Tropes and trope-based marketing have been sort of buzzwords in the online writing community and on book communities as well. A lot of books have lately been marketed by showcasing what tropes are included within them, with a big one being enemies to lovers. There’s also tropes like grumpy x sunshine, found family, etc… These sorts of tropes are elements that are common in storytelling and are often core elements of a book. However, lately, it seems like books are simply packaging themselves around tropes just to check off boxes on a list, which isn’t something that’s very great for storytelling because it can feel very cliche. So, for today’s post, I’ll be talking about how to include tropes without making them feel cliche!
Why Do People Love Tropes?
Tropes have been around in storytelling for years and it’s important to understand what makes readers excited regarding tropes. Tropes are things that are relatively universally loved and trap into the experiences, emotions, and ideas that people hold commonly across the ages. Tropes are also familiar, oftentimes comforting, or allow us to compare and contrast pieces of literature.
The trope you choose to include resonates with a certain audience for one reason or another. Maybe the trope connects with an experience readers have had, or allows them to immerse themselves in a feeling that is different from their own life.
You want to understand why readers like the trope that you would like to write around and you want to understand what makes this trope so special to people.
Try to Play Around with Tropes
One way to keep your story feeling fresh, even if it includes tropes, is to basically take a familiar trope but to play around with it and subvert reader expectations. You want to basically take the familiar ending of a trope and change it in a way that readers wouldn’t have seen coming. For instance, the idea of the redeemed villain is a popular trope in a lot of stories. What if the redeemed villain isn’t doing something good for altruistic reasons and is still just protecting themself? These sorts of things change the way readers view a character and story because things are more original and interesting.
For instance, I played around with things like the prophecy trope and the pure evil villain trope in my series, The Fallen Age Saga because the prophecies in question are not really prophecies. I can’t explain much without giving away lots of spoilers!
Try not to change tropes just for the sake of changing them, but actually try to introduce a clever twist that will make readers actually interested in your story.
Make Sure You Include Complex Characters
One of the biggest reasons why tropes tend to feel cliche in stories is because characters that are involved in the tropes are basically devoid of depth, complexity, or nuance. This is a problem for many stories because readers will notice and it might feel boring for them. What you should do is that you should include complex characters that are actually interesting and engaging with unexpected traits, inner conflicts, and flaws. They need to go beyond the trope you are writing so that it doesn’t feel like you’re writing caricatures instead of characters in a story.
One tip to doing this is to ensure that you are avoiding writing “perfect” characters. It’s really easy to want to make our protagonists perfect in everything, but that isn’t a really interesting character to read about. The character needs to fail, go through hardships, change, etc… and it’s important that you create a flawed, complex, interesting and engaging character. If you want to learn how to write great characters, then check out this post!
You want to also try to make other characters like the villains more interesting and engaging. Having a purely evil villain can work, if you do it the right way, but many stories fall into the idea of the cliche dark overlord that has no complexity or intelligence displayed on page. If you want to learn how to write a villain that readers will love, then check out this post!
You want to play with tropes in a way that makes the character feel interesting. For example, if you’re writing a lone wolf character, try to make them interesting and not just brooding and angsty. Maybe they’re a bit witty or sarcastic or maybe they have a soft side. You want to try and include your own twists so that the story doesn’t feel cut-and-paste.
Don’t Just Stick to the Trope Formula
Tropes are great as frameworks but they should not be taken as end-all be-all formulas to copy into your story. What you want is to treat them as a foundation to build off of and expand from there. I recommend doing things like mixing tropes where you include elements from across different types of tropes in order to create a new twist instead of just subverting expectations.
You can also try to play with genre expectations and make things different than what they appear. For instance, if you’re writing a fantasy novel that uses the prophecy trope, you might try to make the prophecy not as what it appears. You can even get your protagonist to misunderstand the prophecy, which can create a twist later on in the story.
You might want to play with dramatic irony and make it so that it seems like the story is following a trope but the reader is aware that it won’t end in the traditional sense, while the characters are clueless.
You want to focus on the execution of the trope as well. If you’re writing an enemies to lovers story, you need to actually play into the idea of enemies and expand on it and not just have them insta-lust after each other. Enemies to lovers implies more than just lovers, as there was a phase where they were enemies once. If you want to learn how to write a great enemies to lovers story, check out this post!
Work on Realistic Emotions
Even if you include tropes that have been done time and time again throughout many stories, you want to focus on the emotional delivery of these tropes. Readers are more likely to enjoy a story even if it feels a bit similar to other stories if the trope is done well and there is a real emotional payoff and delivery to it.
You want to explore the emotional impact of the trope. For instance, if you’re writing about the hero’s journey, you want to try to focus on how each stage will actually affect the character from an emotional standpoint. You want to show the reader how the hero will feel departing from their home and going on such a perilous journey. If you want to learn how to write the hero’s journey, then check out this post!
You want to also try to include emotional stakes where you tap into deep, hidden emotions such as regret, guilt, love, etc… Readers need to actually feel the choices and feel the stakes behind these emotions. You want to show the reader that the character’s choices and decisions that are being made actually matter to the story.
Conclusion
Tropes have been around in literature for a long time because tropes are things that resonate with readers, have an emotional impact on the story, or are just overall popular for one reason or another. I’ve talked about writing individual tropes before, but the idea overall is that when you write a trope, you can’t just include it for the sake of including it. You have to execute it properly and throw your own spin in the mix so that your readers can enjoy a familiar trope but also enjoy it from your own perspective. You want to try and write tropes without making them feel cliche and that’s something that can and will improve the overall quality of your story.
Before you head on out, be sure to check out my series, The Fallen Age Saga, and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter so you can get updates on all my latest posts, WIPs, book releases, and more!