#ENEMIES TO LOVERS HOW TO#

Nowadays, however, (thanks to popular trends) romantic subplots get shoehorned into nearly every piece of media, whether it makes sense for them to be there or not.Īnd what’s the go-to romance trope of the season? You guessed it: enemies to lovers. A lot of books benefit from a romantic subplot of some kind, but there are plenty more that could’ve been stronger stories without them. Like all popular tropes, using it for its own sake is probably not going to enhance your story. The problem lies not in the concept itself but in how it’s executed. There’s something especially attractive about forbidden love otherwise, it wouldn’t be so popular. Romance and romantic subplots thrive on varying degrees of tension and discord.

#ENEMIES TO LOVERS HOW TO#

So here are the observations of a long-time reader and writer on how to write an enemies to lovers arc that works! When enemies to lovers doesn’t work However, even a fictional escape needs to be believable within its own context, and romance tropes are no exception to that. (Sorry, dated reference–but I couldn’t resist!) And even so, you’re probably talking about two coworkers or classmates who didn’t get along, not a prince and an assassin or a spy and a soldier.īut who cares? We’re not here for realism, we’re here for escapism! The enemies to lovers trope is definitely one that is heavily couched in the conventions of genre fiction, since very rarely in your day-to-day do you encounter a couple who claims they were once bitter rivals before they fell in love.īecause unless you’re BBC’s Sherlock Holmes, people don’t have arch enemies. I’ve seen it done well, and I’ve certainly seen it done poorly. I even like writing them from time to time. I am one of the many who can’t resist a good hate-to-love arc.

It gives us a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

We love to know that people can change, that misunderstandings can be fixed, and that two people with wildly different points of view can learn how to love each other. Why do people love to read about enemies to lovers so much? I think the answer is simple: We as humans love a good redemption arc.

Enemies to lovers