Personalizing Familiar Tropes in Fresh and Fun Ways

Here’s a well-known fact: If you recite the word “trope” to your reflection in the mirror three times, a dozen romance readers will appear.

Okay, that’s not true, but it is a well-known fact that romance readers love tropes (AKA, a recognizable and frequently used plot device found in a work of fiction). Why? Because tropes deliver on the promise of the premise. They often serve as the first point of connection between book and reader, drumming up anticipation of delicious—and familiar—things to come.

The main characters are enemies on page one? A romance reader knows that by the mid-point, that hate will be headed in the opposite direction. Someone needs a fake spouse? They’ll be in love for real in no time, and that first “my wife” is going to hit hard. The romantic leads are checking into a hotel after their car breaks down or they hit inclement weather?

Yep. In romance books, there’s only ever one bed available. So strange how Marriott just can’t get it together…

Tropes aren’t just for the reader, though. Authors love them because they provide a framework for the story we want to tell, a no-fail way to propel a plot in familiar and compelling ways. But as a writer, particularly a debut writer like me, it can be overwhelming to think about how to use popular tropes and still stand out in the crowd. How many enemies-to-lovers books do readers really need?

The true answer is that the limit does not exist (please imagine that in Lindsay Lohan’s voice), but when I was writing You, with a View, I kept asking myself: How can I make the main tropes I’m employing feel fresh, while honoring what readers expect when they pick up an enemies-to-lovers book?

What I discovered is that the magic happens in the details and subtle twists.

In my book, the main character, Noelle Shepard, finds an old love letter alongside pictures of her late grandmother and a handsome mystery man. When she turns to TikTok to see if she can connect with said mystery man, she ends up finding him thanks to her video going viral—but it’s via his grandson, Theo Spencer, who also happens to be the old high school rival she battled for accolades and shared a Most Likely to Succeed title with. You’re thinking, “Okay, this is a classic case of enemies to lovers.”

Absolutely, but not all the way. In a true enemies-to-lovers story, the characters have misconceptions about one another that are negative. They start the story thinking there are insurmountable differences between them that they can’t overcome.

Noelle, whose point-of-view the book is told through, does technically have misconceptions about Theo, but they’re not negative. On the contrary, they’re distressingly positive. She views him as an incredibly smart and driven man who’s found the kind of success post-high school that she’s still searching for. In fact, she deeply respects him, and that annoys the hell out of her. Her favorable perception of him, grudging though it is, mellows the acrimony of a traditional enemies-to-lovers book, but you’ll still find the bickering banter and fiery tension and “it could never be him” elements that the trope always delivers.

You, with a View also uses the classic road trip trope. In the book, Noelle discovers that Paul, Theo’s granddad, and Kathleen, her late grandma, were going to elope and take a honeymoon road trip across the Southwestern United States before their plan was thwarted. This trope is typically executed with two people—the ones who are going to fall in love, and also into that single bed Marriott reserved for them.

And absolutely, it was my initial plan to have Noelle and Theo take that road trip on their own.

But then I realized Paul was my secret weapon: He was a matchmaking device to nudge Noelle and Theo together when they were resisting their fate, and a physical roadblock for them when they were finally ready to give in to the explosive chemistry between them. What’s more awkward than getting caught mid-hookup by your granddad, you know?!

But most importantly, he was a major factor in the emotional connection between Noelle and Theo. Via his storytelling and the old love letters Noelle and Theo read along the way, Paul was able to impart necessary wisdom and show them that his and Kathleen’s interrupted connection led to their inevitable one. In turn, it allowed Noelle and Theo to show more and more of themselves to one another (not in that way) (okay, yes, in that way, but in the more meaningful, love-related way most of all).

While Paul wasn’t the road trip addition I initially planned, he brought that plot element to life in a way it wouldn’t have otherwise. It ended up making the execution of that trope feel stronger—and more fun!—for the story.

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In no way did I reinvent the wheel. I just customized the tread so that the tropes felt specific to my characters and You, with a View as a whole. You can do the same when you sit down to write your next brilliant romance: Identify the tropes you plan to use, then flesh out the ways you can customize or twist them to strengthen your story.

When it comes down to it, tropes exist for readers to recognize stories they’re confident they’ll connect with. But they also exist for authors to play with, to use as the framework for our stories while making them fun and fresh and special.

After all, that’s why readers fall in love with the “same” trope again and again.

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