Tropes: Love them or hate them...

 

Photo by Tim Rebkavets on Unsplash

Tropes. Love them or hate them, as authors, we have our favorites to write and those that just bring us dread or maybe even make us cringe. Tropes play a huge role in the author's book. Maybe more than we care to admit. Do you even think about the tropes your books have? To be honest, I didn’t at first. I didn’t even truly think about it until it came time to market my books. 

    Once I started really thinking about tropes, I quickly realized my favorites. Some of my beloved tropes to write are fated/destined/soul mates. I have this trope in just about every book I write. I can’t help it. The hopeless romantic in me loves the idea of it. I tend to also like forced proximity, enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, and even frenemies to lovers. I also tend to write medium to fast-burn romances because my characters never seem to want a slow burn. I also tend to like the uneven social status. This particular trope is a favorite to write when I’m doing a werewolf story, which I tend to write for reading apps like Kindle Vella and Goodnovel. 

    On the flip side of the coin, there are tropes I simply can’t stand to write. I can’t stand the miscommunication trope. It causes unnecessary drama in my opinion. I also don’t like fake dating. I understand the appeal, but it’s not for me. I also can’t stand holiday romances, mainly Christmas ones. I feel like I have to release the book according to the holiday, and that it’s hard to market all year round. I’m not a fan of mistaken identity/amnesia. This one I’m simply not a fan of. One last trope that I am not a fan of is love triangles. I have never enjoyed love triangles. I think it’s because there is usually someone who ends up brokenhearted or with unrequited love, and those things make me sad. 

    Then there is another side to tropes, the tropes we want to try and write. For me, this is hit or miss. For example, I tried writing an age gap, and it worked out beautifully. I wanted to try a second chance trope and that worked out for a couple of stories. I love the idea of time travel and I’ve tried to do the time travel trope. It ended with scraping what I had and starting over.  Sometimes trying new tropes is fun and it works out perfectly. Other times it’s a complete disaster, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try the trope in another story. It’s good to try and write new tropes, you never know what you might find that becomes your new bread and butter. 

    Now, for one more side of tropes. The tropes I hate to write but love to read. I love a good slow burn. I’ve tried to write a true slow burn on a few occasions. I’ve even had stories where I can see the slow-burn romance working, but my characters have other plans. I also enjoy Reverse Harem, but for some reason every time I try to write one I struggle bus with it and give up. I like reading the step-sibling trope, but writing is just not something I can bring myself to write for personal reasons. 

    Tropes serve a great role in the book world. So whether we love to hate them, or hate to love them, they are embedded into the book world. Some tropes we embrace and others we run from, but no matter what, tropes will always be something we can’t avoid whether it’s for marketing purposes or simply trying to figure out what to write/read next. Tropes drive us to chase the books we love. 

Birdy Rivers is an award-winning author. She was born in NJ and now resides in GA with her family. She has been writing since her teens and professionally writing since her mid-twenties. When she isn't writing she is raising her three daughters whom she jokingly refers to as her baby dragons, working full-time as a medical assistant, and spending time with family and friends. She enjoys reading, the outdoors, video games, and music. Music and writing have served as therapeutic measures for her depression and anxiety. Birdy is a huge mental health advocate and often features the struggles of mental health in her stories.

Tropey Tropes

In all honesty, I don't think much about tropes. Not consciously, anyway. Clearly, though, they're tucked up in the subconscious, because they emerge in writing anyway. If I think about what ends up in my writing, it's always the same stuff:

• Found family
• Finding or making one's own place in the world
• Enemies to lovers
• Cheating the rules/authority/establishment

The things you won't see from me if I can help it are the same things Jeffe mentioned - damaging, misogynistic, racist, homophobic, transphobic, writer punching down or laterally in any way. Not here for it. Bully trope? Only if they get taken down hard. Even then, the take down needs to happen in the first quarter of the book so the rest of the story can be that bully's redemption tour. Otherwise, I'm out. You wanna kill off family or besties or beloveds in order to motivate a character? I'm going to cringe because it's lazy and it makes a character super suspect in my mind because if someone has to die before the character will move their asses to do what's right, they're either stupid or terrible people. Yes. I'm being judgy. Stuff went down this week and I'm in a MOOD. I'm not saying you can't kill people off in books. I'm in trouble if we can't. But as a driver for a hero or heroine? Yikes. So anyway. Come at me with the torches and pitchforks. Tell me I'm being a small-minded pain in the backside. 

