Tropes I’d Love to Write Someday

Over the last forty odd years of reading, I found that many authors tend to stick to the same tropes. For some it might be due to the type of stories they write or the genre they are in. It would be very difficult (though not impossible) for a contemporary romance author to write an arranged marriage story or for a fantasy author to write a single dad story. It’s just outside of the norms of their genre. Though I would gladly read both of these stories. For others, I believe they stick to the same tropes because that is just how their brains work. Those are the stories that they are drawn too.

I definitely see the same in my own writing. I often write the same tropes multiple times. My favorites being friends to lovers and second chance romances. Because I write spicier books, I’ve always found having that history between the characters helps me jump to the smutty stuff faster, instead of having to spend a lot of time having to create the relationship between them and the reason they are together. I love how the conflict and tension in these relationships that is there on page one. But even though I have a few tropes I tend to lean towards, as a lifelong romance reader and writer, I have a ton of tropes I’d like to write that I just haven’t found the right story for, or the right characters to entrance me.

Here are some the tropes I haven’t written yet, but I would like to explore one day soon...

Snowed In – This is one of my all time favorite tropes. As a lover of forced proximity romances, and someone who tends to set a lot of my stories in cold places, it’s amazing I haven’t written this trope already. And I have come up with a few ideas, but nothing that I think is worth of the trope.

Amnesia – this trope harkens back to my early early romance reading days, when this trope was a lot more prevalent, especially in the historical romance that were my first romance loves. One bonk on the head and any heroine could rewrite her entire life and find the prince (sometimes literally) of her dreams. Over the years this trope has gone out of favor, I imagine at least partially because of the unrealistic nature (though I always thought that was half the fun), but I’d love to write an amnesia story, maybe with a more modern twist. But as of yet, the story idea hasn’t come to me.

Professor and student – It’s still hard for me to believe I haven’t written a story about a student and professor yet. The first erotic romance, the one that had me enthralled and set me down this crazy career path, was a professor and student story. Nothing like that power dynamic to set all the butterflies loose in your stomach. Which is why I find it so hard to believe a story like this has come to me yet (though I did have a play version in Heart’s Ultimatium). I have no doubt one will. Hopefully very soon. 

Warring Families – as a lover of Romeo and Juliet in my teenage years this has always been a trope I’ve loved. Whether it is with vampire families, mafia families, or just two warring family restaurants, I always love two families that hate each other so much they can’t stand to be in the same room, and the children that fall in love to throw the whole thing on its head. I’d love to write my own version of the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s, but maybe ones that fight over Christmas decorations instead of stolen farm animals. 

True Enemies to Lover – Enemies to Lovers is one of my favorite tropes. I absolutely love reading them. The tension between the characters. That white hot hate, that turns into white hot passion with just the right spark. When done well, it is amazing. But it has to be done well, and with the right characters, the right motivation and the right passion, otherwise you’ll never get that power and passion the reader—and I—crave. And as of yet, no characters that could hate each other that much have come to me. Though I am definitely on the lookout. There’s nothing I would like better than to write some hot hate sex scenes. The idea alone has me excited.

I’m sure there are a few others tropes I’d love to add to my collection, but these are the ones that really tempt me to bring them to life. And I hope I find the right story and the right characters to do soon. These tropes are all so awesome, how could you not want to write and read them all.

Are your favorite tropes included in this list? Do you have another trope you really love you want to see written? Leave it in the comments below and maybe I’ll add it to my list to torture myself with.