Romance Novel Tropes

[daffodelias]

Inspired by an offhand comment in a recent ontd_pinto post, I am in the middle of writing fanfiction in the style of Harlequin Presents novels. I spent most of the night outlining the structure of the stories -- in the case of Presents, they really are all the same story. I used to be able to read them and laugh because they were so ridiculous, but since I had to pay so much attention to them for characterisation and how the story would be transferred to fanfic, I really started to hate them.

A while ago, there was a blog post about Taylor Swift songs as an example of the perfect young adult novel (so fitting!) and one of the comments on it linked to a blog post about romance novel narrative structure. It featured a list of qualities in category romances from a study on romance novels from a few years ago.

1. The heroine’s social identity is destroyed.
   
2. The heroine reacts antagonistically to an aristocratic male.
   
3. The aristocratic male responds ambiguously to the heroine.
   
4. The heroine interprets the hero’s behavior as evidence of a purely sexual interest in her.
   
5. The heroine responds to the hero’s behavior with anger or coldness.
   
6. The hero retaliates by punishing the heroine.
   
7. The heroine and hero are physically and/or emotionally separated.
   
8. The hero treats the heroine tenderly.
   
9. The heroine responds warmly to the hero’s act of tenderness.
   
10. The heroine reinterprets the hero’s ambiguous behavior as the product of previous hurt.
    
11. The hero proposes/openly declares his love for/demonstrates his unwavering commitment to the heroine with a supreme act of tenderness.
    
12. The heroine responds sexually and emotionally.
    
13. The heroine’s identity is restored.

-Reading The Romance by Janice Radway, pp. 134

I had this list in mind while I read a Presents novel tonight, and for the most part, it's pretty accurate. For the sake of working things to fit a Pinto storyline, I went into more detail in my list.

1. Establish that the heroine's life is unfulfilling due to self-loathing and perceived character flaws (uptight, workaholic, no social life, etc.)
   
2. Introduce hero, who exemplifies everything she wishes she could be; heroine questions her own life choices (is there more to life than this job/family/friends/etc.?)
   
3. Heroine acknowledges hero sexually as a way of belittling herself (i.e. he's too good for her, she's not good enough for him, she feels sexually inferior)
   
4. Heroine interprets an action by the hero as overtly sexual, and reacts defensively; he reacts aggressively
   
5. They both awkwardly acknowledge the misunderstanding and part ways, not expecting to meet again
   
6. They meet again, and the hero has the upper hand
   
7. She interprets his actions/interest in her as purely sexual and rebukes him
   
8. Hero resorts to emotional/sexual blackmail to keep her close to him, giving the appearance of "compromise," with the interests clearly in his favor (i.e. convenient marriage, "fake" mistress, etc.)
   
9. Outside forces (friends/family/ex-lovers) finish off destroying her social identity by coming between heroine and hero
   
10. The heroine and hero find common ground and begin to reconcile their dislike for each other
    
11. Hero pushes her out of her comfort zone; she interprets action as dislike or lack of interest and reacts defensively
    
12. Hero tries to make up for past indiscretion with an act of tenderness (divulging life secret, "understanding" the heroine, etc.)
    
13. Heroine interprets action as trying to control her, and reacts coldly; hero reacts aggressively
    
14. Hero discovers heroine's dark secret; heroine reacts coldly and interprets his interest as purely sexual
    
15. Hero reassures her sexually
    
16. Heroine believes it was a fling, and he has gone back to his whorish ways
    
17. Hero exploits her secret, in the guise that is is "for her own good," challenging her emotionally; heroine closes herself off
    
18. Hero and heroine are separated, both now miserable
    
19. Hero expresses love for heroine; she reciprocates

I'm not entirely sure how to approach Pinto fic with this structure. It's going to be difficult for a lot of reasons. Some of the plot devices used in Harlequin Presents can transfer well into a gay setting (hello, misunderstandings and misinterpreting someone's actions as purely sexual in nature!), but Presents also have really rigid gender roles that I'm already having a hard time translating. It would probably be easier if I didn't already have vague character ideas in my head, because I really cannot imagine Princess being such a thick-headed twat -- but I can totally picture ZQ being a douchey slutbag; that story's been done before.

I've been bouncing ideas off a few IRL beans today and I've determined that ZQ is obviously going to take the Hero role, as the Italian Millionaire Playboy, and Princess will be an English teacher. I think they'll initially clash as like, a city council meeting that determines the length of school lunches or something. And then something will happen where ZQ becomes the guardian of a child and has to come to Princess for advice, and they have absurd misunderstandings and ~bond~ over the kid.

So yeah. This is going to be interesting. I don't know how far I'll get in this adventure; with my track record, I will probably get five or so chapters in before being distracted by something like a sweater pattern or a new show to watch.