Interview: Billy Mernit of Living the Romantic Comedy

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I'm pleased to present The Post Pub's first author-blogger interview and spotlight:  Billy Mernit.

Billy is the blogger behind Living the Romantic Comedy.  By day he's a UCLA writing instructor, a story analyst at Universal and a private script consultant.  He is also the author of the screenwriting how-to classic Writing the Romantic Comedy and the novel Imagine Me and You, to be published by Random House (Shaye Areheart) in April 2008.

I selected Billy as the premiere interview for the site because he treats blogging as a craft. On Living the Rom Com (as insiders refer to it), he consistently delivers thought-provoking essays in the spirit of film and cultural critics like David Denby and Maureen Dowd.  His focus:  contemporary and classic films, books, cultural trends, the writing craft, and dating, all seen through the lens of that genre we call "romantic comedy".

Keep reading to view his tips to newbie bloggers about finding a focus and building an audience.

On to the interview:

How long have you been blogging?

Nearly 2 and a half years.  I started in June of 2005.

What got you interested in starting your own blog, Living the Romantic Comedy?

There was a lot of it going around. I felt like I was already late to an ongoing party.  Others writers spoke of having blogs as if it was an obvious necessity, like a cyber-business card: Here are my loafers and this is my blog.