Unloved & Beloved Fantasy Tropes

 This Week's Topic:  Which Tropes Do I Love to Write and Which Do I Loathe?

I don't know if there is a Fantasy trope I loathe to write. The Damsel in Distress probably comes the closest, but I'd totally make it "the tribe/village/town in distress" instead of a TDTL heroine. Avenge My Slaughtered Wife/Mother/Daughter? I hate the conceit that women have to die for men to succeed. That's not to say I don't love a good revenge story; just don't bump off the Important Woman...or the dog. No killing the dog, ever.

I'm wholly in bed with The Mentor trope. Magical artifacts and magical creatures? Pffft, hell yes! Antagonist as former bestie? Love it. Chosen One and The Prophecy? Sure, them's a bedrock of Fantasy. Overpowered Protagonist? Done it. Lost family? Any day, any time. Parallel dimensions/other worlds? Absolutely. Portal? Yaaaas. The Dying of Magic/The Birth of Magic? Yup, yup, yup. My list of beloved tropes is much longer than I'll post, but you get the gist.

The trope I'm too chicken to tackle? Alternate History.  I love reading 'em. Writing 'em? 🐔🐣🐔

I don't seek to write tropes, but I end up writing them anyway

 

Some tropes and storytelling elements resonate strongly with many readers, so I often see them used to market books. When I’m writing a story, though, I don't consciously think about tropes, and I don't aim to include or exclude any of them.

The stories I write explore some themes and conventions often, though. The romantic trope I use most often is "Friends to Lovers." I find I can write more convincingly about a couple who has an existing dynamic and I enjoy writing about how friendships can change.

I don’t hate any tropes, but there are some that my writing hasn't touched on so far. In science fiction and fantasy, I haven't written a "Chosen One" storyline. In the real world, I find the background of extraordinary people is often already compelling story. No predetermination is necessary.

I also haven’t written a story in which two characters in a romantic relationship are "Fated Mates." I prefer to write stories about the reasons why two people may continuously choose to be each other’s partners and how they build a lasting relationship.

Both of these tropes I haven't written rely on fate or predetermination, which I don’t know how to write about in an interesting way. I won’t rule out writing stories with these elements in the future, though! My writing, like the rest of my life, has changed over the years, and I believe it will continue to do so.

Trope-tastic - Love 'Em and Loathe 'Em

 This week at the SFF Seven. we're asking each other which tropes you love to write and which do you loathe?

The tropes I love are pretty easy to identify for anyone who's read more than one of my books. My favorites are:

• Enemies to Lovers
• Marriage of Convenience/Political Marriage/Marriage of State
• Forced Proximity
• He Falls First 
• Learning to Use magic/special abilities/wrestling own power

 

As for the tropes I loathe? Loathe is a strong word. I'm not sure I loathe any tropes. Ones I'm less fond of are:

• Second chance (I just don't believe that whatever broke them up the first time won't break them up again)
• Bully Romance (no no no - toxicity and abuse isn't romantic to me)
• Fated Mates (hard to make this one work)
• Faux Medieval Fantasy Worlds (Enough already - and besides medieval times were never like that)
• Chosen One (yawn)

 

The ones I truly dislike are the damaging ones, like: 

• Woman in the Refrigerator (women are people, not plot devices)
• Clumsy Heroine (it's not endearing to me)
• Racist Cliches (enough said)
• Bury Your Gays (see Woman in the Refrigerator)
• Having Kids as the Solution to Happiness (Spoiler: having kids is *hard* - they don't solve your problems or give your life the meaning it lacked)

Troping the Story

Cats on the internet. Is that a trope? Heaven knows I Can Has Cheezeburger has gone to town on storytelling with cat photos and a few captions. Bleps, like the one Cuillean has going on here, are definitely a trope in the cat photo world.

