Tropes to avoid

[Finchbearer]

Tropes to avoid and overused tropes.

I keep seeing articles that give a rundown of tropes that are either ‘tropes to avoid at all costs’, or ‘tropes that are overused’.

What do you think some of them are from your perspective?

And do you, or have you used any in your own writing?

 

[pmmg]

Well, I do have things I personally try to avoid, and they may be called tropes, but the choices were personal, and not indicative of a true desire to avoid tropes.

Generally, while I find them a curiosity, I don't shape my writing around them. I am of the belief that anything, trope or otherwise, if used in the right way, can enhance and add to the story. I think focus on tropes is a little overblown, and they are not the dreadful thing that many make them out to be. I suspect, its not possible to write a story without someone saying...hey, I see you used the ***** trope.

Even my most dreaded, Disney style of, 'oh no, he's dead, and we all cry, only to find out he's not really dead', I've seen done well. I thought it worked in Beauty and the Beast.

I suspect if I spent an hour on a trope website, I could find a hundred I have used.

 

[Mad Swede]

I never think in terms of tropes when I write. I just write what I think is a good story. My editor doesn't look for tropes as such either, she is focussed on the story and the characters.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I don't even like the word "trope". 100% agree with Mad Swede above.

 

[Finchbearer]

So are you saying that you avoid writing about tropes by creating characters and stories that feel more true to life?

 

[Ban]

Tropes are fun to read up on and dive into, but I wouldn't take much stock of them when writing. Whenever I come across posts, comments, videos or articles along the lines of "don't use this trope!" my assumption is that the person creating it either has an agenda to push or simply needs some distance between themselves and a given sub-genre. Tropes aren't an issue, poorly-executed and thought through tropes might be.

 

[BearBear]

I can't begin to know what all the tropes are. I know the ones I like and idk if I care of they're overused or not. If it works for the story, it's like anything else. If it's boring or repetitive then ok.

I wrote about underdogs starting from zero to become the demon lord or whatever and that's a very common trope but I like it so I'll do it as often as I like.

I'm trying something new lately but it's still based on this. I like it. I like animes that have this I think it's called "hero's journey". I like it in RPGs and other games, movies all that.

I don't like the "Mary Sue" or oh look that slave girl is actually a Jedi Master without any training, discipline, courage, trials, character development, she just is. That's boring af to me. Make them really work for it, a drive to be the best not naturally given OP powers for nothing.

Some people like that so I don't judge.

In other words, I'm a huge proponent of personal taste, freedom, and preference.

 

[ThinkerX]

Years ago, on this very site, we made a collection of the most overused tropes we could find - and then staged a short story challenge featuring those tropes. Each story included at least two of them. Most of the tales were pretty good.

 

[Penpilot]

IMHO, it's not about certain tropes being used that's the problem. It's using tropes and writing them poorly that's the issue, which then boils down to just bad writing.

If something is written well, the reader will engage with the story and they'll barely notice or care about what tropes are being used. If something is poorly written, the reader won't be engaged with the story, and they'll notice every last thing, from the poor word choices from descriptions to weird dialogue to what cliche tropes are being used.

 

[pmmg]

Id do such an entry if ppl were up fir it.

 

[Finchbearer]

Years ago, on this very site, we made a collection of the most overused tropes we could find - and then staged a short story challenge featuring those tropes. Each story included at least two of them. Most of the tales were pretty good.

That would be interesting to bring back, but I’d want to see the more experienced writers actively take part!

 

[Finchbearer]

I think that there are two tropes within the fantasy genre in particular that I commonly see - unassuming character who happens to be destined to save the world, who might have hidden talents or powers that enable that to be so, and, the character who goes from useless to talented within an unrealistically short space of time.

I quite like it though when an author takes a trope and deconstructs or subverts them.

 

[Finchbearer]

Tropes are fun to read up on and dive into, but I wouldn't take much stock of them when writing. Whenever I come across posts, comments, videos or articles along the lines of "don't use this trope!" my assumption is that the person creating it either has an agenda to push or simply needs some distance between themselves and a given sub-genre. Tropes aren't an issue, poorly-executed and thought through tropes might be.

