You can see my first round post here.

Please check out @purlturtle’s second round post. I’m doing this in response to them, as they said I could. Such an interesting topic!

So in the BLUE CORNER

• Bodyguard vs Workplace
• Second Chances vs. Sibling’s Best Friend

Rocking that RED we have

• Grumpy/Sunshine vs Just To Get It Out Of Our Systems
• Holiday Romance vs. Soulmates

The sun shines down on YELLOW

• Mistaken Identity vs Only One Bed
• Amnesia vs Secretly a Celeb/Royal

Aaaaaand finally working that GREEN

• Fake Dating vs. Friends to Lovers
• Sworn Off Love vs. Supernatural (vampires etc.)

Under the cut for this round of picks and rambles!

Bodyguard vs Workplace
Workplace is a wide field of possibility – it’s literally any place people work. Bodyguard is just one profession but it could protect someone who works in many different fields. Again a lot of options.

I’m going to go with Bodyguard because Workplace is too wide really. It’s a setting, a backdrop. There is a slight inherent prompt (meeting at work) but Bodyguard is that and a dynamic as well. Plus as I mentioned in the first round I find the Bodyguard trope compelling. I have more novel ideas than time/spoons so I don’t know if I will ever get round to writing my Bodyguard concept series but I hope I do! I have concepts for 3 books at the moment. If only I could write multiple ideas at once. Writing takes ages :/

WINNER: Bodyguard

Second Chances vs Sibling’s Best Friend
I was decidedly meh on the Sibling’s Best Friend in round one so this isn’t going to come as any great surprise. It has to be Second Chances. Last round I briefly mentioned by serial – “reunited forced proximity due to workplace divorced ex-wives” and for fun I’m going to tell you the inspiration. So I was watching Ahsoka and I did a literal spit-take because I misheard a line and thought Sabine said “Guess I should have married a good one” and what can I say, inspiration was born. I don’t really ship Ahsoka and Sabine but boy once I had seen those ex-vibes I couldn’t unsee it.

Anyway! I have another Second Chance in my sci-fi thriller series. That’s sort of reunited via bad guy revenge. They are both slow burn on getting back together because while the love is still there, breaking up caused pain. It’s important not to gloss over that. To communicate, to build something stronger, to not repeat past mistakes – learn and grow basically. I do like the idea that the end doesn’t have to be the end. That love can endure. That people can mess up and work their way back. There’s hope in that.

WINNER: Second Chances

Grumpy/Sunshine vs Just To Get It Out of Our Systems
Again no surprise as I wasn’t fond of the ‘Out of our systems’ trope in round one. It had to be Grumpy/Sunshine. I have thought about that a little more though because while I described the type of vibe, I didn’t give any examples. The first one that came to mind was the fandom crossover Rushbelle (Nicholas Rush, SGU and Belle, Once Upon a Time). But I also think it applies to Lamia and Cassandra from Librarians. I think I said before it’s not a vibe I like with all pairings, it’s not something I look for. It’s more like a topping? It’s not the cake. With some pairings it works to add something but it’s not something that compels me on its own. But it wins by default.

WINNER: Grumpy/Sunshine

Holiday Romance vs Soulmates
This one is a little more difficult if you stretch the definition of Holiday Romance but otherwise it mostly feels like a sweet meet cute. I do like the Soulmate trope. I explained why in the last round. I never thought I would like this trope and then I wrote it and discovered how interesting it can be.

I think it comes back to that iconic line about “I would find you and choose you in any universe” or the other line about “hope there will always be an us, in every world, in every story”. Because when people fit… this is why there’s a million AUs for ships. We watch the same ship fall in love in different settings, with different tropes – across alternate universes and they still belong. I don’t like the whole “only one person destined for you, not being whole etc. without them” – that’s not what I mean. Maybe I’m talking transcendence I don’t know. I think I’m trying to have it both ways with the soulmates trope but I do like it.

WINNER: Soulmates

Mistaken Identity vs Only One Bed
Ooof we have reached a tough one. It kinda doesn’t feel fair that some brackets are super easy and then others I would pick both. Only One Bed is the absolute classic but it can’t just win automatically or it will steamroll the whole thing purely for being iconic. I have a deep appreciation for it. I snicker and go awww every time.

But then Mistaken Identity… I spoke last time of that Sophie Devereaux quote “do you let them love the fake you, or hate the real you” and about masks, the deep need to be loved for who a character truly honestly is – true acceptance basically. This definition is present in basically everything I write. Characters are afraid to be truly seen thinking they will be rejected. I don’t know if I am stretching the Mistaken Identity as a prompt but this is how it speaks to me and so I got to go with it.

WINNER: Mistaken Identity

Amnesia vs Secretly a Celeb/Royal
I stretched the definition of Secretly a Celeb/Royal last time. I talked of the idea I have tossed around of some rich guy doing a Clark Kent as nobody expects them to be normal. I do like that. It’s one of the old standbys I pull out when I can’t sleep buuuuut Amnesia is another one.

There’s something about memory, like it’s gone but an impression remains. An echo. Like Deja-vu maybe? Imagine waking up and going “who are you” and getting told “I’m your wife” and going home and seeing photos and mementoes of a life you don’t remember. But when you hold her, there’s something. It feels right in a world where everything feels unfamiliar and wrong. OR alternately another variation of two friends who aren’t together but the one with amnesia doesn’t know anyone, but they know their friend, they think they are lovers or married. How can their friend tell them when they are the only thing in the world they remember? There’s a lot of ways it can go.

WINNER: Amnesia

Fake Dating vs Friends to Lovers
This is another hard one. Friends to Lovers is basically everything I write, and Fake Dating is like Only One Bed – an absolute classic. Iconic. Now I ruled against Only One Bed because I said it couldn’t win purely because it was so iconic. I said that a definition of Mistaken Identity could be about masks and that was in everything. The same applies to Friends to Lovers. I guess on that basis Friends has to win. I am just hesitant. I don’t know why Fake Dating just tickles something in my brain. So much mutually pining idiots. This is really difficult I want to pick both.

WINNER: Friends to Lovers

Sworn Off Love vs Supernatural (vampires etc.)
In the first round I waxed lyrical basically about Helena swearing off love in Warehouse 13 and then Myka happened. I have such feelings I can’t tell you. But then Supernatural ugh! This is another super hard one to choose between because they both have such compelling facets to them.

I suppose Supernatural is broader because the conflicts it evokes are dependant on the situation – of which there are many possibilities. Sworn Off Love is the conflict itself. It sort of speaks to a trauma in the past that the person needs to overcome. Not because the new love/relationship will fix them (I don’t like that), but because they are still stuck in the moment of whatever hurt them. It is taking their choices and to have control of their life and happiness they need to process the pain. Whether that’s accepting love from this partner, or a future partner, or just being more comfortable in themselves – knowing that they can have a relationship if they want, even if they decide they don’t.

Having just gone on I guess I kinda need to pick Sworn Off Love but Supernatural is so compelling /sigh. So hard to choose!

WINNER: Sworn Off Love

I saw @purlturtle didn’t ramble for this round but I’m not even a little bit sorry. Maybe eventually I will have less to say but probably not. It’s me and story, I can usually think of something haha.