Young Writers Society

Okay, I'm getting really sick of these "Unpopular girl meets popular boy (or vise versa). Girl falls in love with boy, boy loves girl. Happy ending." I'm so sick of it! No offense to anyone, but, for once I'd like something a bit different. I'm trying to write something different myself, but inspiration just hasn't struck yet. Help?

In my opinion, it all lies in the characters. And the setting you choose. Get to know the characters and they will grow out of the stereotypes of romance. Experiment with stuff. Play with ideas that may not end in entirely happy endings. Twisted romance is extremely interesting to write. Romance with unique, engaging characters is even more fun. ^_^ Casting characters outside of stereotypes and tapping into their brains and making them flawed and unique should help you out of the modern romance trap. Never be afraid to experiment.

hehe...i got the same problem as you pal. I'm a bit sick with the modern romances especially the ones in romantic comedy.

try having one of them-maybe the girl- as psychopathic like something of a split personality who seems to like this boy who is her childhood friend. the boy on the other hand-he forget about the psychopathic girl as a childhood friend-, has this relationship with a girl in which the psychopathic girl becomes envy and try to win the boy by telling about their childhood in which the boy forgets and...so on and so forth.

its just an idea...

I have three jump-starters:

1) A popular girl and a popular boy are always expected to get together, even though they don't really like each other. They are continually set up by their friends, until, eventually, they decide to get together just to stop them bugging them. However, now, they find themselves tumbling into a world of facade and pose, leading to some bleak criticism of the high school world of 'popularity'.

2) A new boy, a dark poet, walks continually along a river, waiting for his muse to strike. He finds her, in the form of a sixty-year-old woman, who has a brilliant personality and eyes that drive him mental, so they begin having tea together (how British of me) and discussing poetry. However, the popular girl, who 'always gets what she wants', is hounding the boy to make him see that she is the one, and finds out about his afternoon tea with his geriatric love.

3) A twisted romantic comedy; the handsome, popular, etc. boy is kidnapped by the new girl, determined to have a happy ending once and for all.

That's all I can think of that I am not going to use.

I just had this problem and (somewhat) conquered it when I did nanowrimo. I was doing the two guys, one girl, one of them is good for her and the other one is so obviously not, you know. Bridget Jones, and just about every romantic comedy out there. But by extending my view to other people in the community, it turned from a romance into a sort of, I dont know, uplifting fiction about rediscovering oneself during turbulent times, both as teenagers and adults.
Or I would go with Hero's advice; number two was my favorite idea.