Readers don’t just buy books. They buy emotional experiences. And tropes are one of the best tools authors have to quickly and easily communicate those feelings, especially in romance novels.
Why Track Tropes Across a Series?
There are many benefits to tracking tropes across a series. The most obvious is to avoid accidental repetition, like three books in a row where a brother falls in love with his best friend’s sister and they have a marriage of convenience and a secret baby. While that is an extreme example, it happens. There are other reasons as well to keep track of your tropes, and I’ve listed them below:
- Avoid accidental repetition of popular tropes (like my example above)
- Create variety across couples, including ages, life experiences, and whether they are reunited lovers or newly met.
- Strengthen series branding
- Help marketing and cover copy
- Identify gaps in the series (this one in particular can help you also determine those tropes you don’t love and/or avoid and may have to stretch yourself to write.)
- Meet genre expectations (this one is huge because certain genres have very strong expectations for certain tropes, like having an Alpha Hero in a wolf shifter romance or a Morally Gray Hero in a dark romance!)
Here are some examples of tropes to track, divided into the three easiest areas to remember: Relationship Tropes, Character Tropes, and Story Tropes. Beneath these subject headings, I’ve listed some of the more popular tropes in romance novels (I’m sure you can think of more on your own). Some of these overlap, but how these tropes work in a story–whether they affect story, relationships, or character arcs–will determine which category you place them in in your own story bible.
Examples of Relationship Tropes
- Friends to Lovers
- Enemies to Lovers
- Second Chance
- Forbidden Lovers
- Marriage of Convenience
- Fake Dating or Engagement
- Forced Proximity
- Opposites Attract
- Grumpy/Sunshine (beauty and the beast)
- Protector Romance
- Found Family
- Secret Baby
- Love Triangle
Examples of Character Tropes
- Wounded Hero
- Morally Gray Hero
- Reluctant Leader
- Reformed Bad Boy
- Ice Queen Heroine
- Cinnamon Roll Hero
- Runaway Bride
- Alpha/Omega
- Chosen One
Examples of Story Tropes
- Small Town
- Slow Burn Romance
- Dark Romance
- Urban/Big City
- Fish Out of Water
- Hidden Identity
- Touch him/her and Die
- Family Curse
- Road Trip
- Holiday Romance
- Forced Proximity/One Bed
- Snowed in/Forced Proximity
- Returning Hero/Heroine
Once you identify the tropes in your books, you need a way to keep track of it all. Now I’ve not yet talked about how to keep track of your story bible in this series yet, but that will come at the end of this series. There are so many various options out there, I swear I could teach an 8 hour course on how and where to keep your story bible.
For now, you can create a hand drawn Trope Tracking Spreadsheet. On a large sheet of paper (landscape), make 7 columns so you can track trope frequency. Also, you can stack the tropes in each group. For example, you can have a returning hero who gets stuck in a cabin in a snowstorm during Christmas with a heroine who has a secret and a hidden identity. (that would be a lot of tropes, but I’ve seen it done well. lol)
Here is an example of the chart:
| Series/Book | Couple | Story Tropes | Character Tropes | Relationship Tropes | Emotional Wounds | Theme |
|---|
Here is a filled-in example from my Kingsmill Courtships series (KC) that I’m currently rewriting:
| Series/Book | Couple | Story Tropes | Character Tropes | Relationship Tropes | Emotional Wounds | Theme |
|---|
| KC/The Summer Promise | Lily & Gage | Returning Hero & Returning Heroine | Reluctant Hero & Fish Out of Water Heroine | Second Chance & Found Family | Hero doesn’t trust himself & Heroine doesn’t trust others | When you learn to forgive, you begin to trust |
|---|
Now comes the fun part! Once you’ve cataloged all of your books, evaluate the data for future trope opportunities. What tropes have you overused and underused? From your reviews, what tropes in your books do your readers seem to love? Now look at the reviews of other books in your genres? Are there tropes in those books that you’re not using? Can you determine if any particular tropes beyond those you write that are reader favorites? Do you need to read any craft books, take any classes, or read more books in your genre to help you learn the genre’s expectations?
I’m sure you can figure out other ways to evaluate the data, but today’s post was just making you aware of the value of tracking your tropes in all three areas: Relationship, Character, and Story. Your story bible isn’t just a continuity tool. It’s a strategic planning document that helps ensure every couple feels unique while still delivering the emotional experience readers expect from your brand. Now go forth and chart your tropes!