I certainly get the feeling that some of those articles are pushing an agenda, usually citing books or characters that they don’t personally like, or picking the plot apart to find holes. All good plots have holes.

 

[Prince of Spires]

The thing with these kinds of lists is that they are, pretty much without exception, always wrong. People have been shouting that vampires are dead and that no one wants to read about them. And then Ann Rice proved them wrong. And then Twilight proved them wrong. The same with all other tropes.

Some people simply like reading new things and being surprised, while others like reading what they know. And judging by Romance's popularity and how specific some subgenres are, I think the second group is actually bigger than the first.

Then of course there's the fact that there are always new readers. Eragon was completely derivative, full of tropes. However, all the tropes in there were new for plenty of its readers. For readers it could get even more extreme. When Harry Potter became popular, I've seen Harry Potter fans complain that Terry Pratchett had ripped off J.K. Rowling's idea of a magical school, even though The Colour of Magic came out 15 years before HP. But readers have no sense of time other than the order in which they read.

And lastly anything done well stops being a cliche. I've read books that very clearly are a Hero's Journey, or an Underdog Sports Story, or whatever. And I've enjoyed them because they were written really well. At the same time I've also enjoyed more original books. And I've disliked books that follow tropes. The quality of the writing is more important than the tropes.

 

[The Dark One]

I don't get the obsession with tropes. Like most here (no doubt) I'm a member of several Goodreads forums and they constantly trot out threads on the identification of tropes and how crap they are.

I couldn't care less. If a story is good, it's good - end of. Doesn't matter how it's deconstructed and that's all a trope is - a tool for deconstructing and describing a story.

 

[Finchbearer]

I think maybe it says a lot about human psychology that we keep returning to the same types of characters. We can change and mould them to the story as much as we want, but they’re always there.

Harry Potter is a good example of an underdog turned hero. Maybe that’s who many of us want to be, or who we want to see succeed.

I think sometimes they can be damaging. Even in contemporary fiction. Making a male character too emotionally constipated, or making a female character so overtly independent and non-reliant on male counterparts.

 

[Gurkhal]

Whenever I see a discussion about tropes and such I think of my own signature and move on. We should, in my opinion, be wary of throwing away classics on a whim for new shiny but untested things.

 

[pmmg]

Seems we might have universal agreement about tropes. All the posts above are leaning towards, why make a big deal, use as needed.

I suspect is not possible to write something and not have it resemble a trope somewhere, maybe even several. Turning tropes on their heads, and writing the opposite is probably the road less traveled, but I suspect its been traveled to.

I think Finch is right, that it says a lot about what it means to be human that these keep returning. I suspect they speak to things that are just universally true in all of us. We may not know why, but we recognize it in our stories. Something just resonate better than others, and when it is, it hums louder than all the stuff that doesn't. All these stories we write are really about us, and the things we value. But we are not much different than those making cave paintings, or early art. Thousands of years later and we are still interested in the same stuff, and telling the same stories. I would say it fills a human need, maybe even a spiritual one. That tropes repeat is not a bad thing, its just who we are bleeding through over the eons.

Now if only we can execute them well

 

[pmmg]

So are you saying that you avoid writing about tropes by creating characters and stories that feel more true to life?

I don't think this is possible. But...if I make all the characters and plot lines interesting enough, I may be able to pull a curtain over a trope or two so no one notices...least not till they get to thinking about it after the fact. Mad Swede? Dems? Yeah...I am sure they have tropes in there

Course, is it even a problem if tropes are noticeable? Probably not.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Funny, I see Harry Potter as a twit, heh heh. He's certainly the classic orphan... and a twit.

I think maybe it says a lot about human psychology that we keep returning to the same types of characters. We can change and mould them to the story as much as we want, but they’re always there.

Harry Potter is a good example of an underdog turned hero. Maybe that’s who many of us want to be, or who we want to see succeed.

I think sometimes they can be damaging. Even in contemporary fiction. Making a male character too emotionally constipated, or making a female character so overtly independent and non-reliant on male counterparts.