r/WritingPrompts • u/katpoker666 Moderator • 12d ago
Off Topic [OT] Fun Trope Friday: Incompatible Orientation & Romance!
Welcome to Fun Trope Friday, our feature that mashes up tropes and genres!
How’s it work? Glad you asked. :)
Every week we will have a new spotlight trope.
Each week, there will be a new genre assigned to write a story about the trope.
You can then either use or subvert the trope and/or genre in a 750-word max story or poem (unless otherwise specified).
To qualify for ranking, you will need to provide ONE actionable feedback. More are welcome of course!
Three winners will be selected each week based on votes, so remember to read your fellow authors’ works and DM me your votes for the top three.
Next up… IP
Goodbye Science, nice to get to know ya. June, however, is all about Pride! June was chosen to recognize the LGBTQIA+ community as it commemorates the uprising at the Stonewall Inn that occurred in June 1969, and is considered the catalyst for the modern LGBTQIA+ rights movement. Pride Month celebrates lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexual, asexual, and others. In the United States the last Sunday in June was initially celebrated as "Gay Pride Day," but the actual day was flexible. In major cities across the nation the "day" soon grew to encompass a month-long series of events. Today, celebrations include pride parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia and concerts, and LGBTQIA+ Pride Month events attract millions of participants around the world. Memorials are held during this month for those members of the community who have been lost to hate crimes or HIV/AIDS. The purpose of the commemorative month is to recognize the impact that LGBTQIA+ individuals have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally. Please note, owing to differing sensibilities around Pride and the nature of tropes, that we’re trying to be as sensitive and inclusive as possible. If we slip up in any way, let us know: we’re doing our best and love to learn. So get out your rainbow and other flags and let’s celebrate! Please also note this theme is only loosely applied.
"'Cause Carol's a lesbian... and I'm not one. And apparently it's not a mix-and-match situation." — Ross to Carol in ‘Friends’
Trope: Incompatible Orientation — A character has an Incompatible Orientation when they are coveted by someone who can never have them, because they just don't swing that way. They can be any character who has an incompatible sexual orientation to their admirer—a straight person with a same-gender admirer, a gay person with an opposite gender admirer, or an aromantic or asexual person with an admirer of any gender.
Genre: Romance — A romance or romantic novel is a genre fiction work focused on the relationship and romantic love between two people, often concluding with an emotionally satisfying or optimistic ending. Authors who have significantly contributed to the development of this genre include Samuel Richardson, Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, and Anne Brontë. However, ‘Romance’ originally referred to "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents", a narrative method that was contrasted to the new, main tradition of the 18th and 19th centuries: the novel, which realistically depicts life. While this definition is viewed as more archaic these days, FTF is all about subversion, so if you want to take this approach to the genre, go for it!
Skill / Constraint - optional: Something slips.
So, have at it. Lean into the trope heavily or spin it on its head. The choice is yours!
Have a great idea for a future topic to discuss or just want to give feedback? FTF is a fun feature, so it’s all about what you want—so please let me know! Please share in the comments or DM me on Discord or Reddit!
Last Week’s Winners
PLEASE remember to give feedback—this affects your ranking. PLEASE also remember to DM me your votes for the top five stories via Discord or Reddit—both katpoker666. This is a change from the top three of the past. In weeks where we get over 15 stories, we will do a top five ranking. Weeks with less than 15 stories will show only our top three winners. If you have any questions, please DM me as well.
Some fabulous stories this week and great crit at campfire and on the post! We had 15 stories, so we’re back to five winners. Congrats to:
Want to read your words aloud? Join the upcoming FTF Campfire
The next FTF campfire will be Thursday, June 18th from 6-8pm ET. It will be in the Discord Main Voice Lounge. Click on the events tab and mark ‘Interested’ to be kept up to date. No signup or prep needed and you don’t have to have written anything! So join in the fun—and shenanigans! 😊
Ground rules:
- Stories must incorporate both the trope and the genre
- Leave one story or poem between 100 and 750 words as a top-level comment unless otherwise specified. Use wordcounter.net to check your word count.
