Ah, tropes. The building blocks of all the stories ever crafted.

What’s a trope? Well, those themes and elements we find most often in novels, movies, games, or series.

For example, a princess with a mean stepmother. A cop joins the force because their law-enforcing parent was killed in the line of duty (and they typically solve this murder during their journey). A duo who hates each other with the fire of a thousand suns inevitably falls in love. A hidden royal heir, unaware they’re next in line to the throne. An orphaned superhero (who will also typically discover their parents were murdered and bring the killers to justice). The quirky genius tutors the jock and turns out to be drop-dead gorgeous beneath their glasses.

Tropes sometimes get a bad rep because we see them everywhere. And, I mean, of course, we do.

We can predict the themes of shows, movies, books, and games by the tropes they employ—usually just by looking at the cover.

Beyond that, genre-specific tropes help us pick out stories as though they’ve been tailored for us. When I delve into fanfic-land, I search for the specific tropes I’m in the mood to read, and I often check review sites for the tropes found in the novels I might borrow from the library.

Ultimately, tropes are just another tool we can use to attract those readers who will enjoy our books.

Pick up any YA book, and you’ll likely find a tall, dark romantic interest, a love triangle, a fiercely loyal best friend, and a heroine who is some variant of Chosen One—exactly what readers of YA books crave.

That’s why I find it so interesting that some writing advice articles suggest cutting out tropes entirely.

Cliche as they may be, consumers expect certain building blocks in their stories. We might want a fresh take on that trope, but we still want it. The evidence lies in how many retellings we’ve seen in the past decade. Give us your new spin on Beauty and the Beast, but there’s comfort in knowing we’ll see those enemies fall in love.

My favourite tropes include The Lovable Rogue, plays on hidden or advanced civilisations, and Found Families. I’m also a sucker for a character who uses nicknames or has interesting speech quirks, a tribe of friends with endless banter, and grumpy and sunshine (bonus points if they’re in a platonic relationship).

Other tropes annoy me. For example, I hate ladies fighting over a guy. I’m not a huge fan of love triangles either, especially not the typical one where the beautiful teenage heroine shoots that bow like a badass, makes impossible split-second decisions, and saves the world every Tuesday, but for the life of her can’t choose between next-door Joe and his broody brother.

However, while I used to hate all love triangles, I find I’m cool with them now so long as nobody cheats or everyone is clued in if they’re in an open relationship. If she’s stringing along both boys because she can’t choose, I’m out.

For more on tropes, check out TV Tropes, a great database with details on common tropes. There’s also a great, in-depth article about tropes and how they affect book sales on Kindlepreneur.

What are your thoughts on tropes? Yay or nay? And do share your favourite ones in the comments! I love hearing from you.

Until next time.

Yolandie