Tropes in Writing
Let’s take a peek at the cogs inside the machine and talk about why I write and how I write on Behind the Scenes Sunday! Today I wanted to share some of my thoughts around story tropes and why I’m such a big fan of them
So, what is a trope? Tropes are certain conventions of fictional genres in narratives. Everything from love triangles, to reluctant heroes, to unmotivated POV – they are all tropes of the respective genre narratives they inhabit.
Your gut reaction as both a reader or writer might be to nod, and say you understand… that what I mean is a cliche.
That’s NOT what I mean.
A cliche is a trope done badly. A trope is neither good nor bad. How it is executed is everything. And in fact, if you go out of your way to avoid using all tropes in your fiction (which is impossible, in my opinion) you’re going to have a lot of unsatisfied readers. These tropes exist and persist because people enjoy them. They seek them out and find pleasure in exploring the different iterations of them.
I love tropes. I love including them in my work. I love turning them inside out and dissecting what makes them tick. I love meeting and subverting reader expectations with tropes. Tropes are some of the most powerful tools we as writers have and you should study them extensively if you want to be a success!
As always, if you’re interested in supporting me and my work, thank you: my classic murder mysteries with scifi twists, The Cadence Turing Mystery series, are available on all major platforms, and the first two books in my urban fantasy series The Night are out soon!