Wattpad Pet Peeves

Clichéd Characters: The Rich Guy

If it's not a bad boy romance, then it's a CEO romance. The Rich Guy Trope is definitely one of the most used and abused storylines on Wattpad, only second to the Bad Boy Trope.

So what goes into a Rich Guy Romance (or just the rich guy's character in general)? The Rich Guy is usually either a high-ranking employee, or the CEO of a company that is most definitely family-run. The company usually does something along the lines of real estate (something that is mundane, yet still rich-sounding and not completely boring). If he's not the CEO, then he's lined up to become the CEO within a few years. Also, the non-CEO Rich Guy variety likely has some issues with his parents, or whoever runs the company. Rich Guy is probably traditionally handsome-looking, and he's probably white (rip). He's always super tall, and he likes to wear fancy suits all the time to flex his wealth. He doesn't have much of a personality, other than enjoying stereotypical rich-person things, and being condescending and sometimes even rude toward poor, or even middle class people.

Then the plot gets moving. Rich Guy meets some poor girl who happens to be really hot, and they start a cliché romance that allows the Rich Guy to become less of a d-bag (I promised I wouldn't swear, so this is what you get instead).

My biggest problem with CEO romance novels is their lack of substance. The characters usually have little-to-no personality, and the plot tends to move very slowly. It seems as though the author only writes the book to fulfill some personal Rich Guy fantasy. Since the plot moves so slowly, there are usually a bunch of b-plots that are boring and exist to fill extra chapters. The romance typically has some enemies-to-lovers element, which I've come to hate over my time reading Wattpad novels (just because it's so hard to get right. Might do a separate chapter on that later). The CEO and the love interest are just so different that it feels like the author has to force them together. Also, similar to the Bad Boy, the Rich Guy usually has so many flaws that he's impossible to root for.

As for writing advice (the part that I'm assuming most of you skip over anyway), I don't have much this time (sorry?). Just try to avoid writing CEO romance novels? It's just so cliché that even if you write good characters and have a substantial plot the concept is still overused, and in my opinion, unoriginal (lol sorry to all the CEO romance writers... I'm just being salty).

Anyway, sorry about the short and really ramble-y chapter. More exciting stuff lined up for next time!