5 Things Writers Can Do to Add Comedy to Their Novels
Hey, I’m Melissa. I’ve been writing sweet romantic comedies in the vein of You’ve Got Mail beneath the umbrella of HarperCollins since 2018, and after six standalone novels (Meet Me in the Margins, The Perfect Rom-Com releasing in February), two novellas (On the Way to Christmas, This Time Around), one children’s book (Our Friendly Farmhouse), and two more rom-coms hiding on my laptop to be published in 2026-2027, I have spent a lot of time focused on what makes people laugh.
(Starting Your Romance Off With a Bang.)
Here are five easy things to consider when wanting to lighten the mood in your novels, in whatever genre you are.
#1: Whenever things start to feel intense in a scene, step back and purposefully add a comedic side character or comment.
There are probably going to be intense scenes in your novels in whatever genre you write. People get cancer. People die. Go to funerals. Face infertility, heartbreak, etc. After all, this is a novel, and you must have some conflict to overcome.
But a very, very easy thing to remember when trying to keep your books from getting too intense is to split a surprisingly humorous person or comment in those deepest, hardest scenes. It feels personal anti-intuitive, but that’s what’s so important. It breaks the spell for readers when their hearts are aching. It helps them take a breath and chuckle and remember we are okay before diving into the book again.
It happens all the time in movies and sitcoms. It’s like an opening scene in New Girl when Nick walks in to say his father just died (huge and shocking sadness for a sitcom) and the reaction was that Jess and the roommates had just been inhaling helium so their voices were like humorous munchkins as they came in for a hug. Think: comedic relief.
#2: This is not only a very simple hack but a rather practical one for you the writer as well: Give nicknames to random characters in a scene.
Capitalize them. It not only helps you keep it clear who you are referring to, but it does so in a casual, slightly humorous way. I just finished a scene in Without a Clue (a murder mystery rom-com I’m finishing up for 2026) and one of the initial villains in a scene became labeled Pineapple Trunk Man (due to his swim trunks).
I’d be careful not to overdo this in books and face the consequence of the law of diminishing returns, but every once in a while it’s nice. It keeps the scene bouncy and fun.
#3: Use the side character.
I always have comedic side characters in my books. Always. At least one. You need them. In my opinion, they are the true stars of the show.
In my February release, The Perfect Rom-Com (titled so for SEO value and the protagonist’s aspiring task), the lovable and comedic side characters are her adult immigrant and refugee ESL students. As you can imagine (and I, given I used to be an adult ESL teacher to many), Bryony Page teaching adult men and women from around the globe with all their clashing cultures and worldviews has a lot of potential when done right (as in, don’t get political).
Creating a lovable and highly quirky cast of characters to infuse into romantic scenes helped keep the scenes themselves both funny, romantic, and fun.
#4: Surprise people.
Aristotle is known for saying, “The secret to humor is surprise.”
Obviously it’s a bit more too, but there is some real truth there. Spring in surprise in your dialogue. Want to be the king/queen of humor? Have a surprising second layer to your jokes. A sudden, unexpected and innocent twist that makes people laugh.
#5: And last and quite simple, use terrible grammar.
(See the tiny little tongue-in-cheek moment there, when you didn’t expect me to write that?)
But truly. I once had an editor continuously pull out my sentences, rewrite it all according to her often-cited Chicago Manual of Style, and put it back in. I had to talk to my main editor about it (which we agreed wasn’t supposed to happen) and manually go over and fix it line by line. Why? Because I’m not writing a dissertation. I’ve been through a Master’s degree at seminary, and there’s a reason nobody checks out people’s dissertations for kicks and giggles.
You can add a lot of humor with italics. You can add a lot of punch by chopping your sentences up. Just. Like. This. You can even yell DON’T MESS WITH MY MANUSCRIPT, CRADY LADY in all caps (*cue shock in a grad school) and it all works together to keep your scenes light, airy, funny, and real. It’s very fun to write too.
So that’s it.
Go forth and write hilarity into your novels.
I look forward to it.
Check out Melissa Ferguson’s The Perfect Rom-Com here:
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