Screenwriting and the art and magic of romantic comedy escapism (Texas and Hollywood, present-day): Hot pink. The color of the page edges of The Rom-Commers, Katherine Center’s newest rom-com that will make you feel the “magic of being alive.” The book she says she was “put on this earth to write.” Hot pink announcing that.
We’re more familiar with the rich gilt edges of deluxe editions, often classics. Colorful edges, the publishing industry refers to as “sprayed edges,” or “spredges,” not so much. Apparently around for centuries as special/limited/collector’s editions and bookseller exclusives. Recently, spraying colors (and designs) on page edges has moved into the mainstream. If you’re not a romantic fantasy (romantasy) reader, you might not have seen these eye-catching aesthetics. Which means that even the physical hardback release of The Rom-Commers is a total surprise and delight. The artistic tone stretches into the front and back endpapers, with lively shades of pleasing greens – the split-leaves of the philodendron plant, nicknamed “swiss cheese” – bookending the spirit and pleasures of the winning story contained within.
If you’re like Charlie Yates – the male pair of screenwriters in this ought-to-be-hot-off-the-shelves rom-com – you look down on the genre as cheesy, corny. Center’s zany, entertaining, love-starved duo that’s also quite witty – as in smiles line after line and some laugh–out-loud hysterical lines – is a force that could change attitudes towards the genre with her sense of timing, relentless, clever repartee, and delivery of meaningful life lessons.
When Emma Wheeler agrees to work with Charlie to teach him what makes and how-to write a great rom-com screenplay she becomes Center’s passionate-for-the-genre surrogate.
The conflict and fun kicks off with: Why would the legendary screenwriter whose won every award Hollywood bestows need a “failed” screenwriter to teach him anything?
Once the two begin working together, the sexual tension builds:
“What the hell are you wearing?” . . . “You’re practically naked.”
“I am not naked. I’m wearing a swimsuit. To go swimming.”
“Under it, I mean. You’re naked.”
“That’s not news. Everyone is naked under everything.”
“I’m not complaining” . . . “That’s just a lot of arms and legs.”
“What am I supposed to wear? An eighteenth-century bathing costume?”
“Maybe just go back to bed? Problem solved.”
“You can’t be this skittish about a one-piece Speedo.”
“I haven’t been around a live woman in a long time.”
“That’s not my fault.”
Successful screenwriting means your work is scooped up for movie adaptations. Center, the “reigning queen of comfort reads,” may remind you of her counterpart, the “reigning queen of rom-coms” in film Julia Roberts, if you’re counting box office sales and starting with her 1990 movie Pretty Woman with Richard Gere.
The novel and the movie seek to “maximize joy when it fluttered into your life.” Both men – Charlie and Edward (Gere) are “too cool to play by the rules.” Both are wealthy, and rather good-looking. Charlie we imagine as more fetching (and older) than the guy on the cover, more Richard Gere-like, although he does dress like him.
Other similarities: both men have hired a woman in their high-and-mighty perception they’re of a lesser class than them. Emma for writing two screenplays that never saw the light of movie days, and Vivian (Julia Roberts) an “escort.” Both hired to make these men look good. Emma for a night at $5,000; Vivian for $3,000 a week. They both will dress up in a red gown. Vivian’s to play the part; Emma to get Charlie’s attention.
Edward discovers he can’t resist a vivacious woman who makes him come alive. Charlie will too but he runs cold, then hot, then pulls away, while both women are experiencing romantic feelings towards these different men. Edward acts suave, Charlie like a recluse. The women they’re dismissive of won’t compromise their dignity and pride, though they will endeavor to wake these men up to reach the “happy ending.” Which isn’t a spoiler because that’s what you expect of rom-coms. In fact, that’s what Emma teaches, among so many other craft elements aspiring rom-com writers should make note of, learning from a pro. Fans of rom-coms will be validated as to why the genre works so well emotionally and memorably.
Logan is the matchmaker. He’s Charlie’s manager; Emma’s too, and her ex-boyfriend. He knows Charlie is Emma’s “writing god” – the “world’s most beloved superstar screenwriter” whose words are often quoted. Words Emma loves playing around with; so did Charlie the “king of mojo” until his lost his.
Emma flies from her home in Texas (where Center lives) to LA’s Hollywood Hills having been led to believe Charlie is waiting for her to help him re-write what she calls a literary “crime against humanity.” Charlie, who didn’t know she was coming, rejects needing anyone to tell him how to write. Certainly not a “nobody.” Ouch! Even after Logan pitches in earshot of Emma: “you’ll never meet another writer who knows more about rom-coms. She’s obsessed. And she’s got nothing else in her life. No relationship. No kids. Nothing at all . . . . Imaginary love is the only thing she’s got.” Ouch again!
Emma refuses to be the target of such heartlessness, especially after making a momentous decision to let her twenty-two-year-old younger sister Sylvie care for her father, having been his sole caregiver for the past ten years since he was forty-five and she was graduating high school. Essentially she stopped living for herself, so Logan’s harsh comments ring true. Her father will teach her – and remind us – that if you can choose “how you want to live your life” then do it the best you can. Channeling: write the best darn rom-com. Don’t settle for less.
“ASTONISHING, REALLY – HOW a five-thousand-dollar paper check can perk a girl up,” Emma says when she decides to help Charlie for one night that turns into six weeks. Soon she’ll discover her challenge is bigger than she thought. How can you write about love when you don’t believe in it?
Along the way, you’ll learn Emma was a former competitive swimmer and why Charlie is deathly afraid of the swimming pool at the back of his mansion with a high-diving board; how “grapevine-ing” and the Canadian Stomp fits into the plot; there’s a full range of kisses we didn’t know about like the “waterfall kiss,” “rooftop kiss,” and the “in-front-of-a whole-stadium kiss”; and meet a pet guinea pig named Cuthbert who belongs to Charlie’s ex-wife. Not just any pig. He’s a “Peruvian long hair.”
What Charlie does admit to early on is he’s read Emma’s “stuff.” That’s when he makes up his mind he “wanted to work with you. And I haven’t wanted anything – anything at all – in a very, very long time.” You’ll be gobbling up the pages to find out why.
There’s more than fun and romance going on. It will touch you, surprise you, make-you-jump-for-joy, and might bring you to tears. Wisdom and true love don’t get much better.
Lorraine