Romance Tropes for Stories!

Trope-O-Rama here: http://www.mindyklasky.com/index.php/for-writers/romance-tropes/

Bubastes said:

Trope-O-Rama here: http://www.mindyklasky.com/index.php/for-writers/romance-tropes/

Click to expand...

Nice! I'm doing "accidental pregnancy" at the moment. I've actually been attacked and told I suck for doing this, but I don't care. There's a reason stories about pregnancy and babies are told over and over again. Same with the other tropes. People love them--myself included.

andiwrite said:

Nice! I'm doing "accidental pregnancy" at the moment. I've actually been attacked and told I suck for doing this, but I don't care. There's a reason stories about pregnancy and babies are told over and over again. Same with the other tropes. People love them--myself included.

Click to expand...

There are vocal people who hate the trope.

I have read some beautiful emotional stories using the trope that I enjoyed. There are ways you can make it happen without the heroine having been stupid.

Oh, wow! I love many of those tropes! The problem is, I tend to be picky about the writers' execution of certain tropes...

Ooh, some more tropes-like stuff can obviously can be found in the time-sink that is TVtropes:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RomanceNovelTropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RomanceNovelPlots

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RomanceArc

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LoveTropes

ETA: There are also those badly done romance novels/tropes, particularly older romance novels or just terrible romance novels:
http://www.themarysue.com/tropes-of-love/

These I dread the most, especially with certain genres, like paranormal, because of forced magic sex or uncontrollable wild werewolf/vampire sex, etc.... (I get to the point of avoiding most paranormal romances because of that kind of thing.) The power imbalance of the genders bothers me soo much, and it's the biggest reason why I'm super-ultra picky about m/f romances (and some m/m romances).

Love the tropes link! Pretty funny to see them all laid out like that.

I dont know if its what your looking for but i had a buddy who rear ended a girls car at a stop light (slow speed) just so he could meet her. They did start dating but only lasted about 6 months. His brother however ended up getting married to her best friend. Had the 'accident' not happened they may have never met. That was 25 years ago,theyre still married and have 3 kids.

How about the "everybody's running from something/somebody/themselves" trope? He's fleeing from bounty hunters, she's fleeing from the men who've killed "everybody she's ever loved", they accidentally both flee to her uncle's ranch. Wackiness ensues.

Hate to go off subject but I was reading this post and now I have to ask what is a trope??? Is it another word for a short story?

Sorry in advance if that is a stupid question lol

Carrie Lyn said:

Hate to go off subject but I was reading this post and now I have to ask what is a trope??? Is it another word for a short story?

Sorry in advance if that is a stupid question lol

Click to expand...

Um, I don't know how to explain it. It's kind of...like cliches, but not really. More like story patterns or common elements that form a pattern, I guess? Like, secret baby plots or love triangle elements, or good girl tames bad boy plot, etc.

Here's a tv tropes article about tropes (a very addicting site):
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Trope

"Above all, a trope is a convention. It can be a plot trick, a setup, a narrative structure, a character type, a linguistic idiom... you know it when you see it. Tropes are not inherently disruptive to a story; however, when the trope itself becomes intrusive, distracting the viewer rather than serving as shorthand, it has become a cliché."

Click to expand...

bunny-gypsy said:

Um, I don't know how to explain it. It's kind of...like cliches, but not really. More like story patterns or common elements that form a pattern, I guess? Like, secret baby plots or love triangle elements, or good girl tames bad boy plot, etc.

Here's a tv tropes article about tropes (a very addicting site):
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Trope

Click to expand...

Thanks, I get it now... I think Just never knew there was a specific word for it other than cliche or overused plot. Would the boss and the secretary storyline fall into this? I know, thats an old one but the first one that popped into my head.

bunny-gypsy said:

ETA: There are also those badly done romance novels/tropes, particularly older romance novels or just terrible romance novels:
http://www.themarysue.com/tropes-of-love/

Click to expand...

Thanks for that link! I enjoyed the article, and sadly, I've seen these tripes - er, tropes, in plenty of more recent novels too. I read one where the hero quietly and calmly crept up to the heroine while she was having a bath and forced her head under water until she lost consciousness. He never apologized for it, she never seemed bothered.

Marian Perera said:

I read one where the hero quietly and calmly crept up to the heroine while she was having a bath and forced her head under water until she lost consciousness. He never apologized for it, she never seemed bothered.

Click to expand...

Um. Wut?

StoryofWoe said:

Um. Wut?

Click to expand...

Anne Stuart, Ice Blue.

The whole premise of the series is that these stone-cold killers start out planning to murder innocent women, but end up falling in love. Except the bathtub scene was far too reminiscent of the Brides in the Bath murders for me. I still finished the book, but won't be reading anything else in that series.

