(mostly romance)
Naturally, assume “when done well” with all entries.
1. Fish Out of Water (like Jana DeLeon’s new release, Rumble in the Bayou): These can be so hilarious.
2. Beauty and the Beast (like Holly Black’s amazing book, Valiant): Probably my favorite fairy-tale plot. Much better than Cinderella. I love the idea of love being more than skin deep, of being redeemed by the love of a good woman, etc. etc.
3. Enemies Become Lovers (like on Veronica Mars): These are tricky. You need a good reason that the enemies are enemies or else it’s just bickering, which gets old fast. I can’t stand the romances where there is no good reason for them to hate each other on sight, but they do anyway. But when done well, hoo mama!
4. Heroine Pretends to be a Man (like just about every comedy from Shakespeare): What can I say? It’s a classic. I love it when it’s used in comedies of errors, or when it’s used metaphorically to put a woman in a man’s world.
5. Treasure Hunts (like Betina Krahn’s The Book of True Desires): Who doesn’t love a good treasure hunt? The structure of these stories are usually so tight. I especially like it when the treasure isn’t what they expected. (Cf. The Da Vinci Code).
6. Revenge (like The Count of Monte Cristo): I love reading about the psychology of revenge. Whether it’s Monte Cristo or Beatrix Kiddo, it’s so fascinating to watch what it does to the person getting revenge. Plus, just deserts.
7. Marriage of Convenience (as in Candace Camp’s Secrets of the Heart): Pretty much only in historicals anymore. Forced intimacy in contemporary romances makes sense to me when they have to work together or are snowbound or something. But I really love those old marriage of convenience stories where they actually fall in love.
8. The Con or Caper (as in The Sting): I love watching brilliant, morally ambiguous people set up elaborate capers and watch them come about. Get Shorty? Love it.
9. Escape (as in just about anything with Escape in the title): It’s kind of like a backwards treasure hunt. Instead of getting in, you’re trying to get out. Also a lot of fun room for push-me-pull-you.
10. The Underdog Makes Good (as in just about every sports movie out there): Because this is America, dammit.
11. Huge Twists (very popular in Buffy the Vampire Slayer): Just ratchets up all the tension to discover the thing you thought you were doing/after/wanted doesn’t apply at all.
12. Long-unrequited Love (as in much of Jane Austen — Emma, Persuasion, Sense & Sensibility): the key, of course, is that it must eventually become requited.
13. Rivalry (as in any good old Spencer/Tracy flick): ah, the verbal sparring. Ah, the flirtation. Ah, the room for comedy!
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