What Romance Trope Are You?

Come one, come all, readers! Let’s chat about tropes and which tropes we love. Specifically, let’s get down and dirty about what romance trope are you, and why you are so absolutely in love with that kind of story.

All stories use tropes and archetypes, and each genre has specific tropes that readers know and love. But before we get too far into romance tropes, let’s talk about what a trope is and why readers need them.

What Is a Trope?

In rhetoric, a trope is figurative language where you use one word to mean something that’s different from its literal meaning. For example, using the phrase “busy bees” to describe workers getting shit done-that’s a trope.

But when writers and readers talk about tropes, that’s not usually what they mean. Instead, we’re usually talking about common patterns or stock characters we’re all familiar with.

Some common character tropes include:

• the dumb blonde
• the chosen one
• the girl nextdoor
• the damsel in distress
• the trusty sidekick
• the manic pixie dream girl
• the antihero
• the dumb jock
• the token minority