Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Romance Tropes


If you read my last blog post, you know I'm working on a new WIP involving Syrinx and Pan. Since it's going to be a contemporary, category romance, then I have to decide which romance tropes- or commonly recurring plot devices or cliches- to use. They have to go with the story and fit the characters I've picked, while also being original in some way so I'm not just rehashing the same old thing that's been done a million times before. 

In Playing the Maestro, I used the Boss/Employee trope and the Enemies to Lovers trope. I even threw in a little bit of the Tortured Hero trope. These were easy to chose because of the situation with the main character falling in love with the conductor. He was her boss- but in this case, the workplace was way different than other books. So, that was easy. They start out as enemies- which is always fun the pit them against each other. And the hero comes from a bad situation back home which has him never wanting to fall in love again. Three tropes all wound together.

So, what am I going to use for Syrinx and Pan? 

The first thing that came to mind was the  Bad boy/Bachelor/Playboy reformed trope because Pan is the God of Fertility, and used to getting whomever he wants. That fits quite nicely in the storyline and is a fresh way to look at the trope- in my opinion. Since Pan is a God, then he has the power to be rich in the mortal world, which would also tie in the Millionaire Playboy trope. Romance novels always benefit from a posh estate, right? Lastly, since he's trying to trick Syrinx into thinking he's someone else, I could use the Mistaken identity trope.

Now I need to put those tropes into action and see what happens! 

Tell me, what are some of your favorite romance tropes?

3 comments:

Cherie Reich said...

The Pan and Syrinx tropes sound awesome! And romance definitely is better in a posh estate. LOL!

Nicole Zoltack said...

I agree with Cherie!

Christine Rains said...

That's awesome! I could just see Pan with his own Playboy bunny manor. *LOL* The childhood friend romance is sweet, but I do like those seemingly unreformable bad boys that change for love.