Oh the Wonders of Tropes

I might have some disaster movie tropes in here!

One of the reasons I don't actually review books beyond "Gee, I enjoyed that" or "Not going to read that author again" or "WOW give this All The Stars!" is that I'm kind of an uncomplicated Reader. I don't analyze, I don't dig deep, I don't say to myself, "Ooh, there's that trope I hate...." I  lose myself in the story and if it's good and I like the characters, I'm in. No matter what tropes have been employed. (Except eagles. Never do eagles if you want me to read the book. Well, Roman eagles are okay but not middle Earth....)

So this is a difficult topic for me. I was reminded today that I hate it when characters take time to describe the awesome science and technology behind their everyday life in the book. I won't tell you how my elevator works if you don't describe your antigrav to me, k? I also don't like complicated worldbuilding that requires me to have a dictionary of the author's madeup words and whole paragraphs are in italics and must be translated. ("And our magic translators work by bending the known harmonics of the string theory universe..." Uh, NO.) A few key phrases that I can then enjoy repeating later - great. That I like.

BUT the subject gave me an excuse to run off to one of my new favorite sites, TV Tropes , where this is part of their mission statement:

The wiki is called "TV Tropes" because TV is where we started. Over the course of a few years, our scope has crept out to include other media. Tropes transcend television. They reflect life. Since a lot of art, especially the popular arts, does its best to reflect life, tropes are likely to show up everywhere.

I clicked on the Speculative Fiction genre and from there had an absolute smorgasbord of choices, including the Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Cliches, which then further divides into multiple parts. Some fun things there, which I share purely for enjoyment. If you can use them well in a story I wouldn’t tell you to avoid them! (Italics are the tropes from TV Tropes, regular font are my pithy observations.)

Super-intelligent computers blow up when the hero confuses them. Here’s looking at you, Captain Kirk!

Spacecraft features have been pointlessly carried over from water-borne designs.

A robot is shot and bleeds oil. Awwwww

On-board computers always know exactly how long it will take for the malfunction to blow up the ship. The movie “Galaxy Quest” did a great sendup of this trope. Love that movie.

"Reversing the polarity" is the solution to virtually every engineering problem. As opposed to kicking it, banging on the panel or similar high tech solutions!

Alien artifacts still work after being abandoned for a million years. HEY! Watch it now, I use that one in my Sectors novels and I swear it makes PERFECT sense.

Spaceships make a whoosh as they go by. Flash Gordon, now we’re looking at you, buddy.

When something explodes in space, the shock wave is ring-shaped. It’s NOT?????

Colored irregular crystals are the power source of the future. I think I have some in my jewelry box right now…

The chemicals in the lab are mostly colorful. The poisonous ones are always bright green. OK, ok, I’ll make them……red.

You can get from the common areas of a ship to the most sensitive areas via the ventilation and maintenance ducts. There are never any security precautions in place to prevent this. Well DUH.

If you enjoyed this random sample, there are hundreds, if not thousands more tropes over on TV Tropes. Go forth and enjoy….

And here’s my video today which I LOVE (might be a few tropes hidden in here too):

Trope Change Up

Top 10 SciFi/Fantasy Tropes (and maybe a few off the cuff suggestions for changing them up)

