forum How to make the 'Best friends turned lovers' not extremely cliche?

Started January 22, 2018 by @Celestial-B

tune

I'm thinking of having this in my story but I don't want to make people cringe by it lol. How do I make it so its a cute story and isn't extremely cliche?

Oh wow. I really want to help, but romance is literally what I'm worst at writing. However, I shall try!

Okay, so I actually don't think that the classic 'best friends –> lovers' thing is TOO cliche. I mean, yes, it is, but it's like, a good trope? Does that make sense? This is hard, ahh!

However, if you don't want to make it too classic, you could try making it ~extreme~ (THIS is what I'm good at writing). For example….
-Traumatizing events! Make them go through something together and grow closer because of it/because they understand each other.
-SUBTLETY! Make it happen over time. Like, a long time. I think that this would be a struggle to write, but if it works for you…. Little inside jokes, dorky references to the eighth grade, etc.
-Make them besties, right? Ok. Now literally force them together. Throw your characters into a hurricane of circumstances that provide them with tiny details about each other.

Quite frankly, I feel as if some of these might already be ~cliche,~ but when writing romance, one must write romance (or do what I ended up doing and run far away). Best-friends-turned-lovers isn't bad cliche so long as you write it well!

Actually, I think that it might depend more upon the characters than the circumstance. Which probably would've been useful if I'd though of it 100 words ago. Oh well. CHARACTER! YAY!! ;P

Welp, I hope this helps you (even if I suck at romance!!) :DD

Thanks @CinnamonRoll :D This actually helped me! And I totally understand what you mean when you say its not that cliche but it is lol. Again, thanks!

Well, instead of the usual 'slow appreciation of them turned to romantic feelings,' it's funnier and, honestly, more realistic, to have a 'Oh f*ck, I'm into my best friend moments'
You can also make your characters have the type of friendship where they do all the couple stuff, and have for a while, but just decide to call it romantic now.

Depends on whether you want to take a slow approach or, like Dunconius said above, a more realistic and snappier approach. Regardless, it's actually hard to make people hate this trope, because it's not really that far fetched, since friendships are a common place that relationships start from all the time. Anyways, you want to first really sell that the two are best friends. Have plenty of interaction between them to show their deep rooted friendship to the best of your ability. This'll get people not only attached to the characters but also their friendship, and will make the point where their romantic relationship finally forms all the better.

maybe start it of with A telling B that they fancied them but B saying that they don't fancy them at first but they stay friends, but the reason B rejected them is because they were too shy and make them both girls