What is your favourite romance tropes?

MeltingCORE 2020-10-05 16:49:19 UTC #13

ngl but I'm a sucker for childhood friends to lovers. (I think because it reminds me of my own relationship, I've been with my boyfriend since we were literally 13 and in middle school. We're 25 now.)

I don't usually write romance however haha! I usually prefer to write friendships. If I do write romance, it's usually super drawn out and integral to the bigger plot.

EmmyPax 2020-10-05 16:49:46 UTC #14

I love a good enemies to lovers but like, a GOOD one. And like you guys all said, it's hard. I don't want it to feel like one person is ignoring red flags or something. Sometimes the "enemies" section resembles real life abusive behaviors tooooooooooooooo much. But when it's done well, ah, how I love it!

Old friends to lovers is also great. Also, I may be alone in this, but I like love triangles. The more the better! They can be done poorly, but I enjoy the interplay between competing ships and complicated webs of people not having a clue what they want. Mostly, it's just very fun to write, because everyone is a mess.

cherrystark 2020-10-05 16:51:15 UTC #15

I like a lot of the tropes people have already shared.

Especially for romance plotlines, I really enjoy it when you have a guy that you think is the stereotypical "hot, male, jerkface" who treats women like objects but is in reality, this warm, sensitive cuddlebear who treats his love interest and all women he interacts with as queens.

I also really enjoy the "best friends to lovers" trope. Enemies to lovers is great, but there is something about two characters who have been together through hell and back and just want to be together. Like the future is scary, but I can face it with you by my side.

HGohwell 2020-10-05 16:51:24 UTC #16

I love a well done love triangle. They get a really bad name because of all the badly done overly dramatic ones. But a really good well written love web (because love is messy irl come on especially for teenagers) can be amazing.

domisotto 2020-10-05 16:53:06 UTC #17

I will read the One True Love when it happens in the presence of choices, trial and error. What I have a hard time with is OTL stories that imply that it is First, One and Only love, particularly when they are like, 16. It's so outside my experiences, I can't jive.

sxxaint 2020-10-05 16:54:17 UTC #18

omg i forgot how much i love this trope! the realisation moment for one of them, and then the nerves and agonising over ruining the friendship, and seeing how well they know each other already, and then the final confession bit (and if the other's like 'yeah, i've been into you for ages didn't you know') ~

HGohwell 2020-10-05 16:59:13 UTC #19

Whenever teens do that (outside of like magical soulmate stories or something) I'm just like yep that's dramatic teens being teens. They're gonna be together forever and no one has ever felt a love like theirs. (tbh the ridiculous drama of teen romances is a guilty pleasure)

migxmeg 2020-10-05 16:59:24 UTC #20

Yesss if it's a longer story, I also enjoy the part where their feelings don't match and you can get all these awkward we're buddies and it's not weird for you but it's weird for me scenes AAAAH <3.

cherrystark 2020-10-05 17:00:00 UTC #21

I like the concept of OTL but I don't really enjoy the stories when they present the two lovers as soulmates. I 100% believe that two people can truly love each other and be in love for their whole life. But, as you said, there is work, trial and error, and they choose to be together.

I don't like OTL because what about people marrying multiple times, for example. Just because a person's first marriage didn't work about whether by death or divorce, it doesn't mean that they didn't truly love each other at one point or that they won't truly love their future partners

MeltingCORE 2020-10-05 17:00:04 UTC #22

Gosh, yes! I may or may not have cried at the end of the first season of Clannad when Nagisa gets confessed to by Tomoya. ("Two Shadows" by Riya playing also did me in ds bs)

mx_Jinn 2020-10-05 17:01:15 UTC #23

Ohh I haven’t tried writing any enemy to lovers, can imagine it being hard to write!

Loving the love for enemy to lovers!

So much wholesome tropes here uwu

EmmyPax 2020-10-05 17:01:37 UTC #24

Oooooooooooo along with that "Oh!" moment, can we also talk about the anguished declaration of love/sudden kiss that sometimes proceeds it from the other partner? I know in real life it would be silly and dramatic but I LOVE IT SO MUCH IN FICTION!!!!!!!!!

HGohwell 2020-10-05 17:02:37 UTC #25

Which reminds me! Magical soulmate romances! I love a soulmate story. Especially when it's sorta out of the ordinary. Matching soul marks is cool and all, but some of them are a lot more emotional. One of my favourites is the "you share your soul mate's injuries" variants and how much people can start understanding each other from just the bruises and bumps. As soul mate empaths, especially during the period where they don't know their soul mates. Bonus points if, like the reincarnation stories, they actually go for the "do we love each other or is it just because fate says so" plot.

cherrystark 2020-10-05 17:03:54 UTC #26

Same! Haha. I still read the teen romance drama stuff. It just makes when laught when the love interest is a vampire or something, and the MC wants to change to be with them and they're 17. I'm like WHY!!!??? I'm much happier and healthier at 28 than I was at 18. Even with the magical soulmate stories, I still don't understand why they're always teenagers and their love interest is older. If he's 25 and you're 17, he can wait a couple of years.

domisotto 2020-10-05 17:04:23 UTC #27

Yeah, same feels for me. I guess I value the intensity of love in a story above permanence, exclusivity and consummation. I, however, always make sure that my romances end in a way that qualify it for a romance!!! Lol, I've learned that lesson on the Wattpad forums.

EmmyPax 2020-10-05 17:04:29 UTC #28

Really specific one I love: characters discover their future selves/themselves in a parallel universe are in love and now they don't know what to do because they never thought of each other THAT way. The Good Place was basically my crack because Chidi and Eleanor kept discovering they had been in love in another reboot and then grappling with that revelation over and over again.

domisotto 2020-10-05 17:06:18 UTC #30

Speaking of which, Star-crossed Lovers. Can't help it. Love it. Love tragic heroes/ines, even if they are opera-like over-dramatic ones!

HGohwell 2020-10-05 17:06:48 UTC #31

I imagine this is because teen romances are aimed at teens and teens all think they're more mature than they are and could definitely have an older partner because they're so much more mature than people their own age.

colorgoat 2020-10-05 17:07:54 UTC #32

Everyone saying enemies to lovers...good taste

I reallyyy like hurt/comfort...not too much angst, just enough to be cathartic. Also, my friend described my ship taste as "good people in love, with similar goals"? Not a specific trope at all, but it sounds really sweet. What if the heroes held hands

shfra13 2020-10-05 17:10:04 UTC #33

I'm a sucker for enemies to lovers, childhood friends, fated pair, first love as last love, and mutual pining where everyone knows their feelings but the two of them (it's frustrating but funny). I love happy ever afters because stories like that make me so warm, and that's what I want whenever I read romantic stuff. Oh, I also have a weird soft spot for stories where the couple are rommates (either cohabitation, simply started as roommates, or if they somehow end up with the living arrangement).