1. Superpower/Chosen One - you know this one. Superman. X-Men. Avengers. Comic books. Movies. Selling lots of tickets to summer blockbuster movies. The Chosen One trope - The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings. Guardian of the Galaxy. Any story that taps one character as The Savior of whatever the cause du cinema maybe. In these tropes, it should be noted, no one's ever just trying to save a puppy. It's the entire frickin' Universe. Always. Who knew we faced so many great, existential threats? CHANGING IT UP: The Chosen One trope is easy to alter, just go with 'it could have been anyone, but right here, today, it was me' or choose a group and forge a team - though this last one is a tiny bit trope-y, too, so it can't simply be a rehash of The Three Musketeers. You do need to have something to say about the macrocosm of society in your microcosm.
2. Parallel Universe(s) - Every permutation of possibility is fer REALS because parallel universes! All you need is one transporter malfunction to prove that you can function in universe not your own! Okay. Granted. This is now an actual hypothesis encompassed by string theory, though I doubt every much that most physicists buy into a sinister Mr. Spock. (Mirror, Mirror) CHANGING IT UP: This trope hasn't been entirely mined out yet, I don't think. There's plenty of room for interesting, clever parallel universe story telling. That said, before one ventures into a parallel universe, one should endeavor to answer a single question: WHY? What is it about that universe that shows up the characters or the central plot question better than this universe could? 'Cuz it'd be cool' is probably sufficient motivation for a Dungeons and Dragons game. In the basement.
3. Interstellar, Faster than Light Travel - Pretty much every scifi ever. Star Trek had warp drive. Star Wars had hyperspace. Farscape used wormholes. Dune folded space. Science fiction readers accept the trope of Faster than Light travel because few authors and few readers have the mathematical and scientific understanding to grasp a technical explanation of how faster than light travel might be possible. So we suspend disbelief and accept the shorthand because we'd just as soon get on with blowing shit up. DON'T CHANGE THIS ONE UP. Yeah. Don't care if you are a rocket scientist. Your readers won't follow your formulas for more than a line or two. Sorry. Trope this and move on.
4. SFF characters wanted: Straight white dudes only need apply - Have you noticed? Most SFF characters are straight white dudes. Because only white guys are stupid enough to get bitten by radioactive spiders? Or strap on a bunch of tech, some painted body armor and go swinging around Gothom dispensing vigilante justice? Or, you know, how only white guys with British accents ended up in outer space in Star Wars? CHANGING IT UP: If I have to explain this one, I will cut somebody.
5. Zombies - The undead are a big deal right now. Evil Dead. Walking Dead. Dawn of. Shawn of. So many Deads. Zombies at every turn. (Guilty - I did a zombie squirrel scene in a book because, c'mon. Zombie Squirrels, man!) Whether there's a rational explanation for zombies, a magical one, or no explanation at all, the undead ARE out to get you. Even in space - an argument can be made for Alien being a zombie equivalent because the critters, while alive, are so alien they may as well be the undead. They have the same hunger and the same persistence in hunting their prey. CHANGING IT UP: This is another question of WHY. Why zombies? Could your characters face the living? What is it about rotting corpses that furthers the story and character arcs in a way nothing else could? Again. 'It'd be cool and I want a cameo on The Walking Dead' probably isn't going to be sufficient to break you free of the trope trap.
6. Apocalypse - There are two kinds of Apocalypse trope: 1. The apocalypse as it is happening - the world is going to hell in a hand basket right now and my story follows that. Think disaster movies. 2. Post apocalypse - after the world has gone to hell in that hand basket. Planet of the Apes. Logan's Run. Mad Max. CHANGING IT UP: Okay. So 'apocalypse' does indicate that things aren't going so well for the human race - but you could chronicle the rebuild. The struggle to turn the apocalypse around. You can play around with what the actual apocalypse IS. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke can be called an apocalyptic story - it does chronicle the end of the human race as we know it. But it isn't because of disease. Or natural disaster. Or the bomb. It's aliens who come to shepherd humanity into something Other. So many options for writing the merciless destruction of 7 billion souls...
7. Time Travel - Terminator. Star Trek - in just about every permutation of the franchise. In fact, there are so many time travel instances, there's a wiki page devoted to listing out the episodes and movies with time travel in them. In the Star Trek universe, time travel was such a thing, the writers finally invented time police to keep the time lines from being messed up. Given how easy it is to shoot oneself in the foot in a time travel (by creating a temporal paradox), time police would be handy in THIS universe. I give you the Terminator movies as evidence. CHANGING IT UP: No temporal paradoxes! Make sure MC actions in the past don't negate the entire plot. Don't go killing grandpa unless your daddy has already been conceived. Otherwise, you won't be born to go back in time to kill old granddad. You'll get tired of seeing this. But yeah. Why go anywhere in time? What purpose does it serve that can't be accommodated in the right here/right now of your story? If you have a specific answer to that, then more power to you. You've probably subverted the trope.
8. Robots/AI
9. Bug-Eyed Monsters
10. Fairy Tales are REAL

