One of the keys to writing a fresh category romance is to take a well loved trope and give it a twist. My favorite example of this is to combine the secret baby trope with the amnesia trope. What's the twist? The heroine is the one who doesn't know she has a child. This storyline was most recently executed in Strangers in the Desert by Harlequin Presents author, Lynn Raye Harris.
Here's a list of tropes found in romance writing that I hope will inspire you when it comes to plotting your next book:
- Accidental Pregnancy: forces hero/heroine to face their fears.
- Amnesia: hero or heroine has lost their memory temporarily or permanently.
- Beauty and the Beast: hero or heroine is physically marred.
- Betrayal: Heroine has intentionally hurt the hero or made a mistake in the past that has hurt the hero or vice versa.
- Business competitors: hero and heroine compete for high business stakes only one can win.
- Cinderella: rags to riches story.
- Class: a class difference sets a couple apart.
- Family feud: e.g. Romeo and Juliet.
- Friends to Lovers: a hero and heroine’s friendship becomes more.
- Kidnapping: hero kidnaps heroine or heroine kidnaps hero.
- Marriage of convenience: arranged/forced marriage.
- Masquerade: hero, heroine or both pretend to be someone else.
- Mistaken Identity: hero or heroine isn’t who he/she appears to be.
- Opposites attract: good girl/bad boy or bad girl/good boy.
- Secret Baby: heroine falls pregnant but doesn’t tell hero about it.
- Secret: hero or heroine keeps a dark secret.
- Stranded: hero and heroine are forced together.
- Twins: hero or heroine has “evil” twin, hero or heroine masquerade as twin etc.
So, what's your favorite trope? And which one/s are you using in your current WIP?
