Tropes

I have some great news! Over the past couple of weeks I have edited two chapters of my story and it has felt fantastic. Unfortunately I am doing it as an excuse to procrastinate studying for my final exams. But this is a step in the right direction, especially since I've made time to read as well. I don't have high expectations for the coming weeks as I do have multiple finals. I want to get a lot more done over the winter break.

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The word trope evokes disgust in even the best of us. They are the cliches that pop up in every story and sometimes make us roll our eyes. Some of the most popular ones in fantasy are the chosen one, the poor farmer who rises to glory, and the evil Dark Lord who wants to take over the world. We tell ourselves that we hate these and yet we keep reading them.

Most books, fantasy and science fiction especially, are a mix of familiar and strange. We take concepts that we are used to and mix them with strange ones to create something new. As you venture away from contemporary books to fantasy and science fiction there will be more new than familiar. But there will always be ties to "our world" like riding horses and medieval elements.

The reason why we keep reading these tropes is because they are repackaged in different ways each time we see them so that they no longer feel exactly the same. It is like eating bread. It's the same ingredients but when you use the loaf to make a sandwich or use the dough to make a pizza it feels distinctly different. It isn't that the essence has changed, merely how it is dressed up. There are no original ideas anymore but the variations that old ideas can be combined are endless.

I stumbled across a specific word a while ago that I thought was accurate. A buzzword is a description word about a story that will attract people to reading it. This could be if there are vampires or a love triangle. Maybe it's the setting of the story that intrigues you. Either way, we all know what type of books we like to read and by having an eye out for specific buzzwords we are able to better narrow down what we want to read.

Basically tropes are still around because people will continue to enjoy them. While they might appear annoying in some books, if the author uses them properly they can really shine. One of my most hated tropes is the love triangle because it always feels so angsty. But there have been a few times when they are done properly. I don't remember where I first heard it said this way, but there was an author that argued that they were important. She said that the two people that the main character is vying for represents two different life paths. While I'm not convinced that this trope is necessary, when put this way I can understand some of their appeal.

Here is a link to a list of fantasy tropes.