#tropes
I hate writing advice.
That’s my little tongue-in-cheek joke for this post, because the irony of what I’m doing literally as I type that statement is not lost on me. It’s true, though— I honestly think that advice is one of the most damaging things to a writer’s mindset. It makes them second-guess their methods, their ideas, and even whether they truly have what it takes to be a *~*writer*~* in the eyes of the rest of the world.
It’s a truly unfortunate thing, because it’s so important for writers to be able to share their experiences and successes. The problem is that these experiences get passed around in a game of It’s-Been-Ten-Years-Since-This-Essay-Was-Written Telephone, and the original intent of the advice (and sometimes its actual meaning!) gets lost along the way. They become these overarching blanket statements that offer broad limitations without reason or potential alternatives.
One of the greatest offenders of this is the idea that you ought to avoid clichés in writing. I’ve been part of online writing communities for a while now, and by far the most common concern I see is some variant of, “I’m thinking about doing [x], but I’m worried it’s too cliché”. It’s an epidemic amongst writers, and it absolutely infuriates me that so many writers have come to doubt their own work just because some vague internet grapevine has told them that clichés are to be avoided at all costs.
Because I’m so infuriated by this (and because I’m super extra and actually have a relevant platform on which to discuss this), I’m going to take some time to explain the actual meaning of this particular piece of “advice” and why it’s far less of a concern than you’ve been lead to believe.
To begin, it’s very important to address the fact that there’s a fundamental misunderstanding surrounding this idea. This starts with the fact that the terms cliché andtrope are mistakenly thought to be synonymous, or otherwise become confused with one another. Before I move forward, I want to offer the proper definition for both.
Acliché is a particular phrase that’s been used often enough to become commonplace. In writing, they’re generally used to create a specific image or tone that we can take for granted that the reader will recognize.
She was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. It was raining cats and dogs, but she still stood with her arms to the sky, laughing like she didn’t even notice. She turned to me and winked, and I felt my face go as red as a beet.In that moment, I knew that I’d give my right arm to be with her.
Atropeis a convention used in writing to give meaning to aspects of your story. They’re used as storytelling shorthand to attach identifiable qualities to your plot and characters— recurring themes that exist throughout history to guide stories.
Examples of tropes include the hero’s journey, the character’s fatal flaw, the comic relief character, thehero with a dark past, and the Mom Friend.
I’ll be the first to admit that there are similarities between the two— both are used to help readers understand parts of your story, and tropes can be specific phrases as shown in the cliché example above. The key is to separate the two in your mind and think about them only by the definitions above.
It’s important to do this, because part of the central misunderstanding is that “cliché” is often used in daily life to describe ideas as a whole that have been overused (think of the “I’m holding up the tower!” pic that literally everyone takes at the Leaning Tower of Pisa). I get the confusion and concern here, I really do. The most important thing to remember is that clichés have a specific meaning when it comes to writing. No matter how often you may see a particular theme or character arc, it is and always will be a trope.
With that out of the way, I’d like to discuss why this should be good advice. The truth of the matter is that clichés should be avoided where possible because they give the impression of lazy writing. Writers and readers alike take the imagery for granted and rely on these tried-and-true phrases to add physicality to their prose instead of finding unique descriptors; while it certainly gets the point across, it comes across as more of a 2D picture from a magazine than a scene from the movie adaptation we all know our books are destined to have.
To illustrate this, let’s take a look at the example above with all of the clichés removed:
The world had never experienced a beauty like hers— neither had I. I just watched as she stood there, arms to the sky as the rain pelted her relentlessly, soaking into her clothes and hair. She smiled as it ran down her face, laughing at each raindrop, finally turning to me and winking. She could have just been blinking the water out of her eye, I don’t know, but my face was hot and I suddenly found it hard to look at her. I stared at my shoes, willing them to take a step for once so I could go and join her.
