box office. Since 1995, when Sleepless in Seattle made $127 million, at least one romantic comedy each year has cracked the $100 million mark.

Because of their enduring popularity and moderate cost (compared with special-effects extravaganzas), and because they consistently offer strong roles for both actors and actresses, a well-written romantic comedy is one of the best ways to launch or advance your screenwriting career. More important to you as a writer, the best romantic comedies are not only funny, sexy and entertaining, they provide you with a wonderful opportunity for exploring deeper levels of inner conflict, character growth and theme.

Certainly dramas, period pieces, biographies and dramatic love stories can also achieve thematic depth and complexity, but none consistently reach the mass audience of romantic comedies. And while action films, thrillers and science fiction display plenty of physical courage, romantic comedies force their heroes to develop the emotional courage necessary to overcome their innermost fears and weaknesses.

Using the top-grossing romantic comedies of all time as examples, let's explore the unique ways these screenplays use principles of story, structure and character growth to elicit emotion and enlighten the audience -- principles you can use to write your own box-office hits.
Pitching and Wooing
Seven tips for marketing your romantic comedy script
1. Professional presentation is essential. Put the script in a plain color, card-stock cover, three-hole punched and bound with brass fasteners. Proofread carefully.

2. Use proper format for a submission script, (not a shooting script). See Writing Screenplays That Sell by Michael Hauge (Harper-Collins) or The Screenwriters Bible by David Trottier (Silman Jam).

3. Keep the length under 120 pages. Aim for 110-115 pages. A page of script is roughly a minute of screen time. Romantic comedies are best kept short.

4. Stick with the feature film arena. The networks aren't interested in romantic comedy TV-movies. 5. Make sure your romantic comedy is romantic. Too many love stories get rejected because there's no basis for the main characters' attraction. Two people bickering for an hour before going to bed together will not attract an agent or a financier.

6. Recent romantic comedies are sharp and intelligent, reflecting a contemporary lifestyle with contemporary obstacles while expanding the "rules" and limitations of the genre. (Jerry Maguire, As Good As It Gets, My Best Friend's Wedding, There's Something About Mary).

7. A "spec" script is still the strongest way to approach producers. High-concept stories (Big, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Nutty Professor) can increase the commercial potential of a script and can even be sold on a pitch, provided you also have a good writing sample as evidence of your talent. But romantic comedies are still much more execution-driven than action films and that dictates a spec script.
The audience must fall in love with the romance.
We must identify with the hero's desire for this other character, or we will not only lose interest in the story, we will lose our sympathy for the hero as well.

The audience must root for the hero to win the love of the romance. You must persuade the audience that the romance is your hero's destiny. If the audience doesn't long for these two people to walk into the sunset together, you haven't done your job.

Sometimes the audience is rooting for these two people to get together long before the hero is. In movies where the hero pursues two romance characters (Housesitter, While You Were Sleeping) or films where the hero is already involved with someone else (The Wedding Singer, Moonstruck), the hero may be reluctant to accept what the audience has known from the moment the character first appeared on the screen.

Insurmountable obstacles must separate the two lovers.
Without overwhelming hurdles for your hero and romance, your story will never captivate an audience. The billionaire and the hooker in Pretty Woman, the fat scientist and the gorgeous teaching assistant in The Nutty Professor, the chauffeur's daughter and the wealthy industrialist in Sabrina all seem hopelessly mismatched.

Often the chasm separating the lovers results from he hero's deception in pursuing the original outer motivation: The romance character in While You Were Sleeping thinks the hero is betrothed to his comatose brother; Dave falls for a woman who thinks he's really her husband, whom she despises; Melanie Griffith in Working Girl pursues a man who thinks she's a broker, not a secretary.

The romance character must be intertwined with the hero's outer motivation.
In Tootsie, Dustin Hoffman wants to star on a soap opera, and falls for an actress on the show.

Kirstie Alley in Look Who's Talking wants to raise her son by herself, and falls in love with her babysitter. the reporter in Michael wants to get the angel back to Chicago, and falls for the other reporter who's competing with him. It won't work to have your hero pursue some compelling goal, and then just coincidentally fall in love with the girl next door, because...

