Raindrops and Butterflies

 by Pamela Moran from the May 10, 2021 issue

Tagline: When her childhood crush and neighbor, Todd, comes over to help Abby plant flowers for Mother's Day, love is in full bloom.

Observations: This is another example of how you can rely on oft used Woman's World tropes and still end up with a heartwarming story that the editors love. (And I did love this story, especially the dad and his satisfied smile.) A trope is defined as a common or overused theme or device. I embrace tropes and prefer to think of them as tried and true rather than cliche.

The tropes Moran used were 

• gardening 
• a quasi-matchmaker (Did her dad invite Todd over? The author left us guessing.)
• a helpful man (also known as man to the rescue)
• a late, beloved family member
• a post activity piece of pie

Honestly, sometimes I think about making some giant dice out of cardboard, writing tropes on them with sticky notes, then rolling them and challenging myself to write a story using those tropes.

In fact, here's printable pattern for a paper cube in case you think this is a good idea too. 

Photo by Stephanie via Flickr Creative Commons License