So "Damsel in the Red Dress" is a romance, and while I think it does a number of things differently from other stories, I think one thing it does that makes it stand out is allow the leads to be something other than ideals.
A lot of romances, even if the characters are imperfect when it comes to their actions still seem to have certain weaknesses or flaws they don't want to give the characters because they make them "unattractive."
My female lead has prominent scars on the back of her legs and on her back. The male lead struggles to stand up straight, and can't walk without the assistance of a walker or something to give him support. Otherwise he uses a wheelchair. He's also recently lost his job because of his paralysis, and in a world that expects adults, and especially men to be able to take care of themselves and to not need help from anyone (especially not the women in their lives) having a male lead who can't even take a shower without assistance is definitely out of the ordinary.
I also think it's out of the ordinary because of the way I write my female leads perspective and self-confidence. It ebbs, the way many real women (people in general really) struggle with their confidence. Some days she feels pretty, other days she thinks she looks a mess. She doesn't fall into the trope of a girl who has no idea she's pretty at all, but she also doesn't have unshakable confidence.
In "A Dozen Morning Glories" (another romance) neither of my leads are the beauty standard, being a short, brown-skinned Vietnamese man, and a very tall, very thin (almost literally, her complexion borders on black) black woman. I'd like my stories to show everyone, regardless of what they look like, that they can be considered beautiful.
It's also pretty rare for me to see romances give siblings a prominent role in the story, but siblings are very relevant to both of the leads, though for different reasons. It's almost as if many romances assume that the world literally revolves around the leads, and everyone else is there to be their plot devices. While I do agree that our stories revolve around the characters themselves, I like to acknowledge that their families are still relevant people, with life and depth of their own, even if they are only shown occasionally. Siblings are shown much more than occasionally here though, because my male lead's sisters (especially his younger sister) are his best friends, which I also think is uncommon in romances.
"Rigamarole" is YA, and one thing that I think makes it odd is that rather than primarily being about the lead's emotional struggle, it's about the struggle of someone she loves, and her trying her best to save him. The things she wants (crushes, to work toward her dream, hang out with her friends) are put on the back burner because her little brother's life is more pressing. Also the male lead is her brother, rather than one of her love interests, and I've seen very few stories address men struggling with self-image, period. Her little brother is bulimic, and the story is about her trying her best to help him recovery without letting anyone else find out about it.
(this is available for free for everyone to read on my Patreon public Posts)