Clichés fall flat because they aren’t specific to you as a writer— they aren’t at all indicative of your unique style. Your story loses so much when it’s not told in your own voice, so you shouldn’t rely on old phrases just because you know people will automatically understand them.
While the argument could be made that tropes fall into this same category, I would point out that tropes serve a deeper purpose than clichés. Where a cliché would act as filler, a trope would act as a foundation. Tropes are tools (most frequently, structural tools) that guide the story through plot/character development and tonal themes to give your reader a general idea of what they’re signing up for when they read your story.
Example Time!
Say that you wanted to write someone a love poem. You do your research, sifting through decades of poems to pick out the best phrases and metaphors, and you end up with the following:
Your eyes are as deep as an oceans
Your eyes shine like stars
They’re like windows to your soul
I get lost in them every time I look
The poem is essentially a cut-and-paste of phrases from every cheesy romance novel out there, and will most likely leave the object of your affections wondering why you’re so obsessed with their eyeballs.
Alternatively, you hand them this:
Roses are red,
Violets are blue…
and things get a little more interesting. Sure, the opening to the poem is a cliché in and of itself, but it sets the stage for whatever you want to fill it with. You could go with something traditional and make it cutesy, you could subvert the trope by dropping the rhyme scheme for dramatic or comedic effect, you could even revive the old 2015 “gun” meme. The world is your oyster!
The point is, the poem hasn’t been written for you. Sure, it follows a similar structure to poems that have been written before, but where you take it is entirely up to you— the opening lines are simply the prompt to make way for your own creative license.
Let’s be real, here.
I get that everyone wants to make something new and exciting that comes entirely from their own imagination. It’s the dream! The idea that anything we write could potentially be sourced back to an existing piece is super aggravating, and you don’t have to tell me how discouraging it is to have something that you’re genuinely proud of suddenly fall flat because someone says, “Hasn’t the teen dystopia thing been done to death?” or “Didn’t Star Trek do an episode like this?” or “Penney, this is just a Star Trek fanfiction with the names changed to Dirk and Spork, please stop.”
To be totally honest, there is not (nor will there ever be) a single piece of writing on this earth that’s 100% original. Everything is based off of a story that came before it, or had plots and characters that were cherry-picked from the millions of plots and characters that existed previously.
Even more honestly, people like it that way. Tropes help us to identify our favorite genres and characters, guide us to stories that we may like based on those preferences, and open our eyes to new stories and authors that follow those tropes in a slightly different way.
In short, embrace your tropes. Learn to recognize them and how they can be used and reimagined, and build your story out of the wonderful things that come of that knowledge. Be like me and waste a billion hours in the rabbit hole that is TV Tropes!
Most importantly, write the way you want to write and don’t let anyone else tell you how to do it. They’ll have their time when you’re ready for peer review. Right now is your time to do as you please, ignore all writing advice you see online, make a few mistakes, and do it all over again because that’s what writers do! Get out there and make some beautiful, cliché-ridden, trope-y masterpieces.
Love,
Penney
i think it’s funny when people are like “dark fiction or tragic fiction is ok if it’s about overcoming trauma or showing the outcome of a mistake” bc like that feels weirdly christian (though not saying only christianity promotes that) like it must always have a “moral” or whatever and meanwhile aristotle’s idea of catharsis is like “hey sometimes people just feel better and have their negative emotions purged when they see fucked up shit happening to an innocent fictional character that did no wrong in the story because as a fictional story literally no one is getting hurt”
That is exactly why the greeks wrote tragedy. They believed catharsis was the expelling of negative emotions. So they wrote heartbreaking plays where no one was happy in the end because sometimes life just sucks.
Sometimes you don’t wanna listen to Mamma Mia and laugh, you wanna listen to This Impossible Year and cry. And that’s okay.
