Ms. Upset-With-Me put spoilers in her review so I won’t quote it here. As a reader, I hate it when reviews do that, but I can see her point and it is a warning to others who are just looking for something typical to kill an afternoon. She read Be Careful What You Wish For and liked it and moved on to another one of my books. Logical, except she didn’t post a review about the book she liked, only the one she didn’t. Sigh. The Lexi Frost series is a little different. I didn’t have a warning on Amazon that I don’t think like other romance writers, and perhaps I should have. I’ll do that now.
Anyway, she picks up the book, clearly expecting me to play within the range of typical romance themes and I didn’t. I really, really didn’t. Here’s the thing with romance, there are a limited number of tropes out there. By ‘tropes,’ I mean the theme. At the most basic level, there aren’t that many. It’s not just the romance genre, this problem effects every genre. If you read enough, the stories are familiar. (Avatar & Pocahontas for example.) And just because a trope has been done a million times doesn't make it bad, it makes it popular. It also wears it out and readers may go looking for something fresh. A new trope, a new genre, or maybe something as simple as a new twist.
Tropes I see a lot are:
- Love Triangle –It’s a cliché, but it’s still around for a reason. Who doesn’t want to choose between two hotties? It’s a fantasy. But it’s old, and writers have to do something, anything to wake it up. Although, according to my reviewer, I went too far.
- Surprise pregnancies/babies – This is almost always from a brief encounter, which usually means someone was behaving irresponsibly but that’s usually glossed over. There are only so many ways to make the hero noble and the heroine pure of heart when they had a hot one-nighter and then have to pay for it. And every way to soften this has been done.
- Amnesia – Always fun and rarely are there moral qualms, but again, there are only so many ways to approach this, and they’ve been done.
- Finding someone who’s been right there all along – A sweetheart of a theme, and it gives you a lot of flexibility as a writer. The innate awkwardness of the situation can be great, and sometimes you have an ‘it’s inappropriate’ to make the ‘choice’ seemingly harder. It almost always has the “aww,” sigh of satisfaction at the end. Because of this, there are a million of these in the marketplace. Good news if you like them, but these books don’t stand out because it’s been done so many times.
- Rediscovery – A specific spin off theme, rekindling an old romance is somewhat popular, but limited. I swear every way there is to write this has been done repeatedly.
- Mistaken identity -– Like amnesia, there are a limited number of ways to make this work. Readers will overlook small plot holes (usually), and they’ll suspend disbelief (to a point), but making this theme fresh is hard to do.
- Servant or someone lower in the social ladder posing as something they’re not is a common idea in the mistaken identity trope. There are multiple movies in this trope, which shows how popular it is, and they’re all the same.
- Redeeming a rogue/rake – This is big in historical romance, and is frequently used in support of or supported by other tropes in contemporary romance.
- Forced marriage – Usually you see this in historical or time travel romance. It’s hard to set up in contemporary romance. Women today are intelligent (usually) and independent. When I’ve seen it in contemporary, it’s usually associated with blackmail or the need for money or the like. That doesn’t put your hero in a good position and makes your heroine appear weak. Still, characters are meant to grow and change and they have to make some big strides to come to a satisfying end.
- Marriage of convenience – Again, usually in historical. Like forced marriage, it’s hard to sell in contemporary romance, we just don’t want our heroes too sleazy or our heroine too pathetic. This often forces them to compromise too much of their character and that they would go for it in the first place lingers even when they salvage the situation.
- Changing a woman/man hater – Another common sub-theme in this category and more common in contemporary romance.
- Forbidden love – This is common in historical settings, but there aren’t as many barriers in today’s world. If your characters are sufficiently restricted for some reason, or unusually shallow, social standing will still work. There’s potential with the trope, but this is hard to pull off without the reader wanting to scream at one or both of the characters in contemporary settings. In case you’re wondering, that’s bad. Writers of contemporary romance usually tie this with another trope. It can’t stand on its own anymore, the world has evolved.
- This is frequently tied up with the “Finding someone who’s been right there all along” trope as a psychological reason why they can’t be together (Hero loves his ex-wife’s sister or such). I used this as a hurdle in AKA Lexi Frost as a companion to the Love triangle theme as did Stephanie Meyers in the Twilight series. (The two books otherwise have nothing in common, just so you know)
- The teacher/student and guardian/ward themes are touchy as it implies youth in one partner but not the other. Doctor/patient or other professional barriers have a place in contemporary romance, but you need to address the risk. If there isn’t a risk, then is it really forbidden?
- Waiting for the heroine/hero to be old enough is one that’s out there, but it’s so hard not to imply your hero is a pedophile or at least a predator. Some people like it. It makes other people uncomfortable.
- Rescue me – The hero or heroine needs help to accomplish something. Hopefully something interesting. Both characters can remain strong and this can stand alone as a theme. Every time I see it though, it looks familiar because it is somewhat limited. I can see potential in this trope breaking down some walls, the challenge is to be truly original.
- Save me from myself – I’m not sure what to say about this one, I don’t care for it as a rule because the characters frequently are weak and I want to scream at them. That’s me, some readers really love this. This theme is often tied with another theme to make one hero/heroine feel obligated to help the other. This one is frequently associated with redeeming a rogue/rake if the rescuing is internal, it’s just a softer version of it.
I’m sure I missed some. Don’t sweat it, a complete list wasn’t the point. The point is: I’d like to see more original thinking in romance. To me, these themes are old and I’d love to see something completely new. (Fifty Shades of Grey wasn’t new, it was the BDSM backdrop that made it shocking/go viral. It’s a redeeming a rogue/save me story.) I’m not sure something completely new is even possible at this point. Instead, my challenge to writers of romance is to shake it up and think outside the box. Don’t just write one that fits in nicely with what’s already on your bookshelf. Be original.
To the readers: who cares if the trope is overdone if you like it? It means you have a ready supply of books. But when you thought you recognized how the story was going to unfold and there’s a twist, it can be a nice surprise. Of course, what one person likes, another may not. That’s why I’m not upset about the review. Reviews are personal opinion. When people read books they may like it, they may not. That’s the risk of breaking out of the mold a little. Readers may not be ready, they may not be receptive.
Okay, confession time. I knew my twist on the forbidden love aspect of my love triangle might get some push back. As a writer, it’s not going to stop me from trying to write something new and different, I’m willing to accept the consequences.
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