Tips for Creating the RomCom Protagonist

Here are some tips for (and musings on) creating the RomCom protagonist and a comic character based on my reading and listening to various screenwriting experts. I’m hoping writing this post will help me clarify my thoughts further.

So, the RomCom protagonist should be:

• a NonHero/incomplete;
• likable (my own take) or at least empathatic;
• have a WANT that is the opposite of what they NEED;
• complex;
• obsessed with something – the WANT;
• funny; and
• trying very hard to obtain what they want.

The Non-Hero

In Steve Kaplan’s The Comic Hero’s Journey, he writes that the comic hero is a nonhero. I highly recommend his book. It’s funny (as you will see from the quotes below). His book shows the difference between the Comic Hero’s journey and Vogler’s The Hero’s Journey:

“your protagonist, the comic hero, does not have greatness within. Your protagonist is as far from greatness within as is humanly possible, . . . He wants a world of adventure like he wants a hole in the head. “

The Comic Hero’s Journey by Steve Kaplan, at p.7.

He writes:

The whole point of the Normal World is to set up your protagonist for that eventual change. You might think that all you need to do is put your nice, normal hero in a crazy, fucked-up situation and see how it all shakes out. Well, don’t.

The Comic Hero’s Journey by Steve Kaplan, at p.7.

Steve Kaplan uses GROUNDHOG DAY as his example. In the original screen play, the protagonist was just a nice guy. But in the re-write, he became an asshole. The comic hero needs to be shaken out of his rut. And if the comic hero is perfect, then why are all these horrible things happening to him? You need a reason for why you’re shaking him/her out of his/her dismal situation (which, by the way, the protagonist thinks is fine). Id. at p.8.

So, start with a nonhero character living in a problematic ordinary world. But we still need readers/viewers to like our character.

Billy Mernit’s Tips for Creating a RomCom Protagonist

As I wrote in my previous post, Billy Mernit provides four keys to characterization: “purpose, credibility, empathy and complexity.” Writing the Romantic Comedy, by Billy Mernit at p. 112.

Protagonists have to have a purpose (a want) and that want for that character has to be credible. So, Mernit gives the example of Dustin Hoffman in TOOTSIE who wants to be a working actor; the film montage shows us that he is a good actor. Protagonists also have to make us feel empathy for them (maybe because they’re being rejected and we’ve all been rejected)); and they have to be complex (more on that below).

According to Mernit, one way to create empathy is to show the protagonist’s fervent passion to accomplish his goal. If you show a character repeatedly trying to succeed and getting knocked down (comic potential there), but then getting up again, you will not only build empathy for your character, you will have action in your scenes that mix plot and character.

Likable or Complex or Both?

You have a choice to make your character likable or complex or both.

Billy Mernit and Tess Morris in the “You Had Us at Hello” Podcast #4 have a really interesting perspective on this. They note that women characters have been able to be less “likable” lately, if you look at Kristin Wiig in BRIDESMAIDS or the characters in the TV show Girls.

Frankly, I still want to create a likable, but flawed, complex comic character. because if I don’t like the character, then I am not willing to invest my time reading the book.

But, in Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes, I was impressed that one of her protagonists, Lisa Edwards, is not very likable, and yet I felt empathy for her. How does Keyes create that empathy? Lisa works very hard, sacrificing everything, and instead of getting the promotion she expects, is shipped off to Ireland to start up a new magazine with limited resources. And she is complex. But Keyes also has a likable protagonist in that same book, so that’s another approach, to have two protagonists, one likable and one unlikable. But I digress.

And most of my favorite RomCom characters are likable: Sally in When Harry Met Sally, Annie Hall, Bridget Jones, etc. Or to look at characters in books: Samantha Sweeting in the Undomestic Goddess, Becky Bloomwood in the Shopaholic series, Melissa Romney-Jones in The Little Lady Agency series. But they are also complex. Sally is optimistic but likes control. Annie Hall is Annie Hall. Samantha Sweeting is a brilliant lawyer, but unable to do any domestic tasks. Becky can’t stop spending, but gives advice on saving money. Melissa who is a “nice girl” in real life, but “add a satin corset, and some serious red lipstick, and I’m Honey Blennerhesket, bootylicious troubleshooter for London’t hapless bachelors and chaps generally in need of a woman’s multitasking mind.” The Little Lady Agency and the Prince, by Hester Browne at p.1. They are all also funny.

Why Complex?

But why complex? As Billy Mernit writes,

“Complex characters who have contradictions and quirks keep us interested as long as they’re credible.”

Writing the Romantic Comedy, by Billy Mernit, at p. 117.

Robert McKee said in his online webinar on “Building a Character” that characters don’t need to be likable, they need to be “compelling,” which translates to “complicated. “

Billy Mernit then circles back to wants vs. needs as one of the keys to creating complexity.

Needs are at the core of a given character’s point of view, and in a story, more often than not, an internal conflict is what drives, and complicates the character’s external conflict. Generally speaking, when we’re tracking a characters’s arc in the story, we’re tracking how confronting and ultimately resolving their inner issue helps that character achieve their exterior goal.”

Writing the Romantic Comedy, by Billy Mernit, at p. 118.

The internal issue usually comes from the character’s backstory. This backstory fuels the internal conflict of your protagonist and raises the tension.

Want/Need

One way to make them complex is to make sure that what they WANT is the opposite of what they NEED. Then you have built in CONFLICT.

In GROUNDHOG DAY, he wants to be promoted to a bigger news station in a bigger market. What he needs, however, is to form relationships and to be a better person.

This dovetails with Steve Kaplan’s advice that the initial goal of a comic protagonist is an outer goal that is the WRONG goal, and so the goal changes as the character changes along the character arc. As Kaplan writes,

“These initial goals are usually selfish and shortsighted and usually not addressing their inner needs.”

The Comic Hero’s Journey, by Steve Kaplan at p. 10

As Steve Kaplan writes, Discovered Goals will replace these Initial Goals as the characters transform. So figure out your character’s want and need, and show how their goal changes from the Initial Goal to the Discovered Goal.

Give Them An Obsession

Finally, according to McKee, “the comic character is marked by a blind obsession.” Story by Robert McKee, at p. 382. So, in his example, in A FISH CALLED WANDA, Wanda’s obsession is men who speak foreign languages. This leads to that funny scene where Kevin Kline is saying Italian words (“parmigiani . . . ) to her (but doesn’t actually know how to speak Italian), the clip available here.

In Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic series, she is obsessed with shopping. Which leads to all sorts of hysterical complications as well as tension–at least, when I read Shopaholic, I was like, please, please stop shopping!

Let’s Talk

What are your thoughts on creating the RomCom protagonist? Who are your favorite romantic comedy protagonists and why?

And no idea what week it is in lockdown. I feel like I’m living the movie Groundhog Day–the homeschooling version, except that I’m not learning piano or working out (I wish!); I’m just trying to get through each day of homeschooling, cooking and writing.

Hoping you are all doing as well as can be!