Romance plot conventions
Wed, Sep. 19th, 2007 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterBecause 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>
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>
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Thu, Sep. 20th, 2007 09:41 pm (UTC)Absolutely can't stand:
- when an incredibly worldly, intelligent and experienced person is made to fall in love with someone who is naive, silly and needy. (I'm thinking about 70% of all Georgette Heyer books.) In the real world such paragons usually seek the company of the similarly self-actualized.
- when the hero or heroine realizes that they've been in love with their best friend all along, and promptly hops into an OMG SOULMATES kind of relationship with them. There is almost never any indication that the heroine/hero found their friend sexually attractive before. Also, the friend is always all "Great! It's about time!" rather than "Excuse me, this is a surprise, and not an entirely welcome one. Let's talk this through."
- doomed relationship triangles/quadrangles/other shapes. It's called polyamory, people. Unless this is a historical romance with zero possibility of an alternative arrangement, I am sick of the monogamy theatrics! And it's not like even the doomedy-doomed situations couldn't be worked out at least a little.
Bulletproof Kinks:
- worldly, accomplished, intelligent people with lots of emotional armor who fall for someone in the course of the book and begin to show a little humanity.
- non-monogamy without stigma.
- queers in love, without stigma or a nasty ending.
- cross-class relationships
- Stephen Potter. Oyce - read the Upmanships! They are so freaking hilarious. I am ordering Anti-Woo right....NOW.