It’s one of the tropes I love to explore: the Fish out of Water. It provides opportunities for misunderstandings that aren’t contrived and humor that arises organically from the situation. It gives characters a way to compare/contrast cultures, and to poke gentle fun at the unique foibles of any group. It can do all of that on the lighter side but can go alongside darker themes, like the universal experiences of alienation, yearning for that place that means “home” to us, and wanting to belong to a place and people who value us.
For the character out of her element, the world is upside down. In a romance that means the world will go rightside up with the right mate comes along. Eventually.
When writing my very lesbian version of The Little Mermaid, I called it A Fish Out of Water as both literal and figurative allusion to the mermaid’s plight. I had a wonderful time plopping a city girl right in the middle of a steamy Iowa summer in One Degree of Separation. But I digress.
This Week at I Heart SapphFIC
The all-things-sapphic site is highlighting stories with the Fish out of Water trope. (You’ll also find Return to Hometown stories being featured this week too! And a lot of books on sale!) The Fish out of Water focus includes my Checked Out where a federal agent determined to complete an assignment finds an equal steely resolve in a local librarian. And lots of cookies.
It seems fitting that this theme is featured as we begin Pride Month. I don’t know about you, but I spent a lot of my younger life feeling like a perpetual fish out of water. And then I found the right waters to swim in.
Here’s the entire I Heart SapphFIC list of Fish out of Water stories. It’s a great trope for romance, but you’ll see that it’s in mysteries, sci-fi, horror, and fantasy. Books like Eule Grey’s Pest Control, Rachel Parisi’s Magic and Mead, and Cameron Darrow’s Death Has Golden Eyes. It even works for creative non-fiction, like Shaley Howard’s Excuse Me, Sir?: Memoir of a Butch.
Happy reading and happy pride!
