Microtropes. Like regular-size romance tropes, they're a great way to add complexity, direction, and deliciousness to a romance novel. They can affect a single scene, heck, sometimes just a single line of a scene, or a whole chapter, and are great for marketing—while they won't really factor into your book's blurb or Kindle keywords, they're perfect in a graphic like this.

I've previously looked at contemporary romance microptropes, but today, we're switching gears and turning the focus to historical romance. Buckle in!

1. Only one horse

You've heard of the only one bed trope, but have you heard of only one horse? It's a similar concept, putting the characters in extremely close proximity, but whereas in a bed, your characters can always roll the other way or elect to sleep on the floor or couch, here, they have no other option. They have to travel by horse, and there's only one horse, so it's snug into the saddle they get, where arms are wrapped around waists for steadiness, and every hitch in breath and sigh or moan is audible except in the highest, loudest winds. If you're writing an enemies to lovers, arranged marriage, fake dating, mail order bride, or guardian/ward historical—or any other trope predicated on the characters not being initially in love or attracted to each other—then this is a great microtrope, because it forces your characters to learn about each other's bodies, which increases or incites attraction and ratchets up the romantic (and sexual) tension. And while I say "only one horse," really any pack animal will work here—mule, donkey, alpaca, water buffalo.

2. Lonesome rancher/farmer teaches their love interest/s how to ranch/farm/homestead/survive

This is a play on the damsel in distress trope, but instead of just saving the heroine from, well, distress, the main character (usually, though not always, a hero), saves the heroine and then teaches her useful survival skills, and in the process they both fall in love. This is a great microtrope to use if you're writing a brooding, silent, and/or grumpy hero, because he can show his affection and care through teaching his heroine how to care for herself. And if he's a hands-on teacher, you've got the set-up for some seriously steamy scenes. You could even combine this microtrope with # 1 on the list to ratchet up the sexual attraction quotient.

3. One main character is the only one who can tame the other

This is a microptrope for all the rakish bad boy bachelors out there, the ones with reputations that enter the room before they do. The ones who insist that no one can make them settle down, or that marriage isn't for men like them. Until they meet the person who makes them want to set aside their old habits, lay down their hearts, and use all that sexual experience to make love to their one and only. Basically, Anthony from Season 2 of Bridgerton. This microtrope also works well with unlikely heroines, like bluestockings and wallflowers, who society would—gasp!—never expect to run off with a rake. And though I've referenced Regency historical romance in this example, it works for most historical eras, because there've been bad boys for, well, all of human history.

4. Hero cock twitches

I said what I meant and I meant what I said, a hero's cock twitches one hundred percent (of the time, in historical romance). A very, very badly paraphrased Dr Seuss right there, but the gist is this: cock twitches abound in all sub-genres of romance, but nowhere are they as prominent as historical romance. I blame it on the historical clothing; those poor appendages are trapped behind skin-tight trews or codpieces with no room to move, so all they can do at the sight of their one true love/s is twitch and, perhaps, harden. This microtrope is for any scene where your character is reacting to their lover/s—that lover might be doing something as innocent as eating a pastry, or as devilish as untying their stays—and it works particularly well in a scene where the cock in question is in public, aka, the inconvenient cock twitch. London season ball? Cock twitch. Summer lawn bowling match? Cock twitch. Carriage ride to Gretna Green? Cock twitch.

While I've used gender-specific terms (hero, heroine) in a few of the microtrope explanations above, with the exception of the cock twitch (which only applies to characters, of any gender, with that appendage) these microtropes can be used in romance novels with characters who identify anywhere on the gender spectrum, as well as romance novels that feature more than 2 love interests. Everyone deserves sexy horse rides, survival skills training, surprise couplings, and inconvenient cock twitches.

Until next post, happy reading and writing!