Favorite plot events?

sunandshadow · Jan 30, 2009

What are some of your favorite plot events to see happen in any romance novel? For example:
- A masquerade ball occurs
- A character suffers a bout of clumsiness (trips, falls out of a tree, gets all muddy, etc.)
- Someone gets drunk
- One character tends the other's wounds or illness
- A wager with alarming consequences is made
- Two characters act extremely stubborn toward each other

Alpha Echo · Jan 30, 2009

Those are all cliches. I'm not crazy about any of them, unless the characters are unique and interesting or the POV is interesting. But if I had to choose out of those...I'd say the clumsiness. If written correctly, it can be so funny.

The stubberness between two characters always annoys me because it seems to last too long. By the time they finally swallow their pride, I'm sick of it.

There's nothing i can think of that I prefer or would call my "favorite." As long as the characters are great...and it's written well...I'm happy.

sunandshadow · Jan 30, 2009

Personally I'd say they're not specific enough to be cliches - stock events maybe, but they might come across as totally cliche or totally not depending on the details the writer chose. I'd say most events in most stories, romance or otherwise, are predictable from the setting and genre. It's just their unique details that makes them interesting. At any rate I'm asking because I'm trying to brainstorm some that have the potential to be really fun to write so I can use them to fill in gaps in a plot outline.

Alpha Echo · Jan 30, 2009

Hmmm.... in that case...

I love it when the ending isn't happy. Does that count? When two people meet and fall in love, but for some reason the circumstances, the timing...wasn't right.

Sometimes, admittedly, I'm a sucker for a hero who is confident and macho going after the heroine who thinks she's too strong to be suckered by his confidence.

Does that help at all? Probably not, but my friend Jack is beginning to set in...

Gillhoughly · Jan 30, 2009

I've used a masquerade ball in two books, but neither were romances, though fun stuff happened.

It's never occurred to me to use the other five devices to move things along or as obstacles to place in the way of a HEA. My characters have other things on their mind than muddy clothes, getting sick, making sucker bets, or being stubborn.

I DID have one guy getting blind drunk, but his friends cheerfully sobered him up. He didn't like it one bit, and it made for a grimly funny scene.

I based it on a hangover I suffered nine years ago and never forgot--and never repeated!

Deb Kinnard · Jan 31, 2009

My favorite plot point, though I haven't used it often, is the innocent choice that goes bad. Given different circumstances, events might not have spiraled out of control, but that isn't what happens. It's tough to write well, so that's why I say I haven't done it much. The chance meeting that ends up in an unwanted encounter. The lightly made choice that turns out to have repercussions the individual could never foresee. The major decision not thought through well enough, that ends in disaster...

You get my drift.

Favorite plot events?

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal

Alpha Echo

I should be writing.

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal

Alpha Echo

I should be writing.

Gillhoughly

Grumpy writer and editor

Deb Kinnard