Romance plot conventions

[oyceter]

Because I am having a very interesting conversation with Justine right now...

What are the romance tropes and conventions that drive you nuts? Why?

And which ones almost always work for you? Why?

And which ones are the ones in-between? I.e. if done well, they totally work, and if done poorly, they prompt chucking the book at a wall.

Bonus question: does Doomed Love work for you? What counts as Doomed (or, should I say, DOOMED)? What about love triangles/quadrangles/geometric shapes?

(Note: these aren't limited to romance novels, but to any narrative that involves romance-with-a-small-r.)

Also, please put spoilers in spoiler text! <span style="color:#333333;background:#333333">Spoilers go here</span>

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Stupid misunderstandings ... one conversation: I think Georgette Heyer's The Convenient Marriage works like this. The heroine keeps one Dreadful Secret from her husband, and the consequences get more and more dreadful -- but you see why she tells the initial lie, and you see why she's trapped in it afterwards. Note that the hero repeatedly invites her to tell him the truth, but she's too frightened.

That book I love.

[oyceter]

Yes! I like it when the Big Secret is there because of psychological reasons (fear, shame) and it's acknowledged as such and dealt with as such. As opposed to "she tries to apologize for an overheard conversation and he takes everything the wrong way and decides she justifies his hatred of the entire female gender and flounces off, trailing dark clouds of Pain and Angst."

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

OK, I grant that there are always exceptions. If it's done in character, and it makes sense, and it's more than jost a plot device to crank up the angst - then I'll accept it.

But so many times it seems to happen just becasue of some convention that people in love don't actually talk to each other about themselves, or don't think that trust is a part of the thing that's growing between them, or something along those lines.

One of the reasons I love Wilde's An Ideal Husband is because he sends up this convention completely.