I’ve seen some stuff occasionally about the reaction to the “Not Like Other Girls” concept, and particularly women/girls who grew up not feeling like other girls being critical of opposition to this trope, and I just want to remind people that:
This is a trope, one that is centered on the idea that certain forms of femininity are bad or should be shamed–it usually goes along with the shaming of “vanity” and girls caring about their appearance, fashion, boys, etc. It presents other forms of behavior as preferable for women to exhibit, particularly ones that make them low-maintenance to the people around them: not caring about their clothing or appearance (though they’re always attractive despite it, they’re just not aware of being attractive), being interested in the hobbies or interests of the boys or men around them, and being “quirky” and “deep” in a palatable way.
The framing is generally between white women, or at the very least with white women being the girls who are “not like other girls”–they are generally thin or at least not fat, effortlessly attractive (unlike the girls who put effort into being attractive), and generally socially and culturally acceptable other than their set of quirks or oddities that make them “not like other girls”. Like, say, enjoying video games (as though women don’t make up approximately half of people who play video games) or enjoying sports (as though women don’t play sports).
It often presents the idea that most women are shallow, boy-obsessed, fashion- and appearance-obsessed, high-maintenance, etc., and also that having those or any traditional (Western) female characteristics makes them less-than–which, in turn, reinforces the idea that femininity is inherently worse than masculinity, and that the ideal thing for a women to be is similar (but not too similar) to a man.
The criticism of this trope is not about actual women who grew up not feeling like they fit in the traditional mold of femininity–it’s about the media trope that shames women for certain traditionally feminine actions and that privileges behaviors and characteristics that are associated with men.
One of my favourite tropes is “character who you wouldn’t think is good with kids is actually great with kids”
Some faves:
- Asshole character who is incredibly sweet and patient with kids
- Cocky bastard character who is very mature and collected when kids are around
- Big strong scary character who is careful and gentle with little tiny ones
- Aloof character who is incredibly tuned in on the needs/fears/struggles of children
- Depressed/Grumpy character who lights up around kids and spreads so much joy
- Character who often states they don’t like kids yet in the presence of one will behave exactly right and/or become very protective of them because it’s the right thing to do
fic rec list masterpost|tropes masterlist
= adult rating (For longer fics, this likely only applies to some chapters.)
ficlet
TENxROSE
TENTOOxROSE
short story
NINExROSE
- Flirting With the Setting SunbyValueTurtle
- Moonlightbytardislullabye
- More Precious than GemstonesbyLydia Hunter
- Not A Busman’s Holidaybytaraljc
- OceansidebyValueTurtle
- Perfection Under the Sunbyann_blue
- Summerby@kelkat9
- Summer StormbyVampiyaa
- TransparencybyInkpress00
TENxROSE
- All Wetbyshelwass
- Blame the ArmadillosbyLain21
- Desert Island Trystsby@lauraxxtennant
- Encyclopaedia of Sandbynocookiesjustbooks
- Follow the Sunby@sequencefairy (tw: drug use)
- ourselves we find in the seaby@oodlyenough
- put da lime in the coconut you drink ‘em both upbysapphire_child
- Shifting Sand by @rudennotgingr
- suspended in summer (teen) and sequel sex on the beach (alcohol not necessary) (adult) by stillxmyxheart
- SwimmingandFun in the SunbyCalliope
- Young EnoughbyHouseMaid
- Take Me SwimmingbyThroughanAmberFocus
- TurquoisebyLittle Miss GG
novella
TENxROSE
ReblogFest 2021: Day the Seventeenth
Beaches do not have to be heartbreaking!
~pyf
fic rec list masterpost|tropes masterlist
All TenxRose…
= adult rating
- Friends with (cuddling) benefitsby@lostinfic (au, short story)
- How to Make a Blanket Fort 101by@goingtothetardis (short story)
- Of Pillow Forts and Propheciesby@isilienelenihin (ficlet)
- Pillow Fortby@braveten (ficlet)
- A Story Like Jack’sby@goingtothetardis (short story)
ReblogFest 2021: Day the Sixteenth
Have some more snuggling!
