Most Overused Romance...

ZannaPerry · Jul 27, 2007

What do you think the most overused, always written about, romance storyline is?

I am curious because I am in the middle of writing my own romance novel, and I read a lot of romances, my type of books, and I wonder how I can make mine different from all the others. I know it's going to be hard but I'm willing to take a chance since this is my DREAM I'm talking about.

Anyone have any ideas? What romance book do you pick up, read the back, and think OH My Gawd! Not another romance like this one......

Sonarbabe · Jul 27, 2007

I read a lot of Harlequin Blaze stories--and by "a lot", I mean A LOT--and one of the themes that's beginning to wear a little thin for me is that either the hero or the heroine is an advertising. The first two or three books were great, but after a while I find myself thinking, Dude! There are hundreds of other professions your characters can have. Why THIS one? Maybe it's just me and I'm proving just how fussy a reader I really am. Then again, I'm also the same woman who wrote a story where the hero is a convict and the heroine meets him while they're incarcerated on a prison ranch. :Shrug:

That's just my $.02.

shakeysix · Jul 27, 2007

have the hate

on the one where the high minded heroine must spend the night in the same room, boat, castle keep, small cottage, desert isle with the rogue hero. he always assures her that her honor is safe with him, altho secretly she is lusting in her bloomers for him. and then she sleeps somewhere and he sleeps somewhere else and nothing happens. did you ever read "band of angels" by edna ferber? in that one hamish (think clark gable) just rapes the hell out of her. politically incorrect but refreshing--s6

PS--of course she IS his slave, so in that time and place it was legal. morally he knows it is wrong but can't help himself because he is in love with her. they just don't write them like that anymore. probably a good thing. -s6

sunandshadow · Jul 27, 2007

Don't know if you're interested in science fiction and fantasy, but to me a romance set in an original world is the only really unique kind of romance.

MerryDay · Jul 27, 2007

I really can't handle any more secret baby plots. Ever again. In both historicals and contemporaries, it has just been done to death! Though, that being said, Nobody's Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips put a great twist on this plot and it is now one of my favorite romances.

In historicals, you also see a lot of the "I hate this person I've never met because they did ____ to my family! But, I love you, mysterious person who coincidentally shows up in my life. Oh no! You're the same person? Cue a big misunderstanding." Also, getting very old. I will only put up with this plot if it is handled by a favorite author - Eloisa James, Julia Quinn, etc.

As for how to be original, I think it has a lot to do with the author's voice. If you are writing a smart, funny secret baby book...it will rise above the rest, because of the writing. Also, the great thing about the romance genre is that as long as you give your characters good motivation for their actions, you can get away with most plot-lines. If it's believable, or just plain interesting, you will hook the reader no matter what.

dolores haze · Jul 28, 2007

In historicals, I've totally had it with "the taming of the rake" storyline.
In contemporaries, I'm fed up with the storyline that hinges on a silly misunderstanding - the conflict that could be cleared up with one honest conversation is not much of a conflict, IMO.
That said, a fresh and original take on any tired old storyline is always welcome, and am totally willing to eat my words.
Good luck with "Obsessed".

Sassee · Jul 28, 2007

I don't think there *isn't* an overused storyline in romance. Although, there is something comforting about knowing what sort of story you're getting into. Occasionally I'll be like, you know, I want to read about two opposing people that give it up and get with each other despite (and sometimes in spite of) their differences.

Don't ask me though, my romances end up being dark urban fantasy.

ZannaPerry · Jul 28, 2007

I read a lot of religious cults, voodoo, murder, and mayhem type of books set in rundown towns, and of course with a romance mixed in the middle of everything going on. Those type of suspense romantics have really great stories, and their eerie and very, very haunting.

I think when you find an author you really like, you'll want to read a lot of her books. And I am finding in most books, by the same author, they tend to do their love scenes and the way they format a nothing-too-major of a scene in the same order. Does that make sense?

And thank you, dolores haze!!!

