LISTEN, don't judge.

Would anybody read a book following the POV of a short shy soft-boy MMC falling in love with a tall powerful and potentially eldritch FMC? Is there an audience for that? Does anybody on earth except for my inner child wanna see a MMC win princess treatment from an Ice Queen's melted heart?

I wish I could explain this (even just to myself) at a higher resolution. For a time, I used to think I for some reason couldn't even enjoy het romance fiction on the same level as wlw romance, but I know there are some gems now. (and it would be weird if I couldn't given my IRL experience)

Like right now I'm reading 'The Hating Game' (Het) and 'Delilah Green Doesn't Care', and in both cases I feel like the characters are very vibrant and dynamic and full and I like them a whole lot. But Fourth Wing, ACOTAR, ACOMAF, Throne of Glass. A bunch of generic characters. No sauce.

Is it just me or doesn't it really feel like the het ships have much more generic fanart here? The distinct feeling I get it hard to put into words. In terms of actual story content, I don't feel this way about all het romance, but certainly the most enormously popular series

Right so like, i'm a transfem and i'm bisexual leaning towards men IRL (Sexually & Romantically). Het should be a natural fit, but something about a lot of popular het romance (like popular romantasy) feels very generic and bland to me. And I feel the art symbolizes that perfectly.

or maybe sometimes a few facets that you have to cobble together a little

I think the best twist is one that the reader didn't predict, but could have predicted.

When you get to the twist and immediately go "oh, of course!!"

But you can never get everyone like this. A good twist will still be predicted by the smartest of your audience.

Oh!