Writing Romance Tropes: Opposites Attract

Writing Romance Tropes: Opposites Attract

Description: A pairing made up of two completely different people that embrace their differences and fall in love.

Ideas:

Disliking each other as a default because of social status/a certain event that separates them.

Person B doing things that inadvertently hurt person A and regretting it as they get closer.

An inciting event that shows a similarity between them, even if it's small, and allows for a significant change.

Person A's friend group trying to protect them from person B.

They become friends anyway, which shocks everyone to their core.

Bickering but everyone sees it as flirting.

Talking about each other to their friends. Person A trying to convince their friend group that person B is a good person. Person B telling his friends how cool person A is despite them being completely different from their friend group.

Balancing each other out and doing things to make each other better.

Person B pretending to be all cool and confident but melts every time person A smiles

Person A never thinking they have a chance and is oblivious to how much person B loved them

They assume things about the other person that turn out to be completely wrong as they slowly get to know each other.

An argument that leads to a confession or a soft moment.

"I never wanted to hurt you, this is just a big misunderstanding and I'm sorry." "You never apologize." "Well this is important, so I am now."

Over time they acquire traits of each other's personalities

Casual displays of affection

Secret Heart eyes heart eyes heart eyes

Both being too stubborn to admit their feelings

When they finally do it's shocking at first for both of them but they soon realize how obvious it was

Gushing about how much they liked each other and didn't want to admit it

"Every time you looked at me I wanted to cry you were so cute!" "I thought you were glaring at me when I caught you looking?" "I got scared when you noticed so I decided to look mean instead!"

"You're so frustrating! Why am I even friends with you?" "Because you love me." "Yeah? So what! Wait- I didn't mean that-" "Yes you did." "FINE yes I did." "For the record, I love you too."

Both having a special place or object that they associate with each other (maybe the first place they connected, or an object that they bonded over).

Going on adventures together and helping each other grow even after they get together.

Tips:

Make the differences very significant. I'll list a few examples here.

^difference in social class/economic class

^mean manly jock/shy sensitive nerd (but be careful with this! It can be cliche so make sure to put your own twist on it! My example ship does a great job of this)

^Uptight/easy going

^impulsive, hyperactive / cautious, rational

^ordinary person / someone extraordinary (a hero, maybe)

^very serious, hardworking / always making jokes (alternatively, all work / all play)

Make sure their relationship isn't automatically perfect. They're very different people, so there should be some bumps to overcome.

Give them some arguments! They're not going to agree on everything, so even if they care about each other they're going to fight. Let those fights be raw and emotional and significant.

A fight should be something they both care deeply or feel very strong about, not just a small difference between them. (Ex: a difference in values, or a big communication error)

Take your time with this one, allow their relationship to gradually change from annoyed at each other to friends to liking each other to romance.

Example of this trope:

Tyrus (TJxCyrus, Andi Mack): This pairing starts out as destined enemies in the beginning of season two, with TJ being the scary basketball jock that bullies shy eccentric nerd Cyrus' best friend Buffy. But the two quickly connect as Cyrus brings down TJ's walls and make him want to be a better person and TJ pushes Cyrus out of his very small comfort zone. They turn into best friends and after the manipulative girl Kira is out of the picture, they confess their feelings and get together in the last episode of the show.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" ~Cyrus

"Yeah... Is there anything you wanna tell me?" ~TJ

"Yes." ~Cyrus.

The couple hold hands and give each other a relieved laugh.

(Disclaimer: some of these may be non canon romances but all have heavy subtext or a form of confirmation by the author/creators)

This is part two of my romantic tropes series. Remember, this is all advice and ideas, not rules. Build off of them and come up with your own great story :)❤