Danielle Krage interviews Billy Mernit - screenwriter, novelist and author of Writing The Romantic Comedy: The Art of Crafting Funny Love Stories for the Screen. Billy has served as a story analyst and script consultant at Universal Pictures, an instructor for the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, and has published some 20 romance novels under a female pen name. In this conversation, he shares really practical ways of approaching writing romantic comedy, including in today’s landscape of mixing genres.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

01:00 Love for Rom-Coms

02:25 The Triangle and the Ensemble

07:43 Favourite Rom-Coms

13:16 The Importance of World

17:48 The Connection Between Image and Theme

25:36 Mixing Genres in Rom-Coms

31:06 Rom-Coms in Series Format

34:07 Personal Development as a Writer

37:14 Music and Writing

10:15 The Importance of Characters in Romantic Comedies

20:30 The Role of Conflict in Romantic Comedies

30:45 The Art of Crafting Funny Love Stories

39:41 Recommendation and Conclusion

You can find out more about Billy and his work here:

https://www.instagram.com/mernitman

https://billymernit.com

You can find the transcript at:

https://comedymasterclass.com

And Danielle’s socials here:

https://twitter.com/daniellekrage

https://www.instagram.com/dekrage

https://bsky.app/profile/daniellekrage.bsky.social