Oh look. I left the last three blank. Because by now, you know what I'll say. Robots/AI - any Isaac Asimov book (there's someone who changed up a trope by inventing the three laws). War Games (remember that movie?)  We all know that the robot/AI trope is about examining what it means to be human - and maybe to challenge where the line between sentient and merely cleverly programmed lies. Bug-Eyed Monsters - Scifi from the 50s and 60s featuring any creature out to predate the human race. Alien would totally count, except that the BEM trope requires that the monsters come to earth to get us. Total Cold War fears mirror. Fairy Tales as real - Once Upon a Time, Shrek, Ever After, Wicked

Point is tropes can be made to work for you. IF you're clear on why a trope is necessary to the fabric of your story. How do you do that? Dissect what you want that trope to say about your characters and your story. Why that trope? Why not another one? Could you reverse the trope or combine a couple of tropes into something newish that would heighten the story? How would that change what you're trying to say?

This is personal opinion only, but I suspect that tropes slide down the 'bad' side of story mountain when they're an unexamined, possibly lazy short-hand standing in for really understanding the point of a story. Conversely, I think that when tropes are applied consciously as tools used to ratchet tension, they can be elevated to something far more than trope.

A Reason to Turn the Page

Be warned: I'm foul mouthed this week.
Here there be four-letter words.

If I can guess what's going to happen why the Hell should I waste my time turning pages?

To find out if I'm right? Please.

Admittedly, at times I am no fun to go to the movies with because of a predilection to see plot developments for the tools they are. Believe me, when I am unsure and guessing--I am fucking entertained.

Every time a reader picks up a book (or an e-reader) they seek to gain something. A history buff wants insight into days long past. A student needs knowledge to enhance their skill or to pass a test. But fiction is about pleasure. (Okay, I'm sure someone out there reads stereo instruction for pleasure, but for the sake of argument, roll with me here.)

First, we all understand how the cover tells readers what to expect. If I said "a book cover with..." any of the following: shirtless musclemen, spaceships, a dragon, etc. you would have an expectation about what you'd find inside. Sooo...what if you found an epic space fantasy inside the pages of a book fronted with  woman in a Victorian gown and a plantation behind her...or vice versa? If that story wasn't what you thought it would be but the shit still reeled you in, would you stop reading?

"Well...not if it reeled me in."

Damn right.

The author makes an unspoken pact with the reader. Depending on the genre it might be: I will thrill you or  I will scare you or  I will make you weep.

If the reader already knows that the witch will cast spell to save the day, that the vampire will bite the girl, that the cowboy will bring that herd in and save the farm...why should they part with their hard-earned cash let alone their precious time just to follow your string of words to get there?

Because they want you to give them something more than the obvious genre-expectation.

Why should you not use tropes? Because they are flat carbon copies of something that was once cool and you can do a Hell of a lot better than that. Because you want to entertain. Because you want the reader to keep turning pages. Because you want them to enjoy it so much they recommend it to others. Don't misunderstand me, I love dragons and swordsmen in loincloths and fur. But if I wanted to read the same character on the same arc going on the same old adventure but this time in Miami instead of Rivendell, I'd buy one god damn book and read it over and over and over and over, each time using white-out to change the location until the book fell apart.

Sounds stupid when I put it that way, doesn't it?

But...but...its not fantasy without a sword-slinger who gets the girl in the end. And you have to have an axe wielding dwarf. Its not sci-fi without a ship the crew loves. It's not a spy thriller without gadgets.

Yes. It can be. Because we know those stories. I bet you could all name multiple characters who fit each of those options above. So turn those tropes upside down and do something we can't anticipate. Example: In the Pirates of the Caribbean those scallywags had to put the gold back.

Don't follow someone else's lead. Holy shitsack, Batman! THIS IS A CREATIVE FIELD! Make mindful, purposeful choices in a manner that bravely supports the originality of your story and your characters. When you deviate from the tropes, not only does your characterization deepen, but your reader doesn't know what to expect. Things are uncertain. If you're doing your job, sunshine, the readers are going to be fucking worried about what's going to happen.

