10 Romance Tropes that Always Work

10 Romance Tropes that Always Work

Love sweet love. It’s what gives color to our lives and what moves us to do great and amazing things. Always present in music, painting, cinema, but in my opinion never better expressed than in literature. From Shakespeare and Jane Austen to modern best-selling authors, romance has only become more and more popular.

But what makes this genre so popular and special? What is that with romance that got us reading a whole book in a night? Well, these stories make us escape from reality, evoke feelings without needing a loving partner, hypnotize the soul, and also make us readers feel part of the story and care about the characters.

But how do we have readers love our story? How can we get to people’s hearts and melt them? How can we go out of the ordinary and create a compelling love story?

Knowing the most popular romance tropes, and learning how to use them correctly, will help you create a one-of-a-kind story.

What is a Trope?

Perhaps you are already wondering what a trope is. Basically, a trope is a plot device, or a character feature that is used repeatedly within a genre, so that it is somehow expected or perceived as conventional. It is the reason people read your story.

Romance is not the exception of the rule, and actually it is particularly full of them. You can find them from the classics to modern day romance novels. And that can only mean one thing: They work! Romantic tropes have a huge influence on readers’ emotional state, because they read something they can relate to.

A trope is not the same as a cliché. When they are well used, they can hit all your readers’ expectations and yet find a way to surprise them. And that is where the magic happens.

If you want to know our best tips to write a love story that will make your readers swoon, check this post!

Why do tropes work?

Mainly, they help us connect with our target audience.

Your starting point is the presentation of your book. What is the first thing people see when picking up a book? Exactly, the title and the cover. In a very suggestive way, the title and the cover of your book should give clues about your plot. For example, if your book title is “Loving like a star” (just made that up) and your cover portrays a woman holding a mic, I can guess it has something to do with a celebrity. If I’ve read similar stories I’ll know that I will or won’t like this one. Do you get it know?

The same happens with the synopsis of your book. This is perhaps one of the only chances you’ve got to convince a reader. The synopsis of your story should briefly capture what is the trope that your novel is going to follow, in this case, romance, if you are going to follow the story of a love triangle, then you must let the reader know that there are 3 people involved in a romance story.

Thus, through the synopsis, you can easily capture your audience and those people who follow this kind of tropes, because they will already know if the story is going to be of interest to them or not.

So, now that you are more familiar with tropes and why you need them in your story, we can get to what really matters here.

If you are a new writer, taking your first steps into your first novel, then take a look at these amazing tips that you can start applying right away.

1. Enemies to lovers

Did you see that coming? Two people who hate each other, have had problems in the past, perhaps didn’t start off with the right foot, or somebody who actually did something to deserve the hate, ahem, ahem, Mr. Darcy… yet they manage to fall deeply in love one for the other. We’ve seen this lots of times and still keeps working!

To make a believable story we need very good reasons behind this antagonism and a juicy story to discover, keeping it convincing and explosive. If you have a weak misunderstanding no one is going to buy they don’t like each other. Put it in a way that it seems there would be no way to craft a romance story with such rough start, but also make us like your characters, at the end they need to be likeable at some level.

The path to overcoming and forgiving must be the journey of your book, as well as the reasons why they fell in love. You need to show the reason of their hate is based on their flawed ideology, so they can evolve and leave behind their old way of thinking.

And this is where you need to make their vulnerabilities come up. Make one of them look vulnerable to the other’s eyes, and make the other care. Make sure that it’s a genuine emotional flaw and that you’ve been building it form the very beginning, otherwise, it would be impossible to make it look believable. This could be one of the hardest parts. This is where the spark of love start.

Of course, going from hate to love is anything but easy or simple, and that’s why a little period of distrust won’t hurt anyone. Reignite their antagonism to keep your readers interested in their story till the very end. Relate this moment of distrust to their inner flaws, which you should have developed throughout the story, otherwise it would only be perceived as shallow.