The romance must create obstacles to both of the hero's desires.
Without conflict between the hero and romance, your screenplay will lack the emotion necessary to sustain the story. In Mrs. Doubtfire, Sally Field is and obstacle both to the hero's desire to be with his children and his desire to win her back. In Pretty Woman there are times when the hooker helps the billionaire close the deal he's pursuing, but others when she stands in his way, just as there are times she wants to return his affection and advances, and others when she says no to them.
Casting Call: Nemesis and Reflection
Successful romantic comedies require two other types of characters in addition to the hero and the romance. The nemesis provides the greatest obstacle to the hero getting what he or she wants (Cameron Diaz in My Best Friend's Wedding, Matt Dillon in There's Something About Mary, Frank Langella in Dave. The reflection is the best friend or sidekick most closely aligned with the hero (Hank Azaria in The Birdcage, Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher in When Harry Met Sally).

In romantic comedies, the nemesis and reflection should oppose -- or support -- both of the hero's desires. The rival politician in The American President tries to sabotage Michael Douglas' crime bill by also sabotaging his relationship. The bosses in The Secret of My Success and Working Girl want to prevent the heroes' promotions as they also compete for the romance characters. Similarly, the reflection characters in Jerry Maguire, Michael, Working Girl, and Tootsie help the heroes with both their careers and their love lives.

As we'll see, the nemesis and reflection characters aren't simply sources of conflict, support and humor in your plot. They also play an essential role in enabling your hero to grow and change on a deeper level.
Six Steps to Structuring Your Script
Your romantic comedy should follow the same basic three-act structure to which almost all Hollywood movies conform. But keep these additional structure principles in mind as you develop your script.

1. Introduce the hero before the romantic rival.
Readers and audiences instinctively identify with the first character who appears on the screen. If we were introduced to Pierce Brosnan in Doubtfire before we met Robin Williams or to Cameron Diaz before Julia Roberts in My Best Friend's Wedding, we would have a much harder time rooting for the heroes of those movies.

2. Show the first meeting between the hero and the romance.
In the movies as in real life, the most enthralling part of any relationship comes with that first, head-over-heels, all-consuming attraction. Never rob your audience of the opportunity to fall in love along with your characters.
This is also important for credibility. If we don't see how the two main characters meet and what draws them together, your story risks seeming contrived.

3. Introduce the romance character no later than the beginning of act two.
In a properly structured film, the hero's outer motivation, which defines the story concept, is established exactly 25% of the way through the movie. Since your hero must pursue two goals simultaneously, the object of her desire must appear on the screen by then, too.

4. The hero should commit to the relationship by the midpoint of the movie.
The halfway mark of any journey is the point of no return -- that moment where the traveler is as close to the destination as to the point of origin. Your hero must so something exactly 50% of the way through the screenplay to indicate there's no turning back.

This is often the moment where the hero and romance first sleep together, as in The American President, Jerry Maguire, Big, and Working Girl. But the point of no return is sometimes less outwardly apparent: the first date in Sabrina, or sending the incriminating email in My Best Friend's Wedding. This midpoint must, however, indicate that your hero can never return to the emotional life he was living when the story began.

5. Give the audience superior position.
Superior position means that the audience knows something before some of the characters in the movie do. This knowledge creates anticipation of what's going to happen when this "secret" is revealed.

Notice how many romantic comedies involve imposture. Almost all of the jeopardy, suspense, anticipation, surprise and humor -- in other words-- the emotion-- come from the fact that the audience knows what no one else does, the hero is really a man, a hooker, a secretary, a king, an office boy, a presidential impersonator, a gay nightclub owner, a 12-year old boy. This keeps viewers involved in the movie until finally, the inevitable happens....

6. The relationship ends at the 75% mark.
In Hollywood movies, the hero must suffer some major setback at the end of act two. In a romantic comedy, this is where the relationship (temporarily) goes up in flames, usually because the deception has finally been revealed.

Think of the accusations hurled against Melanie Griffith at the big meeting in Working Girl, when everyone learns she's a secretary. Or Annette Bening learning she's been used in The American President. Or Julia Roberts confessing her plot to sabotage in My Best Friend's Wedding.

This major setback won't always result from such a revelation, but it will always grow out of some flaw or weakness in the hero: The billionaire reverts to treating the hooker like a hooker in Pretty Woman, or Meg Ryan can't risk giving up her secure life, so she announces "Sleepless in Seattle" is history.

