Romance Tropes

How romantic fiction tropes can kick-start your story

It’s all very well wanting to write a romantic story or novel, but where do you start? You could look back at your own life and cherry pick the best or funniest dates or relationships to wrap a story around. You could be inspired by your parents’, siblings’ or friend’s relationships. There might be something on the news or online that stirs your imagination. Or, if you’re lucky, you might overhear someone in a café or an elevator talking about someone incredibly romantic who will now, with a few tweaks, be your fictional hero.

If, after you’ve considered all these ways of finding your ‘in’ to a story, you’re still having trouble wondering how to go about coming up with an interesting romantic plot, you might want to cast your writerly eye over a list of romantic tropes. These are types of couplings that romantic fiction writers, fans and booksellers variously use to promote, share, review and buy romantic novels.

These tropes are quite rigid when it comes to identifying sub-genres in romantic fiction, but you can use a trope as a starting point and run with it in any direction you like, whether you set your story in the present, past or future; whether your characters are humans, aliens or mythical beings; whether your story is funny, sad, mysterious or dark. The trope is the tracks on which your romance train runs but that doesn’t mean you can’t have detours, delays, reroutes and unexpected passengers on board.

Of the many, many romantic tropes that exist on bookshelves, here are a few of the more common ones:

Enemies to Lovers: characters who loathe each other at the beginning of your story find themselves head-over-heels in love by the end. The ultimate enemies to lovers novel has to be Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, where Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy’s initial dislike of each other eventually turns into true love. For a more modern take, try Francesca's Segal's Glorious Tuga series.

Friends to Lovers: these characters are best friends who do everything together. And whilst everyone around them can’t understand why they don’t just become an item, they are convinced their friendship is worth so much more than a relationship. A good example of this is Emily Henry’s huge hit: People We Meet on Vacation which is now a Netflix series starring Emily Bader and Tom Blyth. Definitely worth a read/look.

Workplace Romance: these characters may be friendly colleagues or rivals. Whether they are working on a project together or competing for the same job, this love story takes place at work, with colleagues/bosses/employees sure they should be together or entirely oblivious to the sparks that fly across the office/factory/courtroom etc. For a workplace romance with a difference, try the fabulous The Rosie Project by Graeme Simison.

Love Triangle: only two of these characters are going to be in a relationship by the end of your book. Consider three friends at university, three people on a singles holiday, three people on a work project etc. What example beats Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights? The ultimate love triangle.

Opposites Attract: also known as the mismatched couple, this trope is all about two characters who are completely different. At the beginning, there’s no chance that they would be together and maybe they aren’t even aware the other one exists. By the end though, their differences don’t matter one jot. What could be more opposites attract than an ageless vampire falling in love with a normal girl he meets at school? Stephenie Meyers’ gripping Twilight series featuring Edward and Bella is a great example of this trope.

Forced Proximity: characters stuck in an elevator, at an airport, in a tent, sharing a flat etc, eventually realise how much they are attracted to each other. David’s Nicholl’s brilliant best-seller, You Are Here, sees Marnie and Michael spending all their time together as the only people remaining in what was to be a group walk – the Coast-to-Coast walk – in northern England.

Second Chance: characters who used to date or be married and are now, maybe initially against their better judgement, somehow in each other’s spheres again. Perhaps there’s a reunion they both attend, or there’s a work event they both find themselves at. Try Linda Middleton’s Things We Need To Say.

Fake Dater: for some reason (financial benefits; to show an ex-partner that they’re thriving without them; to appease parents who are desperate that they settle down, etc) these two are pretending to date. By the end of the story, they are genuinely dating. Try Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient or Sara Desai’s The Dating Plan to see how this is done.

Holiday Romance: when a holiday romance turns into something solid and real. A holiday romance with a twist, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is a wonderful example of how to do this really well.

Whether you stick to one trope per story or put two or more of them together (eg: enemies to lovers with forced proximity) remember that almost all romantic fiction features a lot of will they, won’t they? moments with readers being treated to a roller-coaster of emotions before both characters declare that they are – finally – in love.