Tropes Do Not Make A Story

Romance writers love 'em. The good old trope! Unknown baby, forced proximity, you name it! Romance writers seem to think a story needs these to make a story work. Ahh, my good friends, that is far from the truth. In fact, too many of you romance writers are ruining your stories with these tropes.

What? Are we using the wrong tropes? That must be it, right?

Actually, no. The reality is that you are either basing the entire story on a single trope and just wearing the reader out, or throwing in far too many tropes at us and really killing us. 

Let me explain.

First of all, we need to remember the definition of a romance. This is a story about a relationship to a HEA or a Happily Ever After. Simple As That. It means that the plot of the story, the central story arc focus on the relationship. It doesn't matter if it is a RomCon, Historical, Romantic Suspense, Inspirational or Romantasy, M/F, F/F, M/M, it is about the relationship. Do you notice I am not saying anything about the tropes here? 

To build the story arc, we add in conflict. That comes in with the GMC, or the Goals, Motivations and the Conflicts of the characters. In other words, what they want, what is driving them and what is standing in their way of achieving it. What stands in the way of their relationship is the central conflict of the story and it has to be something more than a simple "we have to get over ourselves" moment.

BTW, have you noticed...still no mention of a trope???

Now, if you want to throw a spin into your plot, sure, you can toss in one (and yes I mean ONE) trope but only if it needs it. I always like to think of it like those cooking shows.

A little bit goes a long way.

Don't buy into the myth that it is the trope that sells the story. It is the writing and how you use it. I promise.