This list is taken from Victorine’s book:
How to Write a Swoon-Worthy Sweet Romance Novel
How to use this list:
As I’m brainstorming, I like to look over my list of tropes and find tropes that work well with each other. I list out tropes that introduce conflict and either repel the couple or provide that adhesive that sticks them together. I find a few that I feel work well together and complement each other. For example, the performer trope works well with the social class trope and the opposites attract trope. After I find tropes that I like, I weave them into a plausible storyline and add the personalities of the characters.
Before using a trope, I highly recommend researching and reading some romance novels with that trope so you understand the expectations your readers will have if you use it.
- Afraid to Commit – This is a repelling trope, as your hero is afraid to commit. (You could turn it around and have the female be the one afraid to commit, but I mostly see this used with males.)
- All Grown Up – Your characters haven’t seen each other since childhood. This trope is often used with best friend’s sibling, but you can use it alone as well. Your characters will have a history, which you can use to repel them, if you give them enough conflict in their backstory.
- Alpha Hero – This hero is confident and in control of his life. Often, he’s rich, but that’s not a requirement. He and the heroine either butt heads in conflict, or she turns his world upside down with her spontaneity. If she doesn’t like the alpha male type, you can use this trope to repel your couple. Be careful not to make him too much of a jerk, though, as you can make your readers not like him as well.
- Amnesia – One of the protagonists gets amnesia. This can be taken into different directions, so you can be creative with how it’s done. Check out Overboard the movie for one example. You can use this trope as adhesive to force the two of them together if there’s no one else who can take care of the person.
- Antihero – This trope is similar to the playboy or alpha hero tropes. Your hero lacks heroic qualities, although I would show his character growth as the story goes so your audience can fall in love with him along with your heroine.
- Arranged Marriage – I adore the conflicts inherent with this trope. As you plan this one, think about all the differences that might come up between two strangers. No matter how you twist this one, you have the adhesive already in place because the marriage is what is forcing them to spend time together.
- Athlete – You can find many different sports with this trope. Usually the athlete is famous, but it doesn’t have to go this way. You might be able to use this trope to repel your characters, if one has an aversion to the famous lifestyle.
- Beauty and the Beast – He’s an unlikable character, and she’s either confined with him or working for him. You don’t have to do a complete fairytale retelling with this one. Just take the basic trope, shove the two characters together, and you have both the repelling and the adhesive.
- Best Friend’s Lover – The ultimate taboo. You can’t fall in love with your best friend’s boyfriend. What a fantastic repelling trope.
- Best Friend’s Sibling – With this trope, often the heroine has an older brother and his best friend is the hero of the story. This is a built-in repelling situation because the older brother is usually protective of his little sister and she’s off limits to the best friend. But you can twist around this trope if you want to give the reader something a little different.
- Bet – Someone makes a bet and that’s what forces the two protagonists together. It’s a great adhesive. Usually the dark moment is when the bet is discovered. An example of this trope is How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days.
- Billionaire – The hero of this story has everything, except love. You can twist this trope in a lot of different directions, but one thing they all usually have are descriptions of lavish mansions or private jets. The heroine might not like rich men, which would set up a good repelling situation if you wanted to go in that direction.
- Bodyguard – This trope sticks the two characters together really well. Almost always it’s the male that’s the bodyguard, and if you can add in a reason they can’t fall in love you’ve got a great story. You can pair this up with the social class trope, or the opposites attract trope.
- Boss/Employee – You have your repelling automatically set up with this trope. It’s against the rules to date an employee, so falling in love is out of the question. But you also have the adhesive set up as well, because the two of them work together. You see this trope all the time because it sets up so much of the conflict and sticks the two of them together for much of the book. You can have either the Hero or the Heroine of the story be the boss.
- Breakup to Save Him/Her – With this trope one character breaks up with the other in order to save the character. One example would be if the Hero’s mother is threatening to come forward with reputation-damaging information if he doesn’t leave the Heroine. I often see this trope used as backstory and the rest of the book is a second chance at love trope. This is a repelling trope, because it’s a secret through the book until the reason behind the breakup comes forward.
- Celebrity – This can be any kind of celebrity, from a local celebrity like an anchor-man to celebrity philanthropist. Use this trope as a reason to repel the characters, using the celebrity life as too much for the person they fall in love with.
- Cowboy – This trope is filled with life on a ranch, and slow summer nights. You can go in a lot of different directions with this one, bringing in a city girl or forcing the two together with him hiring her as a ranch hand. However you do it, be sure to read some modern Western romances to understand the trope.
- Dark Secret – This trope usually is what is repelling the two characters apart. Give the character a good enough reason why they can’t tell the secret, or the trope will seem flimsy, fixing the tension by having one conversation.
