I’m allergic to the word banter but will allow it when it comes from the mouth of Emily Henry. Number one, she’s American so it immediately sounds quaint as opposed to its “lads, lads, lads” British incarnation. Number two, Henry is a genius of the romantic comedy genre who is able to write the hell out of delightfully snappy dialogue (otherwise know as b - - - - - ).
The New York Times bestselling author published four YA books before releasing her first rom com, Beach Read, in 2020. Henry writes crushingly romantic books charged with longing and sexual chemistry. My favourite of hers is People We Meet On Vacation, though my copy is called You And Me On Vacation. I can’t remember why it has two names. I think one is the US name and the other is UK. Anyway, call me back when you’ve found a more pleasurable way to spend a few hours.
In Henry’s books, there is a playful, knowing nod to the archetypes of the rom com: enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, rewarding jobs in publishing, uptight, ambitious but ultimately lovable New York women and brooding-but-devastatingly-charming love interests.
"If I'm the archetypical City Person, he is the Dour, Unappeasable Stick-in-the-Mud. He's the Growly Misanthrope, Oscar the Grouch, second-act Heathcliff, the worst parts of Mr. Knightley."
You know on page 4 how this will end but will greedily tear through 373 pages to see how it ends. I will never truly understand this alchemy but I am here for it every time.
I spoke to Henry last week and it was really interesting to hear about how she writes such compelling chemistry, trying not to repeat herself in her work and the secret to getting sex scenes right. And in true In Case You Missed It style, she shares some excellent recommendations too. Hope you enjoy!
A few years ago, I was in a season of a lot of anxiety, stress and depression. I wanted to write something that would just make me feel really good and pull me out of the real world. That’s when I wrote Beach Read, my first book in the rom com genre. That was such a good experience for me. I didn’t even have plans to try and sell it but there was this renaissance of rom coms and I told my agent, “Oh yeah, I wrote one of these a couple of years ago”. We sold it and it happened to come out just as the pandemic was getting going so I think the need for that kind of story was probably greater than it has been for some time. I normally gravitate towards darker subject matter but it’s really nice to have something that may have darker themes but overall is about feeling really good.
When writing is going well, it’s as gratifying to write as it is to read. When I put out Beach Read, there were no expectations and it really was just this little book that I made in a vacuum. Now that I’m lucky enough to have such wonderful and voracious readers, there’s a lot more pressure. It's becoming harder work as I take in all the excitement from my readers and really try to honour that.
Every single time I sit down to write a new book, I feel I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m writing a book at the moment that will hopefully be out next summer. I always hit similar points of, “Oh, this is going to be the book that doesn’t work.” I definitely experienced that with my latest, Book Lovers. In earlier drafts, I didn’t think it was that funny and part of that was that I hadn’t really nailed down Charlie’s character and the banter wasn’t as good as it could be. When he finally made sense to me, it changed the whole book. Finding the characters is always the biggest click for me, when I finally understand how they would interact in any scenario, how they talk to each other, how they joke.
Explaining how I write chemistry is the thing I want to bottle because it’s the thing I get asked about the most. It’s really the only thing that I feel comes somewhat naturally to me, everything else is a struggle. I watch a lot of TV so when I’m writing dialogue, I’m always thinking about how it will actually sound. A lot of the time, when we’re writing by ourselves in our offices, you’re not hearing it enough to understand if it’s going to sound the way you think it is. Sometimes a joke is simply too long or not working and you need to re-write it until it’s funny. Reading aloud is essential for dialogue.
It’s weird because in some real-life conversations, I’ll be thinking, I’m being so boring and I have no idea how to fix this, I never want to hear myself speak again. But when you meet someone you have that natural chemistry with, that is the most exciting feeling. It makes you your funniest, smartest self. That’s why I’m always writing couples who are really good at that banter with each other. It makes everyone feel good to feel that they are funny, that they are nailing that conversation. You need that sense that these two people aren’t perfect, they definitely have their faults, but that somehow only the two of them could be together. These two weirdos are perfect for each other. That's exciting as a reader and a writer. I think for fiction in general, specificity is the thing that always works best for me a reader so as a writer, I’m always trying to tap into that.
It is very different writing a sex scene when you’re writing a book for fun than when you know hundreds of thousands of people, among them your parents and grandparents, will be reading. While I’m writing sex scenes, I really have to convince myself that no one will be reading them. Then in later drafts, I’ll allow myself to get a little more self-conscious and tweak and trim. I do tend to write them more quickly because I’m trying not to over-think or worry about how other people will receive it and just be true to the characters.
I rarely read anything I’ve written once it’s published. Every once in a while, I’ll skim through a couple of paragraphs out of curiosity but I really feel like I have no memory of anything I’ve written. It’s hard to look back at something you made and not see all the ways you’d do it differently. My editor is really good at noticing when I’m repeating jokes. I’ll think that I’m writing a joke for the first time and she’ll say, “I think we have some iteration of this in every book.” She once noticed that I kept making references to cocaine in every book and was like, “You really love your cocaine jokes.” and I said, “That’s funny, I’ve never even tried cocaine,” but for some reason I liked to insert these jokes.
For historical romance, I’m constantly recommending Sherry Thomas’, The Luckiest Lady in London. It’s the sexiest, most angsty romance ever. Sherry is a fantastic writer and all of her books are so good on a plot and character level but the writing is really wonderful and it feels like everything about this book is just a little bit better than it really needs to be. She's fantastic.
An upcoming book that I’m really excited for everyone to read is Thank You For Listening by Julia Whalen. She’s an award-winning audio book narrator and novelist and this book is a love story between audio book narrators so it’s very meta which I’m clearly a fan of. She's a very funny, phenomenal writer.
Emma Straub’s This Time Tomorrow is the kind of book that makes you want to live better which is rare. It’s funny and sweet and Emma is a really good writer in terms of emotion but it’s also this love letter to New York City and the father/daughter relationship in it is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever read.
When I want a rom com fix, I read Mhairi McFarlane. Her publisher sent me one of her books and I read it in one sitting and was obsessed. I immediately downloaded every single one of her books on my Kindle and read them back to back. It’s the best thing in the world when you discover someone that far into their career and you don’t have to wait for another book.
When we’re making dinner, my husband and I will often listen to Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend. He interviews various comedians and actors. It’s really just listening to funny people interrupt each other a lot which is a good dinner-making soundtrack.
I’m a before bed reader and I usually have two books going at the same time. I’ll have something darker and meatier like a thriller or a mystery and I will switch over to a historical or contemporary romance on my Kindle and read a few pages to send me off to sleep in a state of bliss. I don’t do a ton of reading when I’m really deep into a draft because I’m mostly just working. When you’re writing a book, you don’t want become too invested in another book because you might end up writing fan fiction for it. But when I turn a book in, I’ll read a book a day for a couple of weeks.
It’s probably a good thing that sometimes my friends steal the books I lend out. My bookshelves are triple stacked. I wasn’t a prolific re-reader before but I have become one. With the world in chaos, it’s really comforting to know what you’re picking up.