WRITING OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE

Title: CHASING RAINBOWS, a romantic comedy novella in A VALENTINE'S ANTHOLOGY from Rogue's Angels

Author: Genene Valleau, aka Genie Gabriel, aka Amber Angel :)

Book heat level: 2

I've written three romantic comedy novellas--the third one is scheduled for release in May 2013--and I have to confess, writing comedy is more difficult for me than the more dramatic stories in my Halo Legacy Series. 

CHASING RAINBOWS was drafted during a dark time in my life. I was tired of wallowing and my therapy was throwing every funny thing I could think of into a document on my computer. The result was 60,000 words of very rough story and a much better attitude for me. Then I went on to sell three more dramatic novels.

When Christine Young offered the chance to write a novella as part of an anthology and suggested CHASING RAINBOWS, I hesitated. When I pulled out the draft story and reread it, I hesitated even more. First of all, it would need to be cut almost in half to meet the word count of a novella. Secondly, I had grown a lot as a writer since I wrote the draft, and this story would need major overhauls in point of view and strengthening motivation. But I liked the concept and still thought the characters were funny. So I took several deep breaths and and chopped my way to a leaner story with a much better structure. Whew!

The second romantic comedy went better. One of my critique partners suggested reprising the characters from CHASING RAINBOWS and, with that in mind, ST. BATZY AND THE TIME MACHINE was created and published as part of the anthology, A ST. PATRICK'S DAY TALE. 

My third romantic comedy novella is scheduled for release in May 2013 as part of an anthology of stories centering around May Day. This story was tougher to write because I had been intensely writing dramatic stories for over a year. Unexpectedly, switching gears to comedy took some time! The story is currently being critiqued, so I'll soon see if the humor holds up. 

Who knew it would be so tough to find a laugh?

Do you have a favorite type of humor--slapstick? Dry humor? Subtle humor?