13 Common Love Story Plots You Can’t Miss Out

I’m no guru. I don’t have a booth somewhere a crowded street offering my services for those who have problems and difficulties regarding their love lives. I don’t also hold a late night radio program encouraging callers to give me a ring and share their most treasured memories with their love ones. I don’t have a book documenting my so-called-knowledge in this area. I am just an ordinary girl who came across a variety of stories from reading too much tagalog and English romance novels, watching cheesy chick flicks and tear-jerkers, and hearing numerous first-hand experiences about love from friends since I was in my fourth grade in elementary.

From all those stories and almost-real-almost-fake collections of mushy proposals, and unending conflicts between the story of a boy and a girl, I came up with 13 common plots you will never miss when you delve into the mysterious world of LOVE.

1. The ‘I’m so stupid for making the biggest mistake of falling in love with my best friend’ plot. These are plots where the scenes include the girl and the boy growing up together in one small barrio. They take a bath in the ‘sapa’ and climb the Kamatsile tree together with other friends. When they reach adolescence, one of them will notice that their best friend is actually cute when he or she smiles, and WHAM! Can’t get him or her off each other’s mind. They will grow cold and eventually part ways. But, in the end, they won’t be able to find someone better than that friend so they will reunite and form a small family in their barrio.

2. The ‘And they call it puppy love’ plot. You usually meet your first love during the early days of your life. Here the young couple will fall in love and experience the sweetness of being in love for the first time. Fishball and sago’t gulaman while walking in the plaza and mallings are just some of the fun parts included in this plot. But something would come up. One of them has to leave for abroad. The young couple will part ways and then meets after a decade and realizes that nothing changed. They still love each other. They will patch things up and rekindle the old flame.

3.  The ‘Sleeping with my enemy’ plot. One plot you can’t miss when reading a book or watching a film is this one. Expect scenes where the main hero and heroine would throw dagger looks towards each other and then later on utters words of hate. The root of the conflict is actually a long-time family feud, incidents of unfortunate events and encounters, and hurtful pasts. It is also safe to predict that in the middle of the story they would be trapped in a situation that they can’t say no to like being stranded in a deserted island. They would lean on each other’s strengths and would start seeing each other in romantic manner.

4.  The ‘Damsel in distress, Knight in shining armor’ plot. Ladies are usually the ones in trouble so her rich dad—a businessman, a politician or a famous public figure—would hire the country’s best bodyguard to protect her precious angel from ‘kalaban sa politika’. Because of the bodyguard’s macho image, the lady falls for his charisma. Then again, the bodyguard resists being involved with his client’s daughter because it is not a good idea mixing business and pleasure. The two, after the lady confesses her feelings, will be involved in a heated argument. The lady flees and would be kidnapped by goons who are just waiting for a good opportunity to abduct their subject. The bodyguard panics and would try to save the lady and in the end, would receive the bullet intended for the lady. He eventually quits his job to start a new life with his client’s daughter. Classic.

5.  The ‘Babangon ako at dudurugin kita’ plot. Revenge is actually a common starting point in most story plots. The leading lady hates the leading man very much because of some deep reasons and would sought justice to make the man pay. She would start stalking the guy and eventually will be involved in awkward situations and the guy would either unveil her true goal or saves her. The guy is usually a lady killer and the girl is as serious as a school principal can be. Predictable but pretty interesting plot.

6.   The ‘Bayaran mo ako’ plot. I don’t have the slightest idea if this plot actually happens in real life but it has something to do with either the female or male lead paying a big a mount of cash just so to get the other to pose as a girlfriend/fake wife/fake husband/boyfriend and other passable roles. One night stands are also quite common. The other person is either in deep shit because of money problems or is black-mailed so he ends up agreeing to play the most coveted role. When the contract is about to expire, the other party would start realizing that he or she wants to make the drama real. You know what happens next.

7.  The ‘bridge’ plot. The guy is in love with his current girlfriend who happens to be the main character’s best friend. The guy, knowing that she knows her best friend more than anyone else in this world, would seek for her guidance every time they fight. She gives him advices on how to pacify the girl and leaks out information on what and what-not to do. In special occasions, she will lend her shoulder and ears to him so he can pour out his frustrations when the two of them fights. On the other hand, upon seeing how good this guy is, the girl starts feeling something for him. However, she rends herself because it is not a good idea stealing her best friend’s boyfriend. Actually, the guy is starting to feel the same way towards her thanks to the casual meet-ups and long hours of talking to her. The guy realizes what a gem the girl is. They started seeing each other secretly but the girl felt guilty. Later on, they face her friend and tell her how they feel. To their surprise, she was cool about it.

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