Oh, my, this is a short list. Any recommendations for more?
~pyf
fic rec list masterpost|tropes masterlist
= adult rating (For longer fics, this likely only applies to some chapters.)
newly added
- Sooner or Laterby@rudennotgingr (TenxRose, short story)
ficlet
- Sick in the TARDISby@braveten(NinexRose)
short story
NINExROSE
Teen or Below:
- Girls’ Night Inby@jessalrynn
- Gorgeous Bloke, Isn’t He?by@bluedawn0123
- Hold On, That’s The Lion KingbyDumbelectricfish
- The One Time They Accidentally Watched That Channelby@kelkat9
TENxROSE
- Elaborationbykscribbles
- Fireworksby@rudennotgingr
- Fly With Meby@tenscupcake
- Gameplayby@perfectlyrose
- linear subjectivityby@promisedyouforever
- Netflix, Chill and Red Lightsby@caedmonfaith
- Nobody Gets Left Behindby@professorspork
- Scary Movie NightbyToppbanana
- Scientific Curiosityby@megabadbunny
MULTIERAxROSE
- Hints of the Ringsby@rudennotgingr (NinexRose, TenxRose)
novella
series
ReblogFest 2021: Day the Fifteenth
Have some snuggling today!
~pyf
fic rec list masterpost|themes masterlist
= adult rating (For longer fics, this likely only applies to some chapters.)
newly added
- ImpossiblebyCupofSonic (TenxRose, short story, all ages)
ficlet
- I Won’t Give Upby@goingtothetardis (TenxRose, dimensionhopping!rose)
short story
NINExROSE
TENxROSE
- Inkedby@ofstormsandwolves
- Vodka, Swimsuits and TattoosbyPanny
- A Work Of HeartbyJorun(au)
- Millions Between Us (and i still found you)by@dryadalis(au)
- Star Crossedby@skyler10fic(au)
TENTOOxROSE
- All of Meby@hanluvr
- Asterismosby@stoprobbersfic
- Etched on Mebykarenbee
- InkbyRamblingRose
- Tattoos and Tabloidsbybittie752
novella
NINExROSE
- Heart Shapedby@lillibetm3(shag-or-die)
- Object Permanenceby@allrightfineand@gallifreyburning (au, wip)
novel
TENxROSE
series
TENxROSE
ReblogFest 2021: Day the Fourteenth
Happy Tuesday!
~pyf
fic rec list masterpost|tropes masterlist
= adult rating (For longer fics, this likely only applies to some chapters.)
ficlet
NINExROSE
TENxROSE
TENTOOxROSE
short story
NINExROSE
TENxROSE
- A Breakdown In Communicationbyforestwife
- Elucidation and Inspirationby@whatwecanfic
- Speechlessby@thebadddestwolf
- TranslationsbyCasira
TENTOOxROSE
- Afterwardsbybetawho
- Allons-ybyAzriona
- Lost in Translationbyitsgoodtobealunatic
- She has a type…by@almondina
- speech patternsby@lyricalprose and its sequel, colorful languageby@spookyknight
novel
TENTOOxROSE
series
TENxROSE
- Language Lessons series by Aibhin
ReblogFest 2021: Day the Eleventh
Happy Thursday, all!
~pyf
fic rec list masterpost|tropes masterlist
= adult rating (For longer fics, this likely only applies to some chapters.)
Ratings are updated to the best of our knowledge, but please always check author’s notes first.
This list includes fics portraying intoxication from alcohol and/or drugs, as well as a variety of party/drinking-type games (e.g. truth or dare, never have I ever, spin the bottle, etc.), though drinking may not be involved for all of these. If you are sensitive to any of this, please heed author’s warnings.
