I'm usually a friends-to-lovers type trope in my writing but I want to try an enemies one for my next project. Unfortunately, my work isn't going as well and flowing as well as my other manuscripts. I'm not one to outline my story, I write as I go, and for my previous works I had a lot of inspiration and the words just flew out of me. But this time they are not, and I'm not sure I even like the plot idea I have, and if I'm doing the enemies trope right. My current idea: FL's clan is attached by ML's clan, who is in cahoots with her cousin that wants the red dragon throne to herself. She believes ML killed her mother in the attack, while ML believes she is the daughter of the red male dragon that assaulted his mother many years ago, and enacts his revenge alongside his clan members. Brief idea for rest of story: Cousin wants her to rot away as her inner fire starts to kill her slowly (only her mate can temper it), but ML rescues her and they flee the red dragon clan to recuperate and figure out a way to reclaim her throne. Chaos ensues as she fights him tooth and nail along the way, or at least tries to, but everytime she reaches to kill or hurt him, she finds that her body receives the same pain (eventually they find this is a big symptom showing they are mates--not supposed to hurt each other physically). They find they are mates later on...yada yada. I think main problem is keeping them enemies for awhile, but slowly trying to get them liking each other, and then fixing the misunderstanding toward the end so that the main reason they are enemies is gone, and their relationship can flourish from there. For brainstorming, I want to know some ideas of how to keep the enemies trope going throughout the book: ways to keep them mad at each other or misunderstand, etc. But I also wonder if it's really the enemies to lovers if ML doesn't have a strong reason to hate her--she's only the daughter of the man that hurt his mother, she didn't do anything to him. That and if my plot is something to keep going, or if I should scrap this all over for another type of dragon story?
To decide if the plot is viable, I'd suggest to try loglining it. This is where you write the whole story in one sentence, which must contain a central irony. (The last part about the central irony often gets left off when loglines are presented for marketing purposes, but it's important to the exercise) Real people sometimes change from enemies to lovers, so my first questions are (i) why make everybody a dragon, (ii) why make everybody royal? And perhaps then (iii) why reduce the characters' agency by predestining them rather than letting them become lovers through their own choices? Turning to the question about character motive, I think it's generally going to be weaker if it's all a misunderstanding. Is this YA? There is a plague of ambivalently motivated characters. "You're the daughter of my mother's rapist" is a plot device. "It was all a misunderstanding" is then a further plot device. Strong character-writing would make the conflict plausible just because of who the ML+FL are as people, er dragons. Enemies-to-lovers is overshadowed by Romeo & Juliet. It's easier to pull it off in drama. I bet there's been a readable novel adaptation of that story, and I bet it took the approach of fleshing out the characters rather than leaning into the Capulets and Montagues. Most of the short description in the OP seems like the obstacles that would make it harder to tell the story. Have you tried posting to the Workshop? If you could post one of the earlier friends-to-lovers scenes, where a relationship is shown pivoting, it's likely to get much more specific and relevant feedback.
couple of ways to go about it (i'll use examples WITH spoilers): in King of Battle and Blood, Isolde is a warrior princess and Adrian is a vampire king who is systematically conquering all the other kingdoms. when he comes to Isolde's kingdom, Adrian decides to spare it if Isolde would marry him. So she marries him to save her kingdom, but while she's with him, plots his death (since she is now his wife and has access to him 24/7). He kingdom as well as the other kingdoms are counting on her to set them all free. Adrian knows she doesnt like him and knows shes plotting to kill him (she tried stabbing him once, but hes a vampire, so he healed). The "enemies" thing is broken when Adrian shows her compassion and even saves her and the two of them find a common enemy: a witch who threatens both Isolde's kingdom and Adrian's immortality. The two fall in love as they fight this new enemy. Your main characters can cease being enemies when they realize the cousin is evil, and they fall in love as they team up to face off against him In the chinese drama, You Complete Me, Lin Wo is a headhunter and Gau Shan is this super smart and super manipulative business man who has it out for the business man that essentially ruined his hometown and led to his father's suicide. Lin Wo and Gau Shan's paths cross when Gau Shan is trying to get hired at the Big Company but Lin Wo gets her client the job, forcing him out. They become rivals as he sabotages her job as revenge for her accidently messing up his schemes. They also keep bumping into each other outside of work, much to her annoyance because he witnesses the collapse of her life. but then, when they both find corruption within the company, they team up and start to like each other. THEN he finds out that Lin Wo's father is the one the he's looking to destroy and he attempts to use her to get closer to her father and when she realizes this, it causes a rift between them as she questions their every interraction. But when his past actions catch up with him (his plotting and scheming made him a lot of enemies), he tried to protect Lin Wo from the fallout. You could have your MC's start out hating each other, but, like the other one, common ground pushes them closer together, and then he shows his true feelings when he protects her from his own enemies
In answer to the questions, I like to have them all dragons because I wanted a dragon story with full blood mates. I've already done a mixed race elven/fairy romance in my other manuscript. I tend to go for royalty characters, it's my favorite lol. I really like my idea of having them be predestined mates, but my current idea is that 1) they don't know they are mates yet, and 2) once they do find they are mates, they fight it tooth and nail until they start to feel for each other. Then they choose each other on their terms. No, I do not write YA. I write steamy adult I haven't tried Workshop but I'll check it out. Thank you!
Those two are good ideas. I like them both. For the first one, they already realize the cousin is evil in the beginning of the story, so I think having them fall for each other too soon wouldn't work there. For the second, I'm thinking that way because they already have common ground: evil cousin pushed FL out of her home and is wanting to kill her and the one that helped her escape, 2) his own family/white dragon clan sees him as a eyesore/weak spot so basically is an outcast, and therefore they are outcasts together at that time, and 3) as they train to get stronger and retake her throne, ML helps protect her from his clan and takes a stand against those that want to hurt her.