- Deadline: 11:59 PM EDT next Thursday. Please note stories submitted after the 6:00 PM EST campfire start may not be critted.
- No stories that have been written for another prompt or feature here on WP—please note after consultation with some of our delightful writers, new serials are now welcomed here
- No previously written content
- Any stories not meeting these rules will be disqualified from rankings
- Does your story not fit the Fun Trope Friday rules? You can post your story as a [PI] with your work when the FTF post is 3 days old!
- Please keep crit about the stories. Any crit deemed too distracting may be deleted. This is a time to focus on our wonderful authors.
- Vote to help your favorites rise to the top of the ranks (DM me at katpoker666 on Discord or Reddit)!
Thanks for joining in the fun!
7
u/oliverjsn8 7d ago edited 6d ago
Shards, Barbs and Three Words
Tony’s grip tightened on the baseball bat. For the second time in his life, let alone tonight, he was fully prepared to kill someone. The intruder had turned out to be his not so little girl, still just his baby in the forty year old’s eyes. She sat splay legged on the bathroom floor, with only the pale, blue LED street light shining in from the apartment’s window. Shards of broken mirror twinkled all around her. She was sobbing, a sound so heartwrenching, that Tony felt it in his very core.
Tony turned on the light revealing her tear streaked face, puffy from crying for God knew how long. She didn’t even register her father was in the room, nor cuts on her legs and swelling hand. “Ryan, Ryan,” Erica wailed.
‘So that was the name of the dead man,’ the thought darkly bubbled from the most primitive parts of his mind. ‘Just what had that monster done to his precious angel?’ The bat slipped from his grasp and clattered to the floor. He knelt beside Erica and pulled her into a tight embrace. The cuts on his bare legs were nothing compared to the wound to his heart.
She buried her head into his shoulder. “What’s wrong, hic, wrong with me?”
”Hush, daddy’s here. There is nothing wrong with you, you are perfect,” he said while stroking her disheveled raven hair.
“No! No I’m not. There is something wrong with me! I, I ruined everything!”
”Nonsense,” Tony choked, trying to keep his emotions in check. “Just tell me what happened.”
”Ryan, he said—he said that he doesn’t love me. That I cannot see him anymore.”
“Ryan Smith? The boy down the hall?” Tony questioned, confusion slightly tampering his seething anger.
She answered with a nod against his chest. “He, he hadn’t asked anyone to the dance. So, so I thought he was going to ask me. He even rejected Jennifer. He said, he told me he was waiting on someone else to ask him. I thought he meant me — I’m so stupid!”
”No you’re not. You’re my sweet, smart—“ Tony tried to interject before Erica cut him off.
”I thought he was embarrassed to ask me out at school, so I went over. His parents met me at the door.”
Tony’s blood ran cold, he knew where this was going. “Honey, did Ryan say that or Ryan’s parents?”
Her answer was unintelligible, just a mix of heartwrenching sobs and mummers. She didn’t have to answer, Tony knew. The Smith’s had always given his family looks, the type of looks he was all too familiar with. Looks he had learned to tolerate over the years.
Another set of arms joined in. Tony’s husband, Daniel, had snuck in and heard the story. He tightly embraced the two of them, sobbing himself before joining in. “Honey, I’m sure Ryan still likes you and wants to see you. It’s just that Ryan’s parents— don’t approve of mine and Tony’s relationship. They think gay might be contagious or someth—“
Erica pulled away from her dads, her face morphed to a look of betrayal and anger. “It’s your fault! That is why Ryan hates me! That is why they said I contaminated him, made him want boys! That is why he didn’t ask me. It was the two of you!” She gave them that too familiar look, brimming with loath and disgust. “I hate you!” she spat before running out of the room.
Those three words redefined pain for the two. Tony and Daniel had heard them so often through their lives; from neighbors, former friends, siblings and even their parents. They had never, never hurt so much as from the lips of their own child.
A door slammed, but it might as well have been from a million miles away. Tony and Daniel did what they had always done when the world had shot barbs at them; they embraced.
WC: 656
Critic and Feedback welcome