Love stories can usually be spotted a mile away, and yet they constitute a billion-dollar industry.
Readers keep picking up romance novels because of the irresistible tropes—or conventional plot devices, themes, and the like—that romance authors commonly use. Simply making your own iteration of a well-worn trope doesn’t guarantee success, though. Audiences applaud love stories that draw them in with the familiar and then take them to new, exciting, unfamiliar territory.
Make a good love story by using one (or more!) of the following tropes and making it your own.
When they’re Destined to be Together
The universe is sending all the signs that they’re meant to be, but things are never that simple.
When they’re in a Love Triangle
You know what they say: three’s a crowd. Usually one of them ends up getting hurt, but sometimes everybody loses.
When it’s Forbidden Love
Family, culture, geography—something—dictates that they can never be together, but they’ll be damned if they won’t try.
When they get a Second Chance
Maybe their exes made them swear off love, maybe they’re each other’s exes. But it’s never too late to try again…
When they say “You’ve Changed”
They’ve been together for a while now, but something happens to make one or both of them realize that they’ve fallen out of love.
When they’re Stuck Together
They barely know each other—or worse, they hate each other—and now they have to get through an experience together.
When Friends Become Lovers
They’ve known each other since childhood, and now something’s different…
When Enemies Become Lovers
They’re complete opposites and/or they hate each other’s guts, but then a pivotal moment starts making all the ice melt away.
When they’re in a Fake Relationship
For convenience, they pretend to be in love. But the acting soon becomes too real to ignore.
When one of them’s a Secret VIP
One of them’s a bored royal or billionaire who descends to the realm of ordinary people in disguise, and the other—not knowing who they’re talking to—treats the VIP like anyone else, which makes the VIP fall head over heels in love.
Which one of these tropes will you be trying on for size?