As for me, I have never met a trope I didn't like. Except, y'know, fridging girl friends or other sexist/violent/misogynistic. Also? If your trope kills an innocent critter just to show up how bad your baddie is, I will toss your book against the wall. And then in the donate pile. Unless it's really egregious. Then I might destroy it rather than inflict it upon another reader. But really. After that, I'm good! Just don't rest too comfortably on your trope. Give me a light touch and have a little fun with it and I'm yours. Like Jeffe, I like myself some enemy to lovers. I love long odds and heroines and heroes who don't yet know what they're capable of.

Honestly, for me, tropes are never the problem. It's how they're handled that determines whether I'm going to go for the story ride or spend my reading time rolling my eyes until I can look at my brain. If you want to give me a secret baby story, but don't give me a woman keeping her kid a secret. It'd be a cool twist for the dad with the secret baby. Don't hold me to that, though, cause I'm working on a book right now with a secret kid and she's with her mom -- so I guess, don't trope as I trope.

Tropes and Rhubarb!

 

Rhubarb isn’t for everyone. Neither is every trope out there. I could argue that there are so many ways to cook or bake rhubarb that eventually you’d find a version you love, just like book tropes. There’s rhubarb crumble, strawberry-rhubarb jam, cherry-rhubarb pie, rhubarb sauce both sweet and savory! You could have rhubarb for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then I suppose some would say they’re full, too much of a good thing! 

I don’t have a problem with well-worn tropes because it’s all about the characters. But we’re not talking about the used-up stories or the not-for-me kinds this week, this week we’re talking about our favorite SFF tropes! 

One of the reasons I love reading science fiction and fantasy is that the best ones do something magical…they combine tropes.

Not sure what I’m talking about? Well, when you read a mystery you get to solve something. When you read a thriller you get ever heightening tension that grows between the hero and villain, the impending doom, until you reach the big climatic clash. An adventure will, well, take you on an adventure like a historical will take you back in time. 

Now sci-fi fantasy have their own tropes. One of my faves is The Quest. I believe in life we all strive towards a purpose and those of us who don’t feel lost. Throughout our lives we all go through quests, big and small, which is why this is such a well used theme in entertainment because on some level we can all relate.

Another classic SFF trope is the hero’s journey. Yes, I hear you—not another chosen one, because really, the hero’s journey is basically the chosen one making a choice to leave the known behind, venturing into the unknown to experience trials and challenges before returning a changed champion. But I can’t be 100% anti chosen-one because there are so many ways to do this trope differently than what we had been given over the past fifty-odd years.

This is where the magic comes in. 

You can have a chosen one AND a mystery! A young woman thrust into a hero’s journey as the result of a murder and unbalanced magic system! Ahhh!! So fun! Or, a sci-fi thriller where a killer’s on the loose and they end up on an alien spaceship face to face with the one who can stop their reign of terror! *shudder*

It would be fun to go on and on about the mash-ups that are sci-fi and fantasy, but since there’s hardly any Thursday left I’d better sign off. Till next week, I hope you have a great weekend with an even better read!

Tropes! Tropes! Tropes!

Favorite SFF Trope, eh?  I'm a fan of most of them as long as they're not thinly veiled masturbatory fantasies centering around violent oppression (yes, that includes rape) to satisfy the lizard brain of the hero (or author, really). 

I'm hungry for new spins on standard tropes. I will go giddy over trope mash-ups with modern social awareness and contemporary struggles. Give me a Chosen One, but not a pasty white boy who is never held accountable for his failures or his neglected responsibilities. Make her a middle-aged washerwoman with three adopted kids and the ghost of a nagging mother-in-law. Put her on a space ship or an airship. I'm game for whichever lane of SpecFic. Give me the Gang of Outcasts' Quest, but not motivated by the pain inflicted upon a woman. The gang is a bunch of snarky aliens or a passel of retro shapeshifters? Love it. Give me the Steampunk partial cyborg family mixed with the case of mistaken identity out to battle an Eldritch terror on the high seas of a Secondary World. Give me all the portal fantasies...that aren't set in medieval Europe. I want to Time Travel to locations and play in Alternate Histories that real-world society wishes we forgot. 