DRUNK or INTOXICATED
ficlet
Mixed Ratings/Pairings:
- Coordinationby@allegoricalrose (MultiEraxRose)
- Gravity is a habit that’s hard to shake offby@imaginaryelle (TentooxRose)
- Punchdrunkby@perfectlyrose (TenxRose)
- Something in the Air…by@pir8grl (NinexRose)
- Three Olivesbydave7(TenxRose)
short story
NINExROSE
- Ah, Dove Blue!by@fantastiqueolicity
- Chips and Clichésby@abadplanwellexecuted
- In Hypervodka Veritasby@vampiyaa
- Not Drunkby@asthewheelwills
- StellarbyAeolist
TENxROSE
- Arms of Desireby@doctor-who-hears-a-horton
- ChainedbyAeolist (also drinking games)
- Choreography and Sound Effectsbyzazie
- Dimension Cannons and Drunken Time Lordsby@kelkat9
- Fixationbyfid_gin
- Ginger Beerby@allegoricalrose
- HandicapbyShadowedGold
- A Lesson in Natural Painkillersby@thebadddestwolf
- Light Touchbytabula_x_rasa
- Make Your Own Funby@stoprobbersfic
- PetalsbyKate Andrews
- Playing at Chanceby@thebadddestwolf
- Starspicebypadawanpooh
- Talk to Mebystillxmyxheart
- Three Sheetsbynocookiesjustbooks
- A Tipsy Time Lordbytenthandrose
- Tripping the Drunk Fantasticbyleftennant
- Turpentine Chaserby@rudennotgingr
TENTOOxROSE
- In Good Spiritsby@rosa-acicularis
- In Vino Veritasby@jeeno2
- In Vino Veritas&Hair of the DogbyZephyrHawk
- Of Weed and Oiujabywishiknewwho
- stuck togetherby@lauraxxtennant
novella
NINExROSE
TENxROSE
TENTOOxROSE
- A Certain Shade of GreenbyAeolist (also in drinking games)
DRINKING GAMES
ficlet
- Seven Minutes in Heavenby@jeeno2 (au, TenxRose)
- Truthby@goingtothetardis (NinexRose)
short story
NINExROSE
TENxROSE
- ChainedbyAeolist
- Gameplayby@perfectlyrose
- Not Just Gamesby@doctor-who-hears-a-horton
- Seven Minute Spinby@allrightfine (au) ~ thank you, @tardisinateapot!
- Seventh Heavenby@caedmonfaith (au, companion to “Seven Minutes in Heaven”)
- Truth Be ToldbyBanana_daiquiri(@allonsywobbly)
- Truth or Dareby@kelkat9 (part of the Dark!Ten verse)
- Truth or Dare, Doctor?bylittletimelord47
MULTIERAxROSE
novella
TENTOOxROSE
ReblogFest 2021: Day the Tenth
We originally posted a drinking games list, which later became consolidated here, so… happy Tuesday, lovelies!
~pyf
fic rec list masterpost|tropes masterlist
= adult rating (For longer fics, this likely only applies to some chapters.)
short story
- Breaking the Loopby@caedmonfaith(NinexRose)
- Like Thisby@weezlywrites(TenxRose)
- To Be With My Love, On Christmas Daybycookie2697(TenxRose)
novella
- The Dark before Dawn by @wordsintimeandspace (TenxRose)
- Five Times DeathbyFaeryia(NinexRose)
- LoopbySanguine Ink(TenxRose)
- Risking a Paradoxby@lastincurableromantic(TwelvexRose)
novel
Teen or Below:
- A Place Where We Only Say Goodbye (first in the Time Loop series) by @weezlywrites (TenxRose, au)
- A Long Historyby@jessalrynn(MultiEraxRose)
series
- Shades of Blueby@bluedawn0123(MultiEraxRose)
ReblogFest 2021: Day the Ninth
Yay!