After this devastating event, all that remains in act three is for the hero to use every ounce of emotional courage he has to win back the love of his life and achieve his destiny in the climax of the film.
Growing Your Characters
By being forced to acknowledge her dishonesty and weaknesses, your hero will confront her deepest emotional fears. The price of intimacy is always risk and exposure, leading to the character arc. To recognize character growth in the movies you see, or to develop it in the screenplays you write, start by asking, "What terrifies the hero emotionally?" Is it emotional commitment (Pretty Woman)? Risking the loss of security (Sleepless in Seattle)? Losing status and image (The American President)? Touching someone, both literally and figuratively (As Good As It Gets)? Or perhaps simply not being good enough, attractive enough or competent enough (The Birdcage, The Nutty Professor, Working Girl)?

When you recognize your hero's greatest fear, ask: "What is she doing to avoid confronting that fear" The answer, whatever protection your hero has created, is her inner conflict. Recognizing and overcoming this inner conflict is the path to growth.
Six "Musts" For Romantic Comedy
What makes a romantic comedy different form any other genre of film? It must have these six elements:

1. The hero must be involved in some sexual or romantic pursuit.
As with all successful screenplays, the most important character in any romantic comedy is the hero -- the main character (or characters), with whom the reader and audience most strongly identify, and who is pursuing some compelling, visible desire. the story concepts for the Truman Show, Armageddon, and Saving Private Ryan are defined by each hero's desire to escape, or stop the meteor, or to save Private Ryan.

But in a romantic comedy this desire is more specific: The hero must desperately try to win (or win back) the love of another character -- her best friend in My Best Friend's Wedding, the waitress in As Good As It Gets, or the high school dream girl in There's Something About Mary.

Occasionally, as in Look Who's Talking or Moonstruck, the hero is more the pursued than the pursuer. But in both examples, the heroes eventually come to their senses, and the attraction becomes mutual.

2. The hero must pursue some additional visible desire.
In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray wants to stop endlessly repeating the same day, even as he pursues a relationship with Andie Mcdowell . In The Birdcage, Robin Williams wants to convince his son's future in-laws that he's a straight man while trying to win back Nathan Lane's affections.

Pursuing two goals simultaneously adds originality to the story and accelerates the pace. When the hero's two desires inevitably come into opposition, the conflict and the audience's involvement are increased.

3. Romantic comedies are funny.
Otherwise they wouldn't be comedies. would they?
And yet the characters in a romantic comedy never think their situation is humorous. They are desperate to achieve their goals, and terrified by the conflicts they face. When the people on the screen are laughing, the people in the audience aren't.

The driving motivations in romantic comedies actually grow out of immense pain and loss. The plots of the most successful romantic comedies of all time involve unemployment, disease, prostitution, physical abuse, physical deformity, humiliation, ridicule, the loss of one's children, attempted assassination, suicide and death. the humor then arises from the way the heroes overreact to their situations. They devise fantastic plots, pose as women, adopt false identities, juggles two lovers, tell enormous lies, fly across the country to meet a voice on a radio, or do everything possible to sabotage their best friend's wedding.

4. Romantic comedies are sexy.
This doesn't mean you must show your characters writhing in bed or on the kitchen table. In fact, romantic comedies almost never include nudity or sex scenes. But your characters must at least confront their sexual desire. And if they do go to bed together, as in When Harry Met Sally, The American President, or Big, we must see the events that lead to that decision, at least until the two loves embrace and the camera dissolves away.

5. Romantic comedies have happy endings.
I the rare instance where the hero doesn't get the girl, the audience still feels that the resolution is the best, happiest and most appropriate for the story.

6. Romantic comedies always involve deception.
The hero is pretending to be someone he's not (Mrs Doubtfire, Coming To America, Tootsie, The Birdcage, Dave); is lying to his loved one about his alter ego (The Nutty Professor, Big), his job (Michael, The Secret Of My Success), his feelings (Jerry Maguire, As Good As It Gets), or his intentions (Groundhog Day, Roxanne); or is lying to others in order to pursue the relationship (Grumpy Old Men, Sleepless In Seattle, Moonstruck, Housesitter).

This dishonesty is necessary not only to increase the conflict and the humor, but also to force the heroes to confront their own inner conflicts and deception. Only by facing the truth about themselves will they be able to change and grow.

 

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