Chasing the Horizon · Jul 28, 2007

k_obsessed said:
What do you think the most overused, always written about, romance storyline is?

<snip>

Anyone have any ideas? What romance book do you pick up, read the back, and think OH My Gawd! Not another romance like this one......

It's not really a specific story line I'm sick of so much as certain types of characters. It seems like every recently-written romance I find has an alpha hero paired with a 'feisty' heroine. I am SO sick of this combination. There are thousands of possible personality combinations out there, use something, ANYTHING, else. Why not write a nice hero who's open with his feelings, or an alpha heroine who kicks major ass, or a sweet heroine who's not too proud to ask for the hero's help?

Seriously, give me some different kinds of characters and I won't care how often your plot has been done.

Tifferbugz · Jul 28, 2007

Hope To The Horizon said:
It's not really a specific story line I'm sick of so much as certain types of characters. It seems like every recently-written romance I find has an alpha hero paired with a 'feisty' heroine. I am SO sick of this combination. There are thousands of possible personality combinations out there, use something, ANYTHING, else. Why not write a nice hero who's open with his feelings, or an alpha heroine who kicks major ass, or a sweet heroine who's not too proud to ask for the hero's help?

Seriously, give me some different kinds of characters and I won't care how often your plot has been done.

I completely agree. I have stopped reading romances for a while because I was a tad sick of this combination. It just became too repetitive and it would be nice to have a little variety.

veinglory · Jul 28, 2007

Uptight women is humiliated by or in front of arrogant man who has to rescue her and loves him for it. I hate that one and it's very common.

MelodyO · Jul 28, 2007

MerryDay said:
"I hate this person I've never met because they did ____ to my family! But, I love you, mysterious person who coincidentally shows up in my life. Oh no! You're the same person? Cue a big misunderstanding."

Hahahaha! It's like Three's Company, but with angst!

I love this thread.

MMcC · Jul 29, 2007

Non-commoner commoners in disguise. That elitist bullshit is so over.

Why... nanny Imogene, you say you're not, in fact, a pauper of stunning beauty who must care for my children, but actually an heiress hiding from a dastardly plot? HOW CONVENIENT!

Why... James, you say you are NOT a humble stable hand but the son of a Duke who was disinherited but has nice, pure, blue blood... and an aunt who left you 4 thousand pounds a year and a big old estate? Q'ELLE SURPISE!

Why... Armando, you say you only have the swarthy, dark looks of a gypsy lad but are actually the Earl of Twadwattle in disguise, serenading me on this windswept moor? LET'S GET HITCHED!

People of means quite often married outside their station. It wasn't an every day occurance, but it happened. Oddly, the Regency period saw this in even greater numbers as Industry created new wealth... yet Regency writers seem most fond of this Dickensian model of "hidden royalty."

*puke*

It's like when some uncooth jackass shows up at a party and starts talking about how they are "descended from high kings" and "the progeny of ancient royalty." Really? Yet you're still a gigantic pratt. These same people tend to ask "are you part Irish/Indian/Scottish/Whatever?" They then announce all their fractions like anyone cares. "I'm one quarter THIS and half THAT and another quarter THIS."

Sorry, left my pedigree at home. Sire and Dam not on premises. I am not a frickin PeekaPoozer, LhasaPoo, or ShitzaPugaDoodle.

ZannaPerry · Jul 29, 2007

You know what I don't like now that I think about it....I don't like it when every romance novel has a happy ending. Yes, you may think your worse of me but have the hero killed, or sacrifice himself for the heroine. Something you wouldn't read in everyday romance novels. But then again, would those books be turned down because both characters didn't get to live happily ever after?

There needs to be a new spin on romance.

shakeysix · Jul 29, 2007

happy happy joy joy

i submitted a few pages of what i thought was romance to the syw board. turns out it can't be romance because the female character is not worthy of having a novel written about her. she is a cowgirl with an illgetimate baby who is on speaking terms with the married babydaddy. it does have a happy ending. she falls in love with the babydaddy's cousin. still not romance. but the way things happen out here in the boondocks. so what would you call the genre?--s6

Irysangel · Jul 29, 2007

k_obsessed said:
You know what I don't like now that I think about it....I don't like it when every romance novel has a happy ending. Yes, you may think your worse of me but have the hero killed, or sacrifice himself for the heroine. Something you wouldn't read in everyday romance novels. But then again, would those books be turned down because both characters didn't get to live happily ever after?

