So, I’m on Pinterest and there’s this incredible dress that has blown up in terms of shares. I’m not going to violate any copyrights by posting it here but I’ll link to it here, yes, I will. (I’m not getting paid to endorse this). One look and you’re hooked.

As a romance writer, the reaction to that one item of clothing is the same type of reaction you want for your story. It’s about more than the dress, alone. It’s about the feeling you get when you look at that picture. The ambiance. The luxury. The beauty. The mood. I touched on it in my post about Falling in Love and it doesn’t hurt to repeat.

And most of the people who have pinned that dress have pinned it to wedding boards. It’s a black dress. Quite a few goth wedding boards have it, but most are just regular wedding boards. It sticks out because It’s black and ridiculously beautiful. It’s different and unique. It’s dramatic and and the photo itself is so well composed it compliments the romance of the thing.

We have to do that as writers. Romance tropes have been around forever. It’s up to us to take a trope and make it different. Make it something new and special that someone can’t stop staring at. Make it into the story — or the dress, that dress — that we all want.