- Dating Mr. Wrong – The heroine thinks she’s in love, but he’s all wrong for her. The hero must help her realize this. This trope is perfect for repelling the relationship, because she already thinks she’s in love. Toss in some adhesion and you’re set.
- Disguise – The main character in this trope is disguised in some way, but they fall in love while in this disguise and can’t come clean. Think She’s the Man, where the girl pretends to be a boy to get on the soccer team, but falls in love. This is a good repelling trope.
- Enemies – Whether your characters own competing businesses like in You’ve Got Mail, or if they’ve hated each other since grade school, this trope is great for repelling your characters. Give them a great reason they are enemies, then stick them together somehow.
- Fairytale Retelling – This is where you modernize or retell a typical fairytale in a new way. Many fairytales have adhesive and repelling factors already built in. Just read some fairytale retellings to get a feel for the trope.
- Fake Relationship – This is a favorite trope of mine. You can just have them be fake boyfriend/girlfriend, fake engaged, or even fake married. This trope is the perfect adhesive to stick the two together. Then all you need is a reason they can’t fall in love and you’ve got the bones for a great story.
- Fish out of Water – This can be a social class situation, where one is from a lower class and doesn’t know how to act in an upper-class world. Think Pretty Woman. Or it could be city mouse vs. country mouse. (Crocodile Dundee) No matter how you twist it, this trope can be a great way to cause tension and conflict, and can even be a repelling for the two main characters.
- Fling – For whatever reason you want to set up, your characters have decided to have a short-term dating relationship. Maybe it’s a vacation romance, or one of them is moving soon. Whatever it is, there’s a ticking time bomb going to go off soon, which will separate them and the relationship will be over. Keep the tension of this built-in ending to the fling in the forefront of their minds, and this can become a great way to repel the characters. She can’t fall in love with him, because they are only dating for the summer and then he’ll move.
- Friends to Lovers – This trope is one of my favorites. Just the fact that they’ve been friends for so long can be a great repellent, as a more serious relationship can totally mess up the good friendship they have.
- Forbidden Love – You can set this one up several different ways, finding something new to keep the two protagonists apart. You could use a family feud, like in Romeo and Juliet, or social issues, religious issues, or any number of things making the relationship forbidden. This one automatically goes along with the boss trope.
- Imaginary Love Triangle – This is where a character believes the other one is in love with someone else, when they actually are not. This is a repelling trope.
- Injury – I like this trope because one character is injured and the other is forced to nurse them back to health. This is the adhesive that puts them together for most of the book, but there’s also an expiration date on their relationship because the injured person will eventually get better and leave.
- Jilted Bride – This trope can be used as one of the things holding the Heroine back from falling in love with the Hero of the story. She was hurt in the past, he left her at the altar, and now she can’t trust men anymore.
- Kidnapped – This is better for romantic suspense. You can have both characters kidnapped, forcing them together, or you could have one be the kidnapper but as the story unfolds they change their mind and help the other character to escape. Either way, the adhesive is in place because they’re stuck together.
- Law Enforcement – This one also works well with romantic suspense. You can have the hero or the heroine as a police officer, FBI agent, etc. If you can come up with a reason why this would either repel or adhere the two characters, you get bonus points. (For example, maybe she’s a widow, her husband was killed in the line of duty, and she resolves never to date/marry a police officer again.)
- Love Triangle – This is obviously where there are two choices for the protagonist to end up with. I am going to admit that this trope isn’t my favorite. In fact, I’ve read love triangle books that make me want to toss the book out the window. But hey, it’s a trope for a reason, so some people like it. Personally, if I were going to attempt this one, I’d make sure the reader clearly knows who the hero or heroine of the story ends up with, or I’d be afraid of mad readers. But read some love triangle romances that are selling well to get a feel for how to write them. Ignore me, because I dislike the trope, so I don’t know what the appeal is.
- Maid – This trope brings with it the social class trope, where one protagonist (usually the female) is the maid, and she’s working for the other protagonist who is wealthy. It would be fun to turn this one around and make the man the maid and he’s working for the rich woman.
- Mail-Order Bride – This is almost always a historical romance, since this kind of thing did actually happen in history. Your adhesive is set in place with this trope, then all you have to do is come up with some reasons why they don’t think they can fall in love.
- Marriage of Convenience – I adore this trope. If you can come up with a plausible reason why two people would want to marry even though they don’t love each other, whether it be social, financial or any other reason, this trope can be brilliant. Your characters are stuck together during this marriage of convenience and all you have to do is make sure there’s something repelling them to cause conflict.
- Marriage Pact – Two characters promise to marry if both are single by a future date. This trope adheres the two characters together, and you can come up with all kinds of fun conflict to repel them apart.
- Matchmaker – Who doesn’t love a matchmaker, meddling in other people’s lives? I love it when someone outside of the couple is forcing them together. This is a great way to cause adhesion. Then all you have to do is add in something that’s repelling them and you’re set.
