

Here are fifteen examples of popular tropes you’ll often see in romance novels. How can you give it a twist?Ĭan you bring a fresh perspective to a beloved trope? Even a small tweak can bring new life to a traditional trope. While not every author strives to “write to market,” you should still do a little research on tropes to see what readers are interested in right now. If readers are becoming tired of a particular trope, you might shelf that project until it loops back into popularity in a few years, as they typically will.

While tropes are popular by nature, sometimes one has been done to death. If you’re worried that your story might be offensive, a sensitivity reader could help you out. Some examples of problematic tropes in romance could be romanticizing abusive behavior, putting a marginalized character in a stereotypical role, and the “bury your gays” trope. Make sure the tropes you write with aren’t based in stereotypes or marginalizing a group of people. Since a “trope” is simply a popular format of something in literature, that means many of them are influenced by internalized bias and harmful stereotypes. Here are questions you might ask yourself before choosing your tropes. While tropes aren’t necessarily bad, there are a few things to keep in mind while writing with romance tropes. After all, someone has to start the trends, right? 😉Īnd if you know you want to write romance, but aren’t quite sure where to start, check out this article for some romance writing prompts. If the thought of writing and publishing that quickly freaks you out, no worries! Plenty of authors find success writing whatever interests them. Some writers will try to ride the waves of trends by writing to market, which means they keep a finger on the pulse and write whatever popular thing to quickly publish and get in on the action. Many people simply search these terms to find their next read. There’s only one bed, enemies to lovers, fake dating, forbidden romance, and other tropes are highly sought after by romance readers. You should absolutely write with romance tropes! Particularly in romance genres, tropes are what sell. We’ll look at lots of examples in a minute, but let’s talk about about how and when to use them first. What is a romance trope?Ī “trope” refers to a theme, image, character, or plot element that has been used many times in literature.Ī romance trope can be a plot, character, or situational trope that you commonly find in romance novels. Let’s talk about the genre where tropes are the most important for readers: Romance. In fact, if you write for a certain literary niche and neglect to include the expected tropes, you’ll likely get some nasty reviews about it. You might hear “literary trope” and flinch, because tropes are bad, right?Ī literary trope is just a common thread that you’ll see in certain genres and subgenres of fiction.
