Tropes And Prompts That I Wish To See More Of In Fanfiction
Enemies to lovers, coffee shop AU’s, “there is only one bed oh my whatever shall we do”. These tropes are all great! But what about the tales that are hardly told on AO3? What about the underused tropes?
-To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before AU: For those of you who don’t know the Netflix rom-com “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before”, the basic plot is this (It’s been a while since I saw it, so everything I say to you might be lies. Also, if you do not care about the plot of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, feel free to skip ahead):
There’s this hopeless romantic girl, right? And somehow, no one will date her, despite her being gorgeous and funny and smart and sweet and having a room like a magazine photo (and her bed is in the middle of the room?? Every teenager I know has their bed against at least two walls, it’s common sense). Standard teen movie stuff.
Instead of talking to guys she likes, she’ll write out detailed letters confessing her feelings to them. It’s a diary thing, I suppose. She also writes down their addresses on the letters. Where is she getting the addresses? Why is she writing them down? She never planned to mail them. Why are you the way you are, Laura Jean?
Anyway, wacky hijnks ensue and (le gasp) all five of the letters are sent. Somehow, this merely leads to a love triangle, where the proper thing would be a love pentagon, but whatever. There are no sword fights in this movie.
That was a roundabout way of saying why is that not a fanfic trope? There are enough fandom bicycles with several ships that this would work perfectly for! It’s a good way to add some drama to a high school AU.
-This isn’t a trope really, but Weddings: Once your OTP have trecked through the angst, skipped through the fluff, and settled into their domestic fics, what would the wedding be like? Weddings are really fun from a writing standpoint. You want drama? Emotion? Cute couple antics? Wacky best man and/or maid of honor shenanigans? First dances going well? First dances NOT going well? That one family member that shows up that no one wants there because they’re a reminder of when your grandfather split the family in half and caused quite a bit of psychological damage to 90% of the guests (that might be more of a specific problem with my relatives)? Let them get married!!!
-While in high school AUs, don’t neglect the drama club: The school musical is actually a great framing device for a story! It’ll be a common thing the characters are all striving for, a way to bring them together, a big final event for the finale, and, of course, no one can do drama like the theater kids. There’s so much to do here!
-On that note, D&D club will do a similar thing: Bonus points if actual paranormal activity starts happening and they have to become the heroes they pretended to be (and actually are in canon?).
-MASQUERADES: MASQUERADES ARE AMAZING. THE AESTHETIC. THE DRAMA. THE STYLE. CHOCK FULL OF PREMIUM RAZZLE DAZZLE.
-Amusement Parks: Amusement parks are up to their necks in story potential. Want romanticism? Want a kiss at night lit only by the glowing ferris wheel? Want humorous realism? Did someone throw up on the coaster again? Dear lord, this is my life, isn’t it. Want creepy stuff? Fun houses are less fun when everything is trying to murder you. And of course, your OTP could meet when person A decides to scam person B at carnival games, and person B is having none of it.
-Hunger Games AU: Ever wanted to murder people and not have to cover it up? Congratulations, the Hunger Games AU is for you! How will your ship react to a doomed romance? Will they Katniss/Peeta their way out of things, or will it actually be doomed? Will you pit all of your ships against each other? You decide!
-Sword fights: SWORD FIGHTS SWORD FIGHTS ALL THE SWORD FIGHTS PLEASE MORE SWORDS BLADES I NEED THE BLADES ALL THE BLADES SWORD FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHTS!
