Tweaking tropes

Tweaking your tropes
In a recent Hallmark movie, the hero and heroine who have not met yet, are standing in line for coffee. A different two, run into each other spilling their coffees on each other. The hero feels compelled to strike up a conversation with the heroine about the meet-cute they just witnessed.
Tweaking tropes alert.
The actual meet-cute in the movie was the hero and heroine discussing the meet-cute they just witnessed. The writers must have had fun with this twist.
It is our solemn duty to find ways to tweak our tropes. I wondered when I watched this twist if anyone but a writer would spot it. Probably not. But it doesn’t matter to the reader/watcher. They’re just enjoying the book/movie. They might sense that the characters feel more real or that there’s a natural connection happening. In any case, the scene is at least funny.
Homework: consider a trope and then tweak it and report back to me. Or give me any trope and I’ll tweak it.

Advanced body language

Fight, flight or surrender
In a wrestling match and other one-on-one contests the expression square-off is used. Most people, I assume, don’t have a clue what that means. I never thought about it until this concept grabbed me as a blog opportunity. I now recall the words of my wrestling coach in high school. Form a square or rectangle with your opponent. The coach also taught math. The expression square-off means face your opponent don’t let your body give away your next move. In this way you can move either direction in response to your opponent. For those who don’t see this picture your shoulders, hips, head and feet in a square with your opponent. In wrestling, we lean slightly toward our opponent and plant our feet outward at 45 degrees. These last two points don’t hold true in romance.
When a woman or man faces their opposite and assumes and holds a squaring off position they are saying many things. First, they have no fear that this war like stance could be misinterpreted. They are showing complete love and trust in their opposite. They are offering themselves completely to that person. They are assessing rather openly their willingness to commit to this person. They seek surrender and victory at the same time with the same body language.
Am I making too much of this? No, as a writer, it is your duty to the reader to show such subtleties. Enrich your story or risk being dismissed as unwilling to work hard or creating a hackneyed product or clichèd novel.
About the male POV: It is quite an accomplishment for a man, as warrior, to square-off with the heroine. He is a self assured, totally open, loving hero who is saying “I’m yours”.

Square-off and choose to surrender and win at the same time.

Vote for love

Vote for love
We, as writers, wrestle with love in every story. Romance writers always vote pro love.
Tuesday, we have much to consider when we actually vote for real life improvements. Some critics of romance say happily-ever-after is not the real world. Some also say that people choose what is in their best interest. Interesting, there is much philosophy to suggest our best interest is in choosing what is best for the group. In the movie, A Beautiful Mind, the men walk into a bar, notice a group of ladies. They all choose the blonde. The blonde rejects them all, so as to be in solidarity with her friends. If they talked it out before acting like fools they would have all gotten dates.
So what is in your hero or heroine’s best interest and what is your best interest on election day?
Here’s a dose of philosophy/theology for today and I might recommend, a lifetime.
Christian: Treat you neighbor as you would yourself (every human being is your neighbor).
Jewish: “I do not want followers who are righteous, rather I want followers who are too busy doing good that they won’t have time to do bad.” Rabbi Menachem Mendel Of Kotzk
Moslem: Certainly will the believers have succeeded. They who are during their prayer humbly submissive. And they who turn away from ill speech. Quram 23:1-3
Atheist: “Being a humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishments after you are dead.” Kurt Vonnegut
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We have much work to do, so please vote. Listen to the words of a very smart man before you choose.
Einstein: “There are two things that are infinite, the universe and man’s stupidity... And I am not sure about the universe.”
So when you vote consider the greater good or in other words that which will be the most good for a majority of people. You’ll make out better because you are not alone. Besides, getting back to the bar scene, the redhead is prettier.