~pyf
fic rec list masterpost |tropes masterlist
NOTE: These are adult-rated unless otherwise noted.
ficlet
- “Run Faster!”…by@lixabiz (TenxRose, teen)
short story
- Asleep At The Switchby@51st (TenxRosexJack OT3)
- A Change in Perspectiveby@lastbluetardis(TentooxRose)
- Good-Different or Bad-Different?byWhosInTheAttic(TentooxRose)
- A Truly New, New Doctorbysinecure(TenxRose)
ReblogFest 2021: Day the Seventh
This is an extremely short list but comprises just about everything we could find! If anyone knows of others, please feel free to let us know!
~pyf
Absolutely a sucker for the “ARE YOU HURT” once over. The wandering hands, frantically checking for blood or pain just SOMETHING. ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED of what they might find while searching. The panicked look on the face of the person doing the checking, the glossy, confused “I’m fine” from the person being checked. HOO BOY just inject that shit right into my veins
literally nothing matters. except winged characters sheltering other characters under their wings. that’s extremely important actually.
I love it when Person A and Person B are fighting and then something- something happens. And Person A has to get Person B to stop talking, to stop arguing, and listen to them. And then Person B just snaps and goes “WHAT!?” and then they notice how broken A’s face is and they go “w-what?”
I am imagining enemies fighting but then this kid appears out of literally no where just covered in ash and possibly blood. Now these enemies need to figure out who the kid belongs to, if they are alive, who hurt the kid, how they got there, possibly if it was the kid that committed the crime.
Enemies to still enemies but now they have joint custody of a kid.
thinking again about TvTropes and how it’s genuinely such an amazing resource for learning the mechanics of storytelling, honestly more so than a lot of formally taught literature classes
reasons for this:
- basically TvTropes breaks down stories mechanically, using a perspective that’s not…ABOUT mechanics. Another way I like to put it, is that it’s an inductive, instead of deductive, approach to analyzing storytelling.
- like in a literature or writing class you’re learning the elements that are part of the basic functioning of a story, so, character, plot, setting, et cetera. You’re learning the things that make a story a story, and why.Like, you learn what setting is, what defines it, and work from there to what makes it effective, and the range of ways it can be effective.
- here’s the thing, though: everyone has some intuitive understanding of how stories work. if we didn’t, we couldn’t…understand stories.
- TvTropes’s approach is bottom-up instead of top-down: instead of trying to exhaustively explore the broad, general elements of story, it identifies very small, specific elements, and explores the absolute shit out of how they fit, what they do, where they go, how they work.
- Every TvTropes article is basically, “Here is a piece of a story that is part of many different stories. You have probably seen it before, but if not, here is a list of stories that use it, where it is, and what it’s doing in those stories. Here are some things it does. Here is why it is functionally different than other, similar story pieces. Here is some background on its origins and how audiences respond to it.”
- all of this is BRILLIANT for a lot of reasons. one of the major ones is that the site has long lists of media that utilizes any given trope, ranging from classic literature to cartoons to video games to advertisements. the Iliad and Adventure Time ARE different things, but they are MADE OF the same stuff. And being able to study dozens of examples of a trope in action teaches you to see the common thread in what the trope doesand why its specific characteristics let it do that
- I love TvTropes because a great, renowned work of literature and a shitty, derivative YA novel will appear on the same list, because they’re Made Of The Same Stuff. And breaking down that mental barrier between them is good on its own for developing a mechanical understanding of storytelling.
- But also? I think one of the biggest blessings of TvTropes’s commitment to cataloguing examples of tropes regardless of their “merit” or literary value or whatever…is that we get to see the full range of effectiveness or ineffectiveness of storytelling tools. Like, this is how you see what makes one book good and another book crappy. Tropes are Tools, and when you observe how a master craftsman uses a tool vs. a novice, you can break down not only what the tool is most effective for but how it is best used.
- In fact? There are trope pages devoted to what happens when storytelling tools just unilaterally fail. e.g. Narm is when creators intend something to be frightening, but audiences find it hilarious instead.
