Bianca Gillam on writing about difficult subjects in rom-coms

Writing a rom-com is a delicate balance.

You want your characters to feel well-rounded, the storyline to be full of pace & passion, and ultimately there to be a huge payoff for all involved.

But what of the deeper themes?

Lately there’s been a trend – especially on BookTok – of readers wanting more from their books than before. They want to laugh and also cry. They want to experience emotions with the characters they read about. They want to go on a journey – not just of watching two people fall in love, but watching the main characters experiencing real and tangible growth, which can apply to their own life.

Such was my experience writing my debut novel, Bad Publicity. It’s romantic, and (I hope) funny, and contains many of the tropes of classic rom-coms. One hotel room, car breaking down, enemies-to-lovers. I poured my love of the genre into this book. But what drew me to writing it, too, was that I felt like I had something to say: a journey of growth that I needed to go on, myself. And so my character, Andie, appeared in my mind, took my hand, and went on it with me.

And this experience got me thinking about the power of the rom-com generally. These are books people reach for when they need a lift: when they are in the hospital waiting for news about a friend or a relative. When they are having a bad day, and want to be reminded that there’s hope. When they’re lonely, and want to feel like they have some company (see also, me as a teenager reading Sarah Dessen under the desk at school). Because the characters are going through it, sometimes, too. But they persevere: they overcome. At the end of the day, they always find themselves opening up to love. No matter what.

Writing my book certainly helped me: to alchemise what I was feeling. To put it somewhere safe. To find the light in the dark grey I was experiencing. In the same way reading these books helps countless others, too.

And so you’ll never catch me entertaining an argument about the relative value of certain books compared to others. Because a literary novel has a place. And rom-coms (clearly, due to their huge popularity) have a place, too. A very important one.

They show us the light, when we need it. They show us that it’s okay to laugh, it’s okay to find the funny side of our grief.

They show us that, no matter what, we have love. We have hope.

And what better lesson for life, generally?

Bad Publicity is published by Bloomsbury on 27 February 2025