Marian Perera said:

Thanks for that link! I enjoyed the article, and sadly, I've seen these tripes - er, tropes, in plenty of more recent novels too. I read one where the hero quietly and calmly crept up to the heroine while she was having a bath and forced her head under water until she lost consciousness. He never apologized for it, she never seemed bothered.

Click to expand...

You're welcome.

I'm an extremely picky person when it comes to anything (ie. books, movies/tvshows, manga/anime, food, etc). But I always loved reading romantic (slash, usually) fanfiction and MG fiction pretty much all my life. I spent the last few years trying to read commercial romance (both m/f and m/m), but I guess my taste is unusual or something, because I have a hard time finding ones that I would end up liking. There were some really troublesome tropes out there, I can't really enjoy most romance heroes for some reason, and I'm not into erotic stuff, either, so I stopped reading commercial romances recently. I prefer MG/YA stories, and sweet LGBTQA romances instead. Nowadays, I also prefer the sweet, romantic (and usually slash) fanfiction instead for my romance readings.

Um, with that bath situation...What was going on in that situation that prompted the hero to do that? Was he reliving some trauma or something?

Marian Perera said:

Anne Stuart, Ice Blue.

The whole premise of the series is that these stone-cold killers start out planning to murder innocent women, but end up falling in love. Except the bathtub scene was far too reminiscent of the Brides in the Bath murders for me. I still finished the book, but won't be reading anything else in that series.

Click to expand...

Oh.

Well, that explains it.

Not my type of story in the first place, so thank goodness I haven't encountered it. I thought it was a Stephen King book for a moment there, lol...

bunny-gypsy said:

Um, with that bath situation...What was going on in that situation that prompted the hero to do that? Was he reliving some trauma or something?

Click to expand...

Oh, they're traumatized all right. As your link mentioned, all abusive alphas have some sort of poor-me backstory. But at the moment they start to drown or strangle the heroines, they're very much in control of themselves and know exactly what they're doing.

They just manage to stop short of causing permanent brain damage due to oxygen deprivation (I think; with some of the heroines, it's difficult to tell) and then save the heroines from the really evil people who won't be so principled.

Marian Perera said:

Oh, they're traumatized all right. As your link mentioned, all abusive alphas have some sort of poor-me backstory. But at the moment they start to drown or strangle the heroines, they're very much in control of themselves and know exactly what they're doing.

They just manage to stop short of causing permanent brain damage due to oxygen deprivation (I think; with some of the heroines, it's difficult to tell) and then save the heroines from the really evil people who won't be so principled.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I dislike abusive alphas.

If I had to choose some tropes I tend to like (that I can remember) like for characters, particularly romantic interests, some of them would be: Adorkable, Aloof Ally, The Quiet One, or one of my favorites, Sugar and Ice Personality. I like a variety of heroes, but I notice I don't like super-aggressive (to the point of being physical with the heroine), loud, puffing of the chest kinds of alpha males. I tend to go for the more aloof, quiet or stoic (but still has emotions) kind of heroes who start to warm up over time. I also tend to like smart/mature characters who give people their personal space. Or ones that have an awesome sense of humor. Or caring, gentle, cheerful ones.

(One thing I tend to dislike in most any form of entertainment is when the dude grabs the heroine's arm/hand to stop her, for whatever reason. I'm like GTFO, dude!)

ETA: I guess, in anime/manga terms, I tend to like the Kuudere types, and maybe an occasional Tsundere type.

I didn't realize just how prevalent the dominant alpha male was in romance until I got a review for my fourth book saying the reviewer liked how Jason (the hero) never felt threatened by Lera (the heroine) being so much better a fighter than he was.

It had never occurred to me that this was anything out of the ordinary. Why should her hard-earned skill make him feel like less of a man? I want heroes who are secure enough in themselves that they like and appreciate women who are equally competent and confident.

Marian Perera said:

I didn't realize just how prevalent the dominant alpha male was in romance until I got a review for my fourth book saying the reviewer liked how Jason (the hero) never felt threatened by Lera (the heroine) being so much better a fighter than he was.

It had never occurred to me that this was anything out of the ordinary. Why should her hard-earned skill make him feel like less of a man? I want heroes who are secure enough in themselves that they like and appreciate women who are equally competent and confident.

Click to expand...

Yes! I love seeing heroes like that.

Marian Perera said:

It had never occurred to me that this was anything out of the ordinary. Why should her hard-earned skill make him feel like less of a man? I want heroes who are secure enough in themselves that they like and appreciate women who are equally competent and confident.

Click to expand...

YES. So much yes.

And huh, yeah, I guess the almost-drowning makes sense within the context of the universe and plot, but definitely not my cup of tea. To each their own.