- On that note, TvTropes is also great in that its analysis of stories is very grounded in authors, audiences, and culture; it’s not solely focused on in-story elements. A lot of the trope pages are categories for audience responses to tropes, or for real-world occurrences that affected the storytelling, or just the human failings that creep into storytelling and affect it, like Early Installment Weirdness. There are categories for censorship-driven storytelling decisions. There are “lineages” of tropes that show how storytelling has changed over time, and how audience responses change as culture changes. Tropes like Draco in Leather Pants or Narm are catalogued because the audience reaction to a story is as much a part of that story—the story of that story?—as the “canon.”
- like, storytelling is inextricable from context. it’s inextricable from how big the writers’ budget was, and how accepting of homophobia the audience was, and what was acceptable to be shown on film at the time. Tropes beget other tropes, one trope is exchanged for another, they are all linked. A Dead Horse Trope becomes an Undead Horse Trope, and sometimes it was a Dead Unicorn Trope all along. What was this work responding to? And all works are responding to something, whether they know it or not
An incomplete list of really useful or interesting reads from TvTropes.
please note that yes many of these are concepts that exist elsewhere and a few are even taught in fiction writing classes but TvTropes just does an amazing job at displaying the range of things that can be done with them
legitimately so much of the terminology I use to talk about storytelling, and even think about it in my own head, i learned about from TvTropes
- Willing Suspension of Disbelief
- Watsonian vs. Doylist
- Trope Tropes, for all the ways tropes are used, deconstructed, subverted, and played with.
- The Oldest Ones in the Book, which is basically my favorite thing on the entire Internet
- Punk Punk, for -punk subgenres
- Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness,Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism
- The Weird Al Effect is a fun one
- Chekhov’s Gun, Chekhov’s Boomerang,Chekhov’s Skill, and further variations
- Law of Conservation of Detail
- Law of Conservation of Normality
- Anthropic Principle
- Word of God,Death of the Author
- Sliding Scale of Fourth Wall Hardness
- Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness
- Genre Savvy
- Flashbacks and Chronology breaks down all the ways you can handle chronology in storytelling
- Show, Don’t Tell is a very good breakdown of what is showing, what is telling, and how both can be used effectively.
- Lampshade Hanging
- Noodle Incident is just fun imo
- Genre Title Grab Bag
- Fridge Horror
- Rule of Cool, and also Cool of Rule
- The Smurfette Principle
- The Hays Code - not a trope but a very good breakdown of how the Hays Code affected storytelling in film
this is just a really short list of examples I encourage people who write or otherwise create stories to browse around on this site it’s so useful
thinking again about TvTropes and how it’s genuinely such an amazing resource for learning the mechanics of storytelling, honestly more so than a lot of formally taught literature classes
reasons for this:
- basically TvTropes breaks down stories mechanically, using a perspective that’s not…ABOUT mechanics. Another way I like to put it, is that it’s an inductive, instead of deductive, approach to analyzing storytelling.
- like in a literature or writing class you’re learning the elements that are part of the basic functioning of a story, so, character, plot, setting, et cetera. You’re learning the things that make a story a story, and why.Like, you learn what setting is, what defines it, and work from there to what makes it effective, and the range of ways it can be effective.
- here’s the thing, though: everyone has some intuitive understanding of how stories work. if we didn’t, we couldn’t…understand stories.
- TvTropes’s approach is bottom-up instead of top-down: instead of trying to exhaustively explore the broad, general elements of story, it identifies very small, specific elements, and explores the absolute shit out of how they fit, what they do, where they go, how they work.
- Every TvTropes article is basically, “Here is a piece of a story that is part of many different stories. You have probably seen it before, but if not, here is a list of stories that use it, where it is, and what it’s doing in those stories. Here are some things it does. Here is why it is functionally different than other, similar story pieces. Here is some background on its origins and how audiences respond to it.”
