Over the last decade of my life, I’ve come to embrace a cliché we all know and love: never say never.
People change. Feelings change. You might swear you’ll never eat or do or say something one day and then five years later, find yourself eating, doing, or saying the thing you swore you wouldn’t. Or one year later, two years later, three years later, etc.
The point is, life throws curveballs at you and there’s no way to know how you’ll respond.
As a romance reader and writer, there are certain tropes I love and certain tropes I hate. Like most other writers, I tend to like to write tropes I love and stay away from tropes I hate. I thought it would be fun to make a list of the tropes I’m not a fan of and most likely won’t ever write.
Workplace romance
The billionaire jerky boss who falls for his loyal assistant is a common plot in many a contemporary romance. I’ve tried to brainstorm a book where a female boss falls for her male assistant, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t get over the ick factor of a workplace relationship. The balance of power is always going to be off when one person is in charge of another person’s paycheck.
Amnesia
I don’t like to read amnesia books and it’s doubtful I’ll ever want to write one. Just like with workplace romance, I’ve attempted to come up with a plot involving amnesia that I’d be interested in writing, but none come to mind. Writing about a character who has no memory of their past doesn’t excite me.
Feelings for dead best friend’s wife/husband
Another trope with an ick factor turned up to eleven for me. I don’t like when a character’s been pining for their best friend’s partner, and then the best friend dies, and the character swoops in to comfort them and oh, look, now they’re falling for each other. Gross, gross, gross.
Feelings for sister’s ex
I could’ve copied and pasted this response from above. I’ve read a couple books where the heroine’s had feelings for her sister’s ex-boyfriend or husband for years and now the boyfriend/husband finally notices her and returns those feelings. Maybe I have such an issue with this trope because I have a brother-in-law and the thought of any kind of romantic feelings toward him makes me want to throw up. No offense, Nick.
Bodyguard
I’ll sum up my feelings about this trope in one word: boring. I know a lot of readers love when the alpha hero has to look after the actress/heiress heroine because she’s in danger, but I just find nothing relatable about it.
Revenge
Again, boring. There’re a lot of books out there about a hero wanting revenge on someone and using the heroine to get it. We know he’ll develop feelings for her, she’ll find out, she’ll dump him, and he’ll have to prove to her he does love her. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Cheating
Not a fan of cheating. I hate when the hero and heroine meet and one or both are already in a relationship. I want my heroes and heroines single and ready to mingle.
Arranged Marriage
I don’t mind the arranged marriage trope in historicals because that happened a lot back then. I don’t even mind them in fantasy. But in contemporaries? No, thank you. I know they still happen in the world we live in today, but I always find myself thinking, you’re an adult. You don’t have to marry this person. It’s a free country.
Despite my negativity about the tropes I just cast aspersions on, I could write one or all of them someday.
Ask me again in ten years.