I should first start this post by saying what I mean by “miscommunication trope”. What I mean is a plot point where two characters misunderstand each other and the conflict is dragged out because they won’t talk to each other.
Examples: Jane finds a note from her love interest that says he likes Sarah’s hair, and she takes it to mean he’s having an affair with Sarah. Jane does not talk to love interest and instead breaks it off without telling love interest why. Later, Jane finds out “Sarah” is a new Muppet because love interest works at Henson studios and is designing the puppet, and it was all a misunderstanding all along!
Example 2: Tammy overhears the obvious villain who has been horrible to Tammy the whole book say that love interest is not in love with her, and is instead in love with the villain. Tammy believes obvious villain unquestionably and breaks it off with love interest without talking to love interest first. It turns out, Villain was lying! WHAT A SHOCKING TWIST.
So, me and other readers in my book club who are fans of romance absolutely despise this trope, but it so prolific in the genre.
I know it’s realistic. I know miscommunication is a massive problem in real life. However, it is not fun to read about.
Usually when conflicts arrive, it’s fun because you are trying to figure out how the characters are going to overcome their struggles. How is Uncle Tim going to save the family candy shop? What are our characters going to do?
But the miscommunication trope isn’t fun because we already know how the conflict will resolve — Just talk to each other. C’mon, just freaking talk to each other!
But it’s so ubiquitous in the genre, that there *must* be people who enjoy the trope.
Do you like this particular trope? Am I being unfair to it? Do you think this trope is necessary to the genre?
by HelloDesdemona
3 Comments
No. By the way, trope means style of writing, not theme or genre.
I detest it, personally. I hate it when a plot could be solved with a simple five-minute conversation, and personally, I find its use a bit… lazy? Like you couldn’t think of a better reason to stretch the romance out, so you just suddenly have two grown-@ss adults incapable of having a conversation with one another?
I really love your first example, that’s a great twist there
Not really a romance reader but I wouldn’t assume that because it’s common there must be people who actively like it. I’d guess that many readers can tolerate it and it gets used because it’s very convenient for the authors; a way to separate people and create tension between them which also doesn’t cause ‘lasting damage”, so to speak and thus can be neatly wrapped up later. On the other hand, sometimes people do make stupid decisions and a miscommunication plot line might just be a realistic scenario which is true to your characters, granted that your characters are very dumb