- Matchmaker Gone Wrong – This trope is where the matchmaker falls for the person they are trying to match. This trope has inherent repelling because the matchmaker can’t fall in love. They are trying to get the other two to fall for each other.
- May/December – This trope automatically repels the two characters because of the age gap between them. They can’t fall in love, because he’s so much older, or she’s older and the social pressures are keeping them apart.
- Military – You can use any branch of the military with this trope. If you can find a way to make that also repel the other character, you can kill two birds with one stone. Maybe her father died in a war and she doesn’t want to fall for a soldier.
- Mistaken Identity – I love this trope, and I’ve played around with it a bit like in Her Big Fat Fake Billionaire Boyfriend, where she mistakes him for her date-for-hire, but I have him tell her right away he’s not who she thinks he is. I want to write another one where the character doesn’t confess, where they go along with it through the whole book. I think it would be really fun. If done right, you can make it adhesive as well as the reason why they can’t fall in love. Maybe he mistakes her for the nanny when actually she’s a reporter, and he’s famous. She goes along with it to get the dirt on him, so they’re stuck spending time together. But she can’t fall in love because he’ll eventually learn who she really is.
- Office Romance – This trope is similar to the boss trope. Your characters work together, and that’s what forces them to spend time together. You’ll need to come up with a good repelling reason for them not to fall in love.
- On the Road – For whatever reason, your characters are taking a trip together. This can work well with the stranded trope, if you want to go in that direction. The trip forces them to spend time together, so you have your adhesion.
- On the Rocks – This trope is about a couple who are already together, but experiencing problems with their relationship. Maybe they are on the verge of divorce. This is kind of a tricky one to make work, since you don’t just want the book to be all about two people yelling at each other all the time. You’ll have to come up with an interesting way to create that attraction and zing while coming up with a good repelling issue, and something that sticks them together so they have to work things out.
- Opposites Attract – This is a good repelling trope. Maybe your characters are on different sides of the political spectrum, or one feels strongly about an issue and the other one is part of the problem. He owns a factory and she’s standing up to pollution. Whatever you put in that makes them opposite, make sure it’s deep enough to keep them from falling in love. Then force them together and add in attraction, and you’ve got a story.
- Orphan – This trope works well for repelling, because you can add in a lot of past trauma from growing up without a family, or in the foster care system. This can be a great reason why they don’t want to start a relationship with the other character in your story.
- Parent/Childcare Worker – A parent hires a nanny or tutor, and this becomes the adhesion to keep them together through the book. It’s also a bit of a repellant in that the man probably feels awkward falling for his child’s nanny. Throw in something about how he still misses his late wife, and you’ve got everything working together.
- Pen Pals – Okay, modern day characters might be chatting online instead of through the mail, but the idea of this trope is that they don’t know each other in real life, but they fall in love through their communications. You can twist this trope around to be like You’ve Got Mail where they actually do know each other in real life but hate each other, or mess with it in other ways. The fact that they talk online adheres them together. You can find many different ways to repel them apart, especially if they don’t know each other. Maybe one is famous and doesn’t want to reveal that.
- Performer – Whether you use actor or rock star, this trope gives you the perfect opportunity to bring in conflicts. This trope goes along with the social class trope, or the opposites attract. Having one of your protagonists be a performer can be a great reason to repel the characters. Maybe she just wants a simple life, and can’t stand all the paparazzi hanging around. Or maybe his work schedule is too much for her. Whatever it is, you just need something forcing them together and you’re ready to run with it.
- Playboy – I like this trope, but you have to be careful with it, in my opinion. Sweet romance readers might dislike a playboy character, especially if he sleeps around. I used this trope in the book above, Acting Married. I tried very hard not to portray him as what the newspapers said he was, a playboy party guy. I think the heart of this trope is that the man is putting women at arm’s length while he’s hurting for some reason. This can be a great repelling reason why she doesn’t want anything to do with him.
- Politician – This can be a fun trope, bringing with it inherent conflict as everything is so public in a politician’s life. You can use this to repel the two characters. And you can bring in great conflict if something happens to make the politician look bad in front of the public.
- Rags to Riches – This trope usually brings with it the social class trope. Give a poor character instant wealth, give them an unrefined personality, toss in something to adhere them to someone else and watch the fun unfold. If you’d rather twist it up a bit, give them something in their past they are hiding and use that to repel instead of the social class difference.
- Reality TV Show – Shoving two people together for a bachelor or bachelorette type show can be a great adhesive for a romance.
- Redemption – This is a great trope to layer in with some other, more prominent tropes. This is all about something that happened in the past that your character feels they must atone for. The guilt and remorse you can add in can really flesh out a character.
