You say theme, I say plot device

It’s good information whatever you call it. In my earlier search for theme related information I stumbled onto a handy section of the Romantic Times Website titled Themes. Without rehashing the whole “how I define theme” argument, I’ll just say that this is a pretty nifty (and pretty comprehensive) list of timeless romance plot devices.

Here’s a much shortened list I created from their lengthy one:

Feuding Families
Marriage of Convenience
Amnesia
Kidnapping
Nursing Back to Health
Secret Babies
Bad Boys
Presumed Dead
Terms of the Will
Pirates
Mail-Order Brides
Pretend Marriages
Childhood Sweethearts
Love on the Job
Reconciliation

I included the plot devices I consider to be the most classic among romance novels. I mean, come on, marriages of convenience and secret babies are as stereotypical as the romance genre goes—and I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. Marriages of convenience and secret babies can be cliché and silly, or they can be page-turning and captivating. It’s really all in how the story is written.

For even the most extreme plot devices on the list that might leave you shaking your head and thinking ‘there’s no way I would buy that,’ there’s an example out there of how it’s been done well. “Disguised as a Male” struck me that way at first, but then I thought oh…what about Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night or the movie Shakespeare in Love or the movie She’s the Man.

I just finished an older Suzanne Brockmann, one of the early ones from the Troubleshooters Series, and one of the subplots contained a nursing back to health plot device. Never once while reading that did I think to myself, ‘oh I’ve seen this so many times before.’ Even though I have. The writing and the context of the situation within the bigger story made it fresh and exciting.

Classic plot devices are classics for a reason. This list could be useful for story brainstorming in the future.