#it's an ice breaker that forces people beyond the polite formalities

[fictionadventurer]

The more I try to write romance, the more I come to the terrifying conclusion that Hallmark relies on all the cheesy tropes because they work.

#dead parents? #extremely quick way to create sympathy for your main character #efficient backstory that doesn't require a lot of details or specifics to understand just why this matters so much to the character #and now i'm trying to write a first meeting and finding that it's absolutely impossible to avoid a crash-into-each-other meet-cute #it galls me #i am appalled at my utter hack-ness #but it is efficient #it is cute #you give them an excuse to talk to each other #without needing to come up with a reason why they can politely approach the other person #or thinking of what they might say as an opening line #it's an ice breaker that forces people beyond the polite formalities #and i ask you when one of the pair is a speedster and the other is invulnerable what else am i *supposed* to do? #this trope was invented for this highly specific pride and prejudice superhero au situation #i am one of the few people with valid non-hack reasons to indulge in this trope #i am going to give them like three or four meet-cutes because this plotline allows it #and you can't stop me so there #adventures in writing #(also just so the five people reading these tags who might be interested are aware) #(i was going to keep this au to bullet points) #(then realized that i was writing out enough bullet point details to create an entire scene and just went for it) #(stories are much harder than bullet points this was a terrible choice)