The Role of Tropes

If you’ve been on the bookish corner of social media recently, you may have noticed tropes getting extra flack. Not only am I here to argue in favor of tropes but I believe that if you aren’t using tropes to market yourself and your writing, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage.

What is a trope?

TVTropes defines a trope as “a storytelling device or convention, a shortcut for describing situations the storyteller can reasonably assume the audience will recognize.”

In short, they are brief phrases or words that describe common themes or situations in media. Tropes show up in books, tv shows, movies, and various other forms of media.

Common Tropes and Definitions

Even individuals who aren’t familiar with tropes as writing or marketing tools can often recognize them once presented with familiar definitions. Here are some tropes that are popular in a variety of medias and genres.

• The Chosen One

  • Characters that are “The Chosen One” have been selected by an external force and are the only ones capable of resolving the plot.

    • Examples: Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, Percy Jackson in Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

• Family of Choice/Found Family

  • Sometimes formed through shared conflict, Found Families are groups of characters not related by blood but who share deep bonds and close relationships. These characters often loyally endure the trials and tribulations of the plot together.

    • Examples: The Scooby Gang in Scooby-Doo; Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Nina, Matthias, and Wylan in The Six of Crows duology.

• Evil Genius

  • The Evil Genius is a villainous archetype whose defining characteristic is intelligence.

    • Examples: Professor Moriarty in various iterations of Sherlock Holmes, Davros in Doctor Who, Lex Luthor in Superman comics, films, and more.

Writing Tropes vs. Identifying Tropes

As a writer, there are two distinct ways to use tropes.

One option is to write tropes. By writing tropes, I mean that you are deciding on tropes you want your story to include before you’ve written it. Then you structure your characters and/or plot to include the tropes you’ve previously selected. It’s worth noting that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing this. Plenty of writers use tropes and writing prompts for inspiration!

The second option is to identify tropes in your story after it’s been written. This option means that your plot and characters are written according to either your plotting, your spontaneous inspiration or a combination of the two. There’s method is great too!

Market with Tropes

Whether you plan your tropes or they happen spontaneously, you should be using tropes to market your writing.

Why?

Tropes are a great way for potential readers to rapidly understand the mood, tone, and general plot devices of your story to decide if they’re interested in further consideration. Many readers have triggers and/or tropes that they simply don’t like. If your book contains content that a reader knows they actively don’t enjoy, it’s best that they find that out quickly and move onto something better suited to their taste. If a reader does like the tropes in your book, seeing them clearly displayed can help them decide to read your blurb, apply for an ARC, or add your story to their TBR.

Conclusion

Because so many narrative techniques, character archetypes, themes, and situations are tropes, it’s virtually impossible to write a book without any. Your book has tropes whether you like it or not!

Instead of casting tropes as the enemy, think of them as crumbs of your book to feed to potential readers. Then they can decide if they want a bigger bite!