Title: Chasing Rainbows

Starring

Lilliana Lovely

Derek Hardake 

Messy Bessty 

That One Sexplosive Sex Scene 

Miscommunication

The Romantic Comedy Summary

Lilliana Lovely is trying to get her life straight. Her boyfriend just dumped her, she hates her job, and she wants a change. Derek Hardake is a player who wants to get laid. During a forced outing with friends (Lil HATES parties and clubs and bars and anything social), she meets Derek, the hottest, most charming guy she's ever seen. In Derek's chapter, Lilliana's the most beautiful girl he's ever seen. They talk a lot and instantly connect. Unfortunately, due to romcom rules, they can't be together because Derek doesn't do relationships or Lilliana has to work a lot or Derek has a dog and Lilliana's allergic. It's gotta be a major obstacle.

No problem. He asks her on a date, anyway. The date's a disaster, one slapstick moment after another, but it ends with the best sex ever. He has moves her loser ex never did.

When she snoops around and reads about his player past, she storms off, upset that she's just another one of his trophies. He really likes her, though, so they make up. He explains that he used to be a player after a beautiful blond broke his heart, his first love. He never wanted to fall in love after her. He starts blowing off their dates which pisses off Lilliana, and they break up. 

Because this is set in a small town, Lilliana bumps into bitchy blond ex randomly and gives her a piece of her mind. They almost get into a heated argument but Messy Bessty holds her back. Derek hears about this and is so turned on by Lilliana's bravado that he immediately drops to his knees and asks her to marry him.

A few months after they marry, Liliana promptly quits her job for domestic bliss with Derek and a baby on the way.

The End

Common features for Romantic Comedies

Your plot should include a meet-cute, (but not love at first sight which is so out of favor), a reveal about your male lead, and a happy wedding. Even though there won't be a sequel, write as many other stories with this plot structure as possible.

Your female lead is very nearly perfect. Her life is well-rounded, she's the best friend a girl can have, the best employee or boss a company can have, and her family's a solid foundation for her. Her apartment is a dream, just as gorgeous as the male lead's. She always makes the right decision and is almost always right. She's like a walking-talking PSA for young women. So her character arc is to make everyone else around her as perfect as she is. 

Your female lead is not a virgin in adult fiction, since she has that ex, but she sure as hell never had an orgasm like she has in this story. Your female lead is a virgin if this is teen fiction. You can read about those kinds of virgins in an upcoming chapter.

Your male lead is the most successful person he knows. He drives a car better than anyone else, he has sex better than anyone else, he blinks better than anyone else. He's even nearly as perfect as the female lead, save for his emotional hangups. So this story's focused on his character arc, even though he doesn't do that much heavy lifting to change other than that one conversation with the female lead.

Romantic Comedy Subgenres

A Tale as Old as Time: Love at First Sight

I Hate You! I'm in Lust with You! I Hate You! I Love You!

Triangles! The choice is obvious but not for your MC.

I'm hot hot hot for my teacher. 

Boss/Secretary. Secretaries Do It Better.

Co-worker Romance. Nothing's stopping them except for that sexual harassment clause on their contracts.

Client Romance. Nothing's stopping them except for that no-relationship clause on her contract.

Famous person Romance. Be ready for the most insecure MC of them all and the most two-dimensional male lead of them all.

Tips for Romantic Comedies

​​​💘​ Make sure there's at least one sex scene. This can wait until the final act but if that's the case, they have got to make out at least once every 3 chapters or once per act.​​
​​​💘​ Both of the leads are fully developed so make sure you know as much as possible about their lives so that you can use jargon in your dialogue. Otherwise, don't spend that much time talking about anything but their relationship. ​​
​​​💘​ Messy Bessty must provide the comedic one-liners and can fill your diversity quota (Black, LatinX, Asian, LGBT, overweight, neurodiverse, etc.) ​​
​​​💘​ Messy must never talk about his/her own life, only about Lilliana's.​​
​​​💘​ Lilliana's got one characteristic that distinguishes her from other female leads. It's usually her intelligence and related to school or work.​​
​💘​ Your MC can also fill the diversity quota (now that it's on trend) but the romantic partner must always be a smoking hot white male lead with a big... set of hands. Also, the diversity quota cannot be that she's overweight; however, if she is, then there are two caveats: 

​​     ​💟​ She must be absolutely gorgeous, supermodel gorgeous.​​​​​​​     

     ​💟​ She must work to lose weight so that she's slimmer by the end of your story. ​​

Next up: Dark Romance