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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/45331
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/45331
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I have read a couple romance books at most and so don’t claim to have very much experience with romance and clichés.

But here are the ones I can think of:

- Something happens to make them hate each other when they meet even though they are otherwise compatible and they end up getting together.

- Third wheel

- Love triangle

- A is in love with B but B is either oblivious, too focused on something else, or doesn’t love them back.

- They’re in love from the start. 

- Getting together is blocked by one of them already being in a relationship or by one or both of them being committed to something else. 

- A waiting too long to confess their affection and by that time B is in a relationship. 

- They don’t even see each other as a potential love interest until something happens to one of them and the other flips out and has a panic attack and/or mental breakdown.

- One or both people hiding their emotions by pretending they don’t like the other.

I’m not sure if all of these are stereotypes. But if they are, then I’m _almost_ wondering what’s left.

**Is a combination of these enough to avoid a cliché? Can that still be accomplished when the romance is a subplot? Are any of these such common clichés/stereotypes that they shouldn’t even be combined with something else?**

Original score: 1