- Return to Hometown – I see this trope a lot in books set in a small town. One protagonist is coming home for one reason or another. You still need to find a reason that adheres the two characters together, so don’t rely on this alone to do that. But you could use this trope to repel them, if the character that stayed in the small town is upset about the other one leaving, and thinks they will be leaving again soon.
- Revenge – I think you might have to be careful with this one, as sweet romance readers may not like a character bent on revenge. But if you can build in enough guilt and character growth, I think you can get away with it. I’d use this trope as a way to repel my characters. One is wanting revenge for some wrong done in the past, while the other one wants to stay away because they see the destructive nature of this.
- Royalty – Most often I see this as a prince or princess situation, although you can probably get creative with it. The social class trope can go along with this one. This is a repelling trope, as what prince would want to fall in love with just a common girl?
- Runaway Bride – She gets cold feet and runs. He chases her. You can turn this around and switch gender roles if you want. The main thing with this trope is you want the repelling factor to be the reason the character is running. Something stopping them from going through with the wedding. He’s chasing her, which adds in your adhesive. Through the process of him chasing her and spending time together, she comes to realize whatever was holding her back isn’t as important as her love for him.
- Scars – This trope is about emotional scars. You can layer this trope in with other tropes. This is a repelling trope, but it might not be enough on its own to repel the two characters through the whole book. I often layer this trope with a good adhesive and another good repelling trope.
- Second Chance at Love – This trope is all about overcoming past offenses. The characters were either married or were boyfriend/girlfriend and something happened to break them up. This is a great trope for repelling your characters. Force them together and watch the sparks fly.
- Secret Admirer – The heroine has a secret admirer. Twist this one how you want. This usually is the trope that is repelling the two apart, because she likes the secret admirer. It could be the hero of the story, or you could toss in a love triangle.
- Secret Baby – This trope is often used as a repelling force. The woman is either pregnant and hiding it, or she has had a baby and doesn’t want the hero of the story to know. This trope can come with lots of remorse and redemption if you want.
- Secret/Lost Heir – I’ve seen this trope used to repel two people apart, as one has gained a great fortune and now the other one feels like they don’t fit into their world anymore. I’ve also seen this paired up with the royalty trope, where they inherit money and a title.
- Social Class – We see this trope all the time, where one character is from a higher social class than the other character. This is a fantastic way to repel the two of them. A relationship can’t possibly work. He’s a rich rock star, and she cleans public bathrooms for a living. Think Maid in Manhattan.
- Spontaneous vs. Serious – I often see this one with the woman as the spontaneous, fun-loving character and the man is the more serious character who needs to loosen up, but I’ve switched the gender roles on this and done the opposite. This trope can sometimes repel, but it’s not enough to sustain through the whole book so you’ll need to pair this up with other tropes.
- Stranded – This trope physically forces the two characters together, usually in a stressful situation. What better way to add conflict and adhesion at once? You can have them stranded after a plane crash, like The Mountain Between Us, or just locked in a room together for the night. However you handle it, make sure they can’t just walk away from each other.
- Sudden Baby – I’ve typically seen this trope used where the male character is informed they are the father of a baby and he’s suddenly supposed to take care of this child. You can use this as the adhesive if he needs help and asks the heroine of the story to teach him how to care for this baby.
- Time Travel – Most of these tropes are contemporary romance tropes. This trope might put it in science fiction, fantasy, or historical, depending on how you do it. I would probably use the time travel to repel the two characters, making it impossible to have a relationship with a time traveler.
- Tortured Character – This trope is about a secret past that tortures one of the protagonists. Often this makes it impossible for them to see love in their life. This would repel the two characters.
- Ugly Duckling – This trope is initially what repels the two characters, but as they spend time together, the character sees the beauty that is inside.
- Unrequited Love – One character has been in love for a long time, but the other one doesn’t have the same feelings. I’ve often seen this one paired up with the best friend’s sibling trope. I used this trope in Her Big Fat Foxy Billionaire Best Friend, and used his love for her as a reason why he goes with her on the cruise, thus sticking them together for the book. The fact that he thinks she doesn’t return the feelings is what repels them. I like this one because you can make it so this one trope both repels and adheres them.
- Vegas Wedding – This trope usually starts with a character waking up married to a stranger. You could take this in all different directions, but the marriage definitely adheres the two characters together while they try to figure out what to do.
- Widow or Widower – I’ve mostly seen this trope used as a repelling force, as one character is having a hard time getting over the death of their spouse. This comes with a lot of inner conflict that can make the story great.
- Woman or Man in Peril – This trope works great in romantic suspense. Someone or some organization is after either the male or female protagonist. The other character rescues them. I would use this is the adhesive, sticking them together as they try to evade capture. You can use this trope as a small plot device as well, if her car won’t start and he comes to her rescue. It doesn’t have to be the basis for the whole plot.