It’s said that there are no new plots in literature. Depending on what expert resource you check, plots range from a measly 72 to an even more measly six. I believe some tropes lend themselves better to certain fiction genres than others.
That being said …
I recently began reading a new book, the loss leader of a series, so it was a free download. It began with a plausible scenario: our young, beautiful heroine who has a terrible fear of flying must take a journey in an aircraft. OK, I can buy that. I get that fear, even if I don’t share its intensity. I find lift-off and landing unsettling. I’ll grip the arm rests more tightly and say a prayer for a safe and uneventful journey. Our heroine takes a couple of Xanax and falls asleep on the handsome passenger sitting beside her. Embarrassing, but still within the realm of plausibility.
The handsome passenger is, of course, our hero in the story. A former Navy SEAL (of course), he’s been hired by our heroine’s wealthy friends as her bodyguard. When the heroine discovers who he is, she is upset. Of course.
The heroine needs a bodyguard because she, an internet celebrity, is being stalked. It’s a really common trope. That’s not the problem, but it is where I started cringing.
The heroine not only objects to his protection, she also fails to heed his advice. Our heroine’s insistence on ignoring the good advice meant to keep her from falling victim to a stalker obsession is meant to demonstrate how strong and independent she is. Unfortunately for this story and nearly every other story with a similar woman-needs-a-bodyguard scenario, her obstinance demonstrates her imbecility. She’s not a strong female protagonist; she’s a stubborn idiot.
I don’t need to read the rest of the story. I already know the heroine’s abject stupidity and terminal stubbornness to have her own way will put her in jeopardy from which the hero must rescue her.
Every book but one that I’ve read in which the heroine needs a knight in shining armor to protect her follows that same plot line. How tedious. So, what’s an author to do?
Consider some options:
- The bodyguard is the anonymous stalker.
- The heroine actually follows the bodyguard’s advice and still finds herself in danger.
- The heroine follows the bodyguard’s advice, the bodyguard does his job, and the danger isn’t the stalker but someone else.
- The stalker is someone else’s useful idiot and taken into custody by law enforcement, and that someone else is the true danger.
Readers of romance especially, but other genres, too, like the familiarity of well-worn tropes and want originality. They want something different to spark their interest and engage their attention without abandoning the comfort of familiarity.
It’s an author’s job to give readers what they want—that’s called “writing to market.” Whether editing or ghostwriting for a client, I keep the reader’s expectations in mind. That may lead to unanticipated revisions, but your book will be the better for it and your readers will appreciate the refreshing treatment of a tired trope.
By the way, that book I mentioned which refreshed that tired trope, Midnight Man by Lisa Marie Rice, did so in an obvious and simple way: the heroine heeded the hero’s advice and accepted his protection. In short, she demonstrated some common sense. I read it over a decade ago and remember it: that’s how strong an impression it made on me.