In truth, I will ride any trope train as long as I give a damn about the characters. 

Bonus: If there's no head-hopping*, I'm buying the series.

*Head-hopping is poorly-executed multiple POVs that bleed together. Well-defined multiple POVs are good...within reason.

SFF Tropes: Name Your Fave!

If you love some Romance with or alongside your SFF, my publisher is doing this fab giveaway of new releases to celebrate Romance Awareness Month! Note that my book, THE FIERY CROWN, is included :D 

Our topic at the SFF Seven this month is our favorite SFF Tropes.

For those who might not know, a trope is simply a story element. I've noticed that some in SFF circles tend to be resistant to discussing tropes - as if they're a negative or unoriginal aspect of storytelling - where Romance readers are very open about embracing and searching out their favorite tropes. In truth, tropes are inevitable and wonderful parts of recognizing what kinds of stories we love. If you want a broad overview of tropes - and you're not afraid of a rabbit hole, because this site WILL take you down one - check out TVtropes. Despite the somewhat misleading title, this site is super useful for researching story tropes from all creative media. 

If you want to peruse just SFF tropes - maybe look for your personal fave! - I did the search for you.

A lot of the time, what people identify as tropes are those story elements that have become cliche. The Chosen One is a somewhat cliche trope in Fantasy that can make us roll our eyes if it's not handled well. Usually handled badly with this trope means that the Chosen One is a white boy prodigy (Orson Scott Card anyone?) with no indication whatsoever what makes them so freaking special except that they are Special. And no, making your Chosen One a brown girl instead doesn't automagically solve the problem.

But, what are MY FAVORITE SFF TROPES?

You all know me: enemies to allies/lovers and marriage of state/convenience are right up there for me. They also happen to be grand crossovers to Romance, so they work well for me. 

I also love me an underestimated heroine with hidden talents, magical or otherwise. I love an embattled ruler, almost always a queen for me. The Hero's Journey is a favorite, though I almost always give it to a female character. That goes well with the magic worker struggling to control growing powers. The alpha male with a cinnamon roll heart always works for me. 

Amusingly enough, all of those tropes are in THE FIERY CROWN. Go figure.

What about you - fave SFF tropes???

 

Spare Me the Antihero

Houston, we have a release date. On June 10, the third book in my SFR series Chronicles of the Empire comes out. The first NEW novel in this series in nine long years. Seriously overdue.

It's never a good day when a radioactive hunk of starship nearly drops on your head.

The Claugh Empire attacked Edie's planet fifteen years ago, murdered her parents, and left the teen for dead. So when a wrecked Claugh starship interrupts a salvage mission, she's torn between revenge and rescuing survivors—especially the stirring captain with an uncanny ability to rekindle her dead emotions. Something about him inflames the urge to come to terms with her past. But the mercenary in Edie doubts trusting a former enemy will bring her redemption or put old prejudices to bed. When a new common enemy, hell-bent on wiping out humanoids, threatens to bury them all, the captain tries to convince her a mutual coalition might breach their political impasse—all for the greater good.

I think I have the tropes SO covered with this book. Enemies to lovers. A heroine who flirts momentarily with being an antihero which is funny, because when we talk about tropes I don't want to see, the antihero is right at the top. I wish I could breakdown why I hate antiheroes so much. Maybe it having to read A Clockwork Orange in high school. I wanted every single character in that book dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. And not by their own hands. I wanted them robbed of the agency they robbed others of. Apparently I am karma, and I have zero patience. Either way. It feels to me like antiheroes are either unwilling to learn and grow or are too stupid to do so. Therefore, in a just universe (and hey, in fiction, you GET to have a just universe dammit! That's why it's fiction!) they'd all die because death is the result of failing to adapt, right? I suppose this all makes sense since we currently have a cadre of antiheroes running our government like it's a clown car and I have certain intense feelings about that. (Please let me live long enough to vote in November!)

So yeah. Antiheroes. Won't read 'em. If I want to keep company with willfully ignorant jerks I'll turn on the news, thanks.