I enjoy reading and writing romance because the search for romance is, quite simply, the most important event of our adult lives – far more important, for example, than the search for a successful career. So romantic books reflect this profound obsession, which the vast majority of us have, with finding someone to love, and to be loved by. So there really isn’t much else to write about in my view. It is natural for us, as humans, to want to attach ourselves to another person in a profound and enduring way – to share our genes with them, even - and this is the theme that romantic novels articulate.

I think readers love romantic comedies because they recognise that the search for love is very funny, because we can all behave in an absurd way when we’re in love. We transform ourselves by losing weight, or buying smart new clothes; we devise strategies to put ourselves in the way of the person we love; we agonise about whether or not they return our feelings, and bore our friends rigid with our anxieties; we get wildly jealous if we think that the person we love may be more attracted to someone else; we make ourselves miserable – and often humiliate ourselves - when it goes wrong, and are overjoyed and ecstatic when it goes right. 

In other words we behave in a way quite different from how we normally behave when not ‘in love’, and this transformation is comical, and we can all identify with it – the excitement and disappointment – the ridiculousness of it. So we’re not just laughing at the hero or heroines of a romantic comedy – what we’re doing is enjoying laughing at ourselves.

My first novel, ‘The Trials of Tiffany Trott’, which was based on a newspaper column I had in the ‘Daily Telegraph’ newspaper, was a comic odyssey through the singles scene. The Telegraph editor wanted someone to write about the dating industry from the inside, undercover, in a funny and also poignant way, and to report back from the front line, as it were. 

So I had to go on blind dates, and singles holidays, and meet guys through the personals, etc. This naturally lent itself to being written in the first person, because it had a ‘confessional’ feel to it. But then when it came to writing my second novel, ‘Making Minty Malone’, I felt that I wanted to write that one in the first person too, because by then I had worked out that in the first person you can create a wonderful intimacy between the main character and the reader – as though the reader is a close friend, in whom she is confiding. 

This draws the reader right into the story. You also get a lot more psychological detail in the first person – and more depth of feeling. There is also far more scope for humour – particularly irony – as the reader realises that there is a gap between what the heroine is saying, and what seems to be the case. The heroine is making mistakes and misjudgments – in my novels she usually lacks self-awareness to start with - and so the reader then has the pleasure of working it all out ahead of her – getting there before she does - and this, I think, is very nice for the reader. It’s a more generous way to tell a story. Plus readers are very intelligent and do not need to have everything explained to them by an omniscient third person narrator.

With a first person story, the characters hang themselves – they display their mistakes/weaknesses and the reader judges them accordingly. I also think the first person narrative particularly suits romantic comedies, where the heroine is flawed (although she must remain sympathetic). She makes lots of mistakes – which makes her funny, but also a bit sad. To me the best romantic comedies have that blend of humour and pathos, which is what people kindly say my own books display. It is certainly what I am trying to achieve. 

I have now written six novels, and they are all in the first person, and I suppose I have become addicted to that narrative style, because it suits my kinds of stories, and my own temperament. The best comedies have a thread of darkness and sadness running through them, and this makes the comedy shine out even more.

Drawbacks to writing in first person

So those, then, are the advantages of the first person narrative, but there are drawbacks too. Firstly, because they are, in a sense, false autobiographies, narrated in confessional style, the readers may think that it must have all happened to you as the writer! At first this used to worry me. I worried that people would think that I had been jilted at the altar, like Minty (I hadn’t, luckily!), or that I had married at 20, like Faith, in ‘Out of the Blue’, or that I was adopted, like Rose, in ‘Rescuing Rose’, or had been involved with an animal rights movement in my teens, like Miranda, the heroine of my fifth novel, ‘Behaving Badly’. I hadn’t done any of those things. But now I no longer think about that aspect of it – I’m simply writing fiction – and these are simply stories with which I am trying to entertain, divert and uplift my readers.

The other drawback about the first person narrative, from a technical point of view, is of course the problem of perspective. The reader can only see what the heroine sees – as the action is viewed only through her eyes. So although the third person narrative would undoubtedly be liberating in many ways - having a ‘God’s eye’ view of the action would make life easier – I feel that I would lose too much, in terms of that lovely rapport between my heroines and the reader – the cosiness of it. Quite often my heroines will actually address the reader direct, by saying, for example, ‘now, I know what you’re thinking…’ or ‘Well, what would you have done if you were me?’ I would also lose, as I say, the scope for irony and humour that I feel is essential to my novels.

How does a writer effectively incorporate humour and drama to create a compelling story?

It’s a matter of tone and taste. What you want to achieve above all, is a page-turning story, and a one which has texture. So that in between the reflective parts of it where the heroine is confiding her worries/hopes/happiness there is also a lot of action, as that is entertaining. 

There are different kinds of action – there is the straightforward action - boyfriends running off/mothers-in-law turning up/girlfriends ringing up with some exciting/interesting piece of news; but I also put in a lot of dramatic ‘set pieces’ – charity balls, dinner parties, weddings, etc. as these are fun to read – they’re something a bit out of the ordinary. But because my books are comic, I make many of these set pieces funny – for example, in ‘Behaving Badly’, which is about a pet shrink, there is a canine karaoke competition and a ‘Pet Slimmer of the Year’ award ceremony; in Tiffany Trott, there’s a coconut throwing competition (at Club Med) and a birthing scene in which Tiffany is the rather squeamish birthing partner to her single girlfriend; in ‘Rescuing Rose’ there’s an art-themed charity ball where everyone has to go dressed as their favourite work of art; and a scene where Rose goes to a ‘star-party’; ‘Making Minty Malone’ opens with a wedding which goes catastrophically, outrageously wrong. So what I’m trying to do is to make the set pieces humorous as well as dramatic.

Animals in Isabel's books

I also put a lot of animals in my books as I love the relationship between humans and their pets – it tells us so much about who we are, and is both humorous and also very touching. The way people invest so much emotion in their pets. The relationships they have with them. The way they often pamper them to an absurd degree. 

Again, I try and make the animal element of my stories funny, so in ‘Rescuing Rose’ Rose has a pet mynah bird – a wedding present – which does not speak, until she gets divorced, at which point it starts regurgitating all the terrible rows and fights she had with her estranged husband – hugely to her embarrassment. Rose also has a neighbour, Beverley, who is in a wheelchair, and has a wonderful service dog, called Trevor, who looks after her, does the washing for her, goes to the shops, etc. – and this is both funny, and touching, as Rose – who has not been a great wife – learns from the dog how to be a really good partner. 

In ‘Making Minty Malone’, Minty’s cousin, Amber, who has never wanted children, adopts a little stray cat – which then becomes pregnant – and the business of helping it give birth to its kittens, transforms her attitude to childbirth. So, in addition to making the animals a comic element, they are also a transforming element in the lives of the main characters. They have a profound psychological impact on their owners/careers.

Isabel Wolff -2 (Continue)