After that, you only got the happily ever after part left. Make them overcome their flawed ideology of themselves or the world around them. Show there’s been an evolution and they’ve left aside their old way of thinking to be able of genuinely loving *sighs*.

2. Friends to lovers

This trope exists since the days when corsets and large skirts were worn, when gloomy rooms were still lit with candles, and beautiful autumn dances were performed… I know, I know… I get a bit cheesy form time to time…

Conveniently our lovers already know each other, they already like each other, and they probably have some kind of connection that ties them to each other. It may be because of a memory from the past that has marked their lives, or gathered them; or perhaps they were together since they were kids. Whatever their story is there should always be a “but”. In this case, they need to fall apart.

Whether it is for a trip, a family issue, a new house or school, or whatever path you as a writer decide to take, it has to be a good one, something they cannot ignore or avoid.

Regardless of the time or the distance, the attraction between them will endure, and their feelings won’t change even if they meet a new love interest. The goal is to show the reasons why they fell in love after being just friends, and how they manage to love the other person in spite of the circumstances.

The peak of the story will be the part when they begin to see each other differently, the moment when they realize that there is something more than just a friendship.

3. Impossible love

Everybody knows there’s something attractive in the clandestine, the forbidden, the undue; the I can’t, therefore I want; that impossible love that make us sigh and root for their happy ending. The star-crossed Romeos and Juliets of all times will always melt our hearts.

Because of distance, family, religion, culture, race, social classes, or even a deadly illness; their love was born to be impossible, and that is what brings up the best of it. The center of the novel will be the obstacle that our main characters must sort to finally be together. The solution to their problems will ultimately help them to find their peace and be able to be together, or maybe not.

Some examples of this trope are “The fault is in our Stars” by John Green, “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy and “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern.

4. Fake Love

“I have the dinner tonight. Where can I get a fake boyfriend at this time?”

“There are fake boyfriends for sale on the next block, 30% off”, mocked Lauren

Maybe it is because of a social event, or because they don’t want to let their family down, perhaps they need to cover something else or to save their lives. Maybe they simply want to impress someone, make them jealous, or for sweet cold revenge. One of our protagonists is going to need to play the card of the false affair. We’ve seen it in movies, books an even real life, and the truth is that it keeps grabbing our attention.

If you are using this trope, you need to find a strong reason why your character would do so. Our readers should believe the only solution to their problem is making someone pretend they’re a “couple”.

Pretend you love it until you really do, or not! You see, that’s the thing with tropes, if you give them a little twist you can make them more interest. So, meet your readers’ expectations and then, forget about conventions and surprise them in a creative way.

One example that comes to my mind (though not specifically a romance novel, but a romance subplot) is Katniss and Peeta’s relationship. That started being “fake” (at least to her eyes) and then became real. 

“This is the first kiss that we’re both fully aware of. Neither of us hobbled by sickness or pain or simply unconscious. Our lips neither burning with fever or icy cold. This is the first kiss where I actually feel stirring inside my chest. Warm and curious.

This is the first kiss that makes me want another.”

Suzanne Collings, The Hunger Games

And what about a “Walk in the Clouds”, where Paul pretended to be Victoria’s husband in front of her family to help her once he learned she was pregnant by her professor and wasn’t married. They of course end up falling in love for each other.

5. Trapped together

Two people who hardly know each other or who probably don’t like each other very much, have to spend several hours or maybe days living with each other, getting to know each other and ultimately falling in love. Whether it is in an elevator, in the middle of a road without any gas, being kidnaped or even as part of a dare they needed to complete. The options are endless and this is where you can make it different.

They depend on each other to survive or overcome this experience, and maybe an act of courage will get love to be born. Perhaps some explosive secret will be confessed during this time and that is precisely what will spark the interest in the other character.

No matter how much space they want to separate them, the moment will remain intimate.

