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In this episode of The Fantasy Writers’ Toolshed, Richie Billing takes on a terrible enemies-to-lovers romantasy story and tries to fix it in real time. Expect bad fantasy romance, stolen magic swords, awkward romantic tension, a suspiciously convenient dragon and a practical look at how to make popular tropes work on the page.

This is Episode 2 of Fixing Bad Writing, a writing craft series where Richie deconstructs a weak story draft, explains why it fails, edits it live, then presents a stronger redraft.

This time, he steps outside his dark fantasy comfort zone to tackle one of the biggest tropes in romantasy: enemies to lovers.

Romantasy might look simple from the outside. Put two attractive enemies in danger, add forced proximity, give them sharp dialogue and surely the chemistry will take care of itself.

But good fantasy romance needs more than insults, cheekbones and “kissing probably happening soon”. It needs genuine conflict, believable character motivation, emotional friction and a reason for attraction to grow.

Using a deliberately awful AI-generated romantasy draft, Richie breaks down common problems such as rushed attraction, shallow conflict, cliché dialogue, weak worldbuilding and the dreaded trap of insta-love.

He then works through the scene as a creative writing exercise, showing how small editing choices can create stronger romantic tension, clearer character dynamics and a more engaging fantasy story.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

• Build enemies-to-lovers tension that feels earned
• Avoid insta-love and rushed romantic attraction
• Create better conflict between romantic leads
• Use dialogue to reveal character, not just flirtation
• Make romantasy tropes feel more believable
• Turn a weak scene into a stronger redraft
• Keep the fun of a trope while improving the craft

This episode is ideal for romantasy writers, fantasy authors, romance writers, beginner storytellers and anyone looking for practical writing exercises to improve their fiction.

Can you write a better “meet-ugly” than the original draft? Listen to the episode, take the romantasy writing challenge and try your own version.