Don't Fear The Trope

Tips from author Jonathan Hernandez on using tropes in fiction, and Announcements

Don’t Fear The Trope

by Jonathan Hernandez

Lately, I hear a lot of folks discussing tropes – usually in a negative context. There’s a popular website dedicated to tropes (tvtropes.org). It’s fun to browse and a handy resource. Being familiar with your tropes can be helpful as a storyteller and empowering as a reader. It’s like decoding fiction and finding hidden formulas in the code.  However, tropes aren’t something that you necessarily need to be wary of.  

Photo by Marvin Esteve on Unsplash

What is a Trope?

It might be helpful to define what a trope is. ‘Trope’ is one of those oft-tossed terms like cliché or archetype. They share DNA, but have a distinct personality.

Broadly speaking, a trope is a storytelling convention. They’re not inherently bad nor do they imply that the writer is lazy or unoriginal. Once you’ve seen a given trope a few times, you get good at spotting it.

Like all conventions, tropes can be for the sake of convenience. A common trope in science fiction (the genre that I write in) is faster-than-light (FTL) travel. The sheer size of the universe makes travel to other star systems difficult without an in-universe shortcut.  For a great deal of SF, FTL travel might not be necessary. Most stories that rely on FTL might not choose to make it the focus of the story nor does it even have to be central to the plot. Does such-and-such trope serve a role in the story or is it just thrown in to make it seem sci-fi?

I believe that tropes often draw ire because, like clichés, they can become cringe if we see them over and over again. And while some storytellers might use tropes sparingly, and to good effect, others will assuredly use them as a crutch.

Sometimes tropes involve depictions of certain groups of people. Needless to say, that can be problematic.  One of the ways that tropes propagate is via cultural osmosis.  A trope can spread harmful conceits about demographics that don’t always have a voice.

The kind of SF that I write is plot-driven and faster-paced and often relies heavily on familiar tropes. Experimental and literary writers may eschew those same conventions. Know your genre and your crowd. Some folks will be perfectly fine with X mythos while others will find Y mythos hackneyed and labored.

You can take the bull by the horns and deliberately select a trope but put a fresh spin on it. The 2021 Wrong Turn remake deliberately subverts the inbred mutant hillbilly trope.

The Netflix animated series Arcane includes female archetypes like the manic pixie and the femme fatale, but they’re complex, well-developed characters with agency and purpose, not cardboard cutouts thrown in for flavor or aesthetics.

(Click the picture below for a video on gender representation in Arcane!)

Photo: Netflix

Don’t be afraid of the T word. Embrace storytelling conventions: Warts and all. Have fun with them. Expand your fluency in the various kinds of tropes if that’s your thing, but don’t let your awareness of them hinders you, either.

I feel like many storytellers live in fear that one day a reviewer will say…  ‘aha! You used the such-and-such trope!’ Going down a list of online tropes can become paralyzing once you realize how pervasive they actually are. Storytellers might feel like they’re uncreative, or worse, that they’ve just been stealing ideas from others. The truth is art is allowed to be derivative. It’s hard to produce work in a vacuum, nor should you. The painters of the Renaissance period clearly had their influences, and it’s impossible to avoid assimilation in the age of the internet.

I want all storytellers to feel empowered and emboldened. Read what you want and indulge in your guilty pleasures. Tell your story the way you want to.

Don’t fear the trope. 

Photo by Yannick Pulver on Unsplash

ANNOUNCEMENTS: BOOK GIVEAWAY

The book giveaway is happening! We’re just waiting for more of you to sign up for the newsletter so everyone has a fair shake. We have tons of prizes for the peeps who are drawn that have stuck with us until May 17, 2022, which is when we will announce the winners.

Here are the prizes!

Signed hardback of Among Thieves

Signed copies of Erebus Dawning & A Star Reborn

The Frozen Crown (PB) & The Seventh Queen (HB)

Signed hardback of The Road to Juneau

The Family Cross

For the Murder

eBook of Sowing the Dragon's Teeth

Signed copy of First Light

Lodestone

Signed copy of The Sightless City

GIVEAWAY RULES

1. Anyone who is signed up with us by May 17th is eligible.

2. Only 2 international winners will be chosen for Road to Juneau (physical) and Sowing the Dragon's Teeth (ebook).

3. Family members of the authors are exempt from this drawing.

4. Drawing will be held on the 17th of May 2022 and announced on the same day.

5. Once the drawing is done, the winners will be contacted and book delivery will be arranged.