- all of this is BRILLIANT for a lot of reasons. one of the major ones is that the site has long lists of media that utilizes any given trope, ranging from classic literature to cartoons to video games to advertisements. the Iliad and Adventure Time ARE different things, but they are MADE OF the same stuff. And being able to study dozens of examples of a trope in action teaches you to see the common thread in what the trope doesand why its specific characteristics let it do that
- I love TvTropes because a great, renowned work of literature and a shitty, derivative YA novel will appear on the same list, because they’re Made Of The Same Stuff. And breaking down that mental barrier between them is good on its own for developing a mechanical understanding of storytelling.
- But also? I think one of the biggest blessings of TvTropes’s commitment to cataloguing examples of tropes regardless of their “merit” or literary value or whatever…is that we get to see the full range of effectiveness or ineffectiveness of storytelling tools. Like, this is how you see what makes one book good and another book crappy. Tropes are Tools, and when you observe how a master craftsman uses a tool vs. a novice, you can break down not only what the tool is most effective for but how it is best used.
- In fact? There are trope pages devoted to what happens when storytelling tools just unilaterally fail. e.g. Narm is when creators intend something to be frightening, but audiences find it hilarious instead.
- On that note, TvTropes is also great in that its analysis of stories is very grounded in authors, audiences, and culture; it’s not solely focused on in-story elements. A lot of the trope pages are categories for audience responses to tropes, or for real-world occurrences that affected the storytelling, or just the human failings that creep into storytelling and affect it, like Early Installment Weirdness. There are categories for censorship-driven storytelling decisions. There are “lineages” of tropes that show how storytelling has changed over time, and how audience responses change as culture changes. Tropes like Draco in Leather Pants or Narm are catalogued because the audience reaction to a story is as much a part of that story—the story of that story?—as the “canon.”
- like, storytelling is inextricable from context. it’s inextricable from how big the writers’ budget was, and how accepting of homophobia the audience was, and what was acceptable to be shown on film at the time. Tropes beget other tropes, one trope is exchanged for another, they are all linked. A Dead Horse Trope becomes an Undead Horse Trope, and sometimes it was a Dead Unicorn Trope all along. What was this work responding to? And all works are responding to something, whether they know it or not
An incomplete list of really useful or interesting reads from TvTropes.
please note that yes many of these are concepts that exist elsewhere and a few are even taught in fiction writing classes but TvTropes just does an amazing job at displaying the range of things that can be done with them
legitimately so much of the terminology I use to talk about storytelling, and even think about it in my own head, i learned about from TvTropes
- Willing Suspension of Disbelief
- Watsonian vs. Doylist
- Trope Tropes, for all the ways tropes are used, deconstructed, subverted, and played with.
- The Oldest Ones in the Book, which is basically my favorite thing on the entire Internet
- Punk Punk, for -punk subgenres
- Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness,Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism
- The Weird Al Effect is a fun one
- Chekhov’s Gun, Chekhov’s Boomerang,Chekhov’s Skill, and further variations
- Law of Conservation of Detail
- Law of Conservation of Normality
- Anthropic Principle
- Word of God,Death of the Author
- Sliding Scale of Fourth Wall Hardness
- Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness
- Genre Savvy
- Flashbacks and Chronology breaks down all the ways you can handle chronology in storytelling
- Show, Don’t Tell is a very good breakdown of what is showing, what is telling, and how both can be used effectively.
- Lampshade Hanging
- Noodle Incident is just fun imo
- Genre Title Grab Bag
- Fridge Horror
- Rule of Cool, and also Cool of Rule
- The Smurfette Principle
- The Hays Code - not a trope but a very good breakdown of how the Hays Code affected storytelling in film
this is just a really short list of examples I encourage people who write or otherwise create stories to browse around on this site it’s so useful
YES I love TV tropes so immensely. It combines two things my neurodivergent brain loves: fiction analysis and putting things into categories