Writing and using tropes

[Zireael]

Writing while using tropes

I've found some old threads related to the topic:

http://mythicscribes.com/forums/writing-questions/3278-top-10-stereotypes-fantasy.html

http://mythicscribes.com/forums/writing-questions/5937-fantasy-clichenomicron-2.html

... but nothing which would give the answer to the question I have, which is:

*Is it good to use tropes in your writing?*

Of course, I realize that to use tropes you have to be aware of them. I even made a page dedicated to the tropes in my setting.

But do you think I should strive to avoid tropes altogether or should I just embrace them?

 

[Chilari]

I'm going to turn the question around in order to answer it, because I'm not sure the question you've asked it useful.

Is it bad to use tropes in your writing?

No.

A trope is, in essence, a familiar element that readers understand. They are categories within which bits of stories fit - and it is the nature of humanity to put things into categories, we're very good at it, even to the point of coming somewhat unstuck when something comes along that defies pre-existing categories (possibly why the idea of interracial marriages used to be so unnerving to some people). There is nothing wrong with using categories that people have already conceptualised in fiction. Concepts such as heroes and villains, mcguffins, or the Dragon (not the mythical animal, the villain's right hand man) are usful because the reader understands the relationships and situations involved fairly quickly because they've come across them before. Then you can have fun subverting them if you want, or you can play them straight.

To be honest I don't think asking if using tropes is good is really a useful way of looking at writing at all. Write the story you want to tell. If it involves tropes - and it almost certainly will, because there are a whole lot of them covering a huge range of things from characters to plots, single incidents, even phrases - then so be it. If you try and write a story without tropes, you'll fail - either because you won't be able to avoid all the tropes, or because you'll end up with a story so dull and strange through avoiding anything that's been done before, that nobody would want to read it.

 

[Steerpike]

I agree with Chilari. There's nothing to be gained by dwelling on these sorts of issues. Write the story that is in your head and that you find compelling.

 

[saellys]

Tropes are unavoidable, and there is a lot of room between shunning them wholesale and just embracing them. It's great that you're aware of them, and once you have your story down, you can go back through objectively and ask yourself which ones are necessary to the story and which can be cut.

For the tropes you keep, you can do small things to turn them on their heads. There's a minor noble family in my novel who are collaborating with fay entities; in the first draft it was nothing more than a power grab, but my co-writers and I are sick of the "power for the sake of power" trope, so we're making their motivation something more personal and less cliché and boring. Their oldest son is a major antagonist, and in the first draft he was in on the plot to summon some fay forces, but in the second he's not and he has entirely separate motives and agency.

So in answer to your question, I think it's good to use tropes as long as you don't satisfy yourself with the cookie cutter characters and situations, and do something to make them your own.

 

[Leif Notae]

It is good... If you add your own layer to the stereotype/cliche/trope/whatever you want to call it. We are all telling the same seven stories over and over again, so it can't get much more trope-ier than that.

 

[Penpilot]

Here's an example of a story with no tropes.

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It's blank because there are no stories without tropes. I'll jump on board with what's been said in all the posts above and leave it at that.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I like to look at this in terms of narrative structures instead of tropes--what's the normal way this story would go from start to end, and how can I break that structure and make the story spiral in on itself? (Or, as David Brin once put it, "Imagine Achilles refusing to accept his ordained destiny, taking up his sword and hunting down the Fates, demanding that they give him both a long life and a glorious one! Picture Odysseus telling both Agamemnon and Poseidon to go chase themselves, then heading off to join Daedalus in a garage start-up company, mass producing wheeled and winged horses so that mortals could swoop about the land and air, like gods — the way common folk do today.") This obviously still uses the same tropes as other stories, but I hope that by putting a different spin on them, I can create something distinct from the writers who've influenced me.

 

[Anders Ämting]

*Is it good to use tropes in your writing?*

Counter question: Is is possible to not use tropes in your writing? And if so, is that actually desirable?

See, tropes are something that happens naturally, as a result of how storytelling works. It's not something you have to be conscious about, nor something you may freely choose to avoid. Now, if we change the question to: "Is it good to deliberatelly use tropes for your writing?" Then my answer is: "Sure, but in moderation."

Your story will have tropes wether you want it to or not, so being conscious about them may be a benefit and give you more control over the writing process. It may also let you play around with conventions a bit and make your use of tropes feel original and or clever.

On the other hand, I think it's dangerous to pay too much attention to tropes, because it hampers your ability to write intuitively. You shouldn't view them as literal building blocks or ingredients you check off a list, or write a story because you have some favorite tropes you really want to do something with. If you do that, I fear your story will only be the sum of its parts. Your priority should be the story you want to tell.