This reminds me of “By Your Side” by Kasie West. A story that follows the life of Autumn, a girl that finds herself locked in a library with Dax, the least person she thought she would spend a whole weekend locked with. It could only end showing the strong connection they have once they open up to each other.

6. Don’t touch her

The typical shy, unfriendly character who does not know how to express his feelings. they are generally lonely, and making conversation with them is uncomfortable or troublesome.

Behind that shy facade they keep a heart eager to find love and someone to push them out of their bubble, this wall is nothing more than their defense mechanism for the fear of being hurt.

Not really touching is not the problem, but the feeling.

This story revolves around what was the reason for our protagonist to be like this and the other person’s struggle to open his heart. Keep in mind that for them to fall in love, some noble and courageous act must happen that will lead them to realize what it hides.

7. Break his heart to save him.

I love you, but we can’t be together. Sad, hum?

That feeling of having someone and wanting them with all your heart, but not wanting to hurt them, not wanting to put them in danger or involve them in a troublesome situation is one that really melts our hearts. I personally love this one (it’s more of a love-hate relationship what I have with stories this kind).

As much as they insist that they agree and that they will support you in your problems, you decide that you do not want to interfere in that to protect them, you lie to them, you tell them that you do not want them, you break them heart and leave them under a cloud of suffering, thinking, one day he will get over it and get ahead, however, in your heart you know that you will never be able to forget them.

Maybe temporarily this works, but like any romantic novel with a happy ending, they will end up together, either because of the resolution of these problems or because love won and together they managed to get out of this.

Your goal is to show that there really was a situation strong enough to lead one of these people to break the other’s heart and separate against their will.

8. I almost lost her.

You never know what you have until you lose it.

As a result of past mistakes, a betrayal, a lie, a couple’s argument, our protagonist risks losing the love of his life.

Perhaps he found someone who captivated him, and because he was wasting time looking for little birds, he let her go. he truly realizes how much he loved her once he feels the weight of his absence from her life.

It is the typical scene of running after him/her, ordering a taxi straight to the airport before the plane leaves, and lost it forever.

 Never leave for tomorrow what you can do today.

9. The second chance

Perhaps the first time they were not ready, perhaps they were still very young or inexperienced, that wasn’t their perfect time. The important thing is that after being apart for years, a bunch of relationships that went nowhere, and a couple of tears and bittersweet memories, they meet again and realize that they are made for each other. And now it is perfect! None of them has had the life they dreamed and they haven’t forgotten that love that shook their world once.

A couple examples that come to my mind are “The best of me” and “The Notebook” by Nicholas Spark.

Nobody is perfect, and precisely if you are thinking about borrowing this trope to use it in your story, you need to show the evolution of your characters once their paths part, how the time they’ve been apart has changed them, how they grew and gained in experience. So that now it can work, they can work! I think of Ali and Noah when they meet in his house after 14 years. They were the same, their love was the same, but they had changed.

10. The “almost” kiss

And the moment came, one in front of the other, finally, almost feeling the heat of the breath, a long-awaited kiss, but… boom… just at that moment the teacher get into the classroom.

Creating the tension at the moment, the suspense of whether they will ever kiss, whether they will ever be together, the foreplay of coming and going without knowing if they are really made for each other.

Our lovers will go through thousands of situations that will make it difficult for them to realize their love and finally be a couple. the only impediment will be the chances of finding at the wrong time and place.

The intervention of a friend, or the parents, or a ball that rolled to the wrong place, will be the coincidences that will interrupt the right moment in which they were going to close the deal, to call it somehow.

The objective of this trope is to maintain the foreplay while our protagonists fall in love and find out if their love is really true.

Summing up…

Once you know the pattern, you start noticing it in every book you read and you cannot unsee it. Tropes are everywhere, even more so within romance genre. And when used correctly they can become your best ally and help you reach your target audience.

Now you know my top romantic tropes. I hope you’ve found this post useful. Did any of these tropes are between your favorite? Let us know in the comment section.