This week at the SFF Seven. we’re asking each other which tropes you love to write and which do you loathe?
The tropes I love are pretty easy to identify for anyone who’s read more than one of my books. My favorites are:
- Enemies to Lovers
- Marriage of Convenience/Political Marriage/Marriage of State
- Forced Proximity
- He Falls First
- Learning to Use magic/special abilities/wrestling own power
As for the tropes I loathe? Loathe is a strong word. I’m not sure I loathe any tropes. Ones I’m less fond of are:
- Second chance (I just don’t believe that whatever broke them up the first time won’t break them up again)
- Bully Romance (no no no – toxicity and abuse isn’t romantic to me)
- Fated Mates (hard to make this one work)
- Faux Medieval Fantasy Worlds (Enough already – and besides medieval times were never like that)
- Chosen One (yawn)
The ones I truly dislike are the damaging ones, like:
- Woman in the Refrigerator (women are people, not plot devices)
- Clumsy Heroine (it’s not endearing to me)
- Racist Cliches (enough said)
- Bury Your Gays (see Woman in the Refrigerator)
- Having Kids as the Solution to Happiness (Spoiler: having kids is *hard* – they don’t solve your problems or give your life the meaning it lacked)