There needs to be a new spin on romance.

Ohmigosh, I would hate this!

I would cry buckets to follow the hero and heroine for 400 pages only to find someone killed off at the very end. I want the fairy-tale escape.

(And I hate to say it, but I love some of the cliches mentioned here...especially the 'trapped together' cliche. So the reason why they sell is because nerds like me love them. *g*)

shakeysix · Jul 29, 2007

heathcliffe and catherine earnshaw

a very famous couple who did not live happily ever after. and for good reason. he was insane and she was a wooss. and possibly they were half sibs. romeo and juliet? mark anthony and cleopatra?--hey, she left him facing the roman fleet, turned tail and ran. but they were good in bed. the list goes on. real life isn't happy but we get through it. sometimes i like reading fiction with an ambiguous ending. the reader must decide. like my own romance. he died but we didn't get divorced like so many of our friends. if it were written like a novel would it end happily or sadly? neither. it is life. --s6

dolores haze · Jul 29, 2007

I lurk a lot at the All About Romance forum. Mainly to eavesdrop on romance readers discussing what they like/don't like/are sick of/want more of. Has anyone visited this forum? Do you think the posters there are representative of romance readers, or are a very vocal minority?

Chumplet · Jul 29, 2007

If I see another title with the word "Sheik" in it, I think I'm gonna throw up, right there in the grocery store in front of the paperbacks.

veinglory · Jul 29, 2007

ditto 'highlander'

p.s. I have seen plenty of romances with single parents--maybe it was the way to was written that wasn't romance-like?

shakeysix · Jul 29, 2007

single parent

no--it was because the baby's father was in the picture. which is how every single parent saga i know of operates. joint custody and support ordered--s6

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Jul 29, 2007

I've got two of these 'different romances' under my belt and they've been tucked there for fifteen or so years. No one wanted 'em. Heroine wasn't heroine material. No 'happily ever after'. Too much sex. They didn't know what genre to put 'em in so they wouldn't put 'em anywhere. We may want to write 'different'... the readers may actually want to read 'different'... but publishers don't want to publish 'different'.

shakeysix · Jul 29, 2007

southern g.

it seems to me that breaking this genre thing will surely be half the battle. if i just knew where to send it. hell i was even toying with PA before i started reading about it--s6

kristie911 · Jul 29, 2007

Irysangel said:
(And I hate to say it, but I love some of the cliches mentioned here...especially the 'trapped together' cliche. So the reason why they sell is because nerds like me love them. *g*)

You're not the only one!

And I'm a sucker for the "female in trouble, hot cop helps her out" scenerio. Provided she's not a complete twit. Dumb girls never work for me. Nor do super Alpha males. Just a normal guy is fine, thanks.

I think that's probably why I absolutely love Iris Johansen's novels...her females are tough and smart and the guys usually have just enough toughness or angst to make them interesting but they're not completely asswipes.

MerryDay · Jul 29, 2007

I totally agree about "highlanders" and "sheiks" being way overused in titles...can we go ahead and ban all "scotsmen" and "courtesans" too?

Most Overused Romance...

^ Just Me & a Sharpie

Working In A Coal Mine...

blue eyed floozy

Impractical Fantasy Animal

international guttersnipe

Momma Wolf

^ Just Me & a Sharpie

Blowing in the Wind

Doing Pirate things...

volitare nequeo

Waiting for love on the web

^ Just Me & a Sharpie

blue eyed floozy

She of Many Names

blue eyed floozy

international guttersnipe

This hat is getting too hot

volitare nequeo

blue eyed floozy

Hand? What hand?

blue eyed floozy

Happy to be here