For the people who have written romantic dramas or Rom-Coms, what are the clichés that a screenwriter can easily fall into? How should we avoid those clichés and tropes?
The logline for my short film, without giving too much away, has that romantic component. But, I refuse to turn this into a tacky, overused, "light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel" romance that has plagued Hollywood too many times.
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Check out https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RomanticComedy for a comprehensive list of the tropes. Look at the movies you like for all their tropes.
As to how to avoid or subvert them, ask yourself what would normally happen in a Rom-Com, and do the opposite.
It's not a Rom-Com, but at the end of "Big Trouble in Little China" Kim Cattrall's character throws herself at Kurt Russells' character. He not only turns her down, but he walks away without a goodbye kiss despite the entire movie pushing them together.
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I'd echo Douglas's advice about doing the opposite of what would normally happen but only to a certain extent. If you overdo it with subverting expectations, the reader will then expect all the subversions or get frustrated that nothing is happening like it should.
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David, I wholeheartedly agree. "A Good Day to Die Hard" did at least three "plot twists", but after the second one you could see every twist coming. So subvert, but not to excess.
UNLESS you write a "Tucker and Dale vs Evil" where the audience is in on it from the get-go. "Not Another Teen Movie" was a whole lot of teen parody, but blatantly called out the tropes here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXYlv-z_xHQ
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"As to how to avoid or subvert them, ask yourself what would normally happen in a Rom-Com, and do the opposite." Great advice, Douglas Charles MacLeod. For any genre.