And you know what else? They'll turn the damn pages.

The Strong Hero,Strong Heroine, Romance and Adventure Trope

My overarching trope is always the Strong Hero, with an equally Strong Heroine, throw in much adventure and the romance develops as the story unfolds.

Strong Hero: I happen to really like the alpha male Special Forces soldier type, the kind of person you want to have at your side, watching your six in bad situations. In my science fiction romance, the heroes so far have definitely fit this definition. But they're people first, with complicated lives, more than just the well trained "quiet professional". Here's what Tom Deverane says of himself in "Escape From Zulaire":

 “I went into the military because the abuse and slaughter of innocent civilians do bother me. At least in the service, I can do something to prevent atrocities.”

Turns out he’s the orphaned sole survivor of an alien attack on a Sectors colony planet and hence he’s dedicated his life to exacting revenge on the enemy.

My heroes in the ancient Egyptian paranormals are the Special Forces of their time – members of a regiment I invented (but which I bet every Pharaoh had), the toughest, best trained, most loyal men in the Black Lands, who wear the symbol of Horus the Falcon as their badge.

Strong Heroine: As I’ve discussed in this space before, I have no patience for the Too Stupid To Live (TSTL) heroine. The women in my novels are smart, brave, equal partners in a crisis. Whether she’s an intergalactic businesswomen or the chief priestess running an ancient Egyptian temple, she refuses to be coddled and protected while the guy goes out to fight the aliens or the demons (depending on the era LOL). She’s there. She’s resilient. Strong.

Adventure/Romance: yup, there will be a lot of both. I throw my characters into a bad situation getting worse, like being on a wrecked spaceliner counting down to destruction, or exiled to a realm where the demons roam, and they fight together to survive and solve the problems. But if there’s no romance I’m not interested in telling the story!

My favorite movies are usually science fiction – “Aliens”, “Terminator” – and sometimes you have

to be a shipper to actually detect the romance (Ripley and Hicks have chemistry but run out of time in my opinion LOL). You can see my tropes shining through there, yes?

A non- scifi movie I love is “Speed”, with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.  I think it’s a good example of my tropes at work, although I take issue with the oft-repeated argument that romances begun in extreme situations don’t last. In MY books they do!

What’s your favorite trope?

(Here's the trailer for "Speed". They don't give Sandra Bullock's character enough credit IMHO...)

Bring on the Tropes

Trope - Something recurring across genre or type of literature. I know plenty of people who give tropes the side-eye, as if they're something faintly stale and stinky. Yet, tropes work because unlike clichés, they resonate. Clichés may once have been tropes, but they've hung around too long and gone a bit rancid. They don't ring any bells of recognition in readers any longer - they just taste off. Tropes, on the other hand, are still sweet.

I know we're supposed to write about our favorite tropes and heaven knows I likes my tropes. But seriously, you know my favorites already. You've read 'em in my books! I'm far and away more interested in YOUR favorite tropes.

We know Sullivan McPig's fav tropes. Zombies and pigs. Fine, fun tropes they are, too.

What about you?
What lights you up?

Doomed, obsessive, forbidden love?
Mad scientists and unintended consequences?
Underdogs?
Farmboy saves the galaxy? Yeah. Okay. That's totally Star Wars. You caught me. Simple trope, right? Well. Thanks to my 7th grade AP English teacher, chew on this: sub the Imperials with Nazis and you have something more than a western in space. And a whole new trope.

Is there a trope you NEVER see but would cry with joy if someone wrote it?

Three Genre Tropes I Enjoy

Three genre tropes I enjoy:

1.) Good vs. Evil. I know, I know, this can be applied to nearly every story one way or another. I generally enjoy clearly marked good and bad guys, so I know who to root for...but a story that comes to mind --and if I recall it all these years later it made an impression-- is called To Reign In Hell by Steven Brust. Basically the fall of Lucifer, but he was innocent, and set up by others.

2.) The Quest.  There is always a bit of mystery in the quest. What does the protagonist learn along the way that was unexpected, and how does that change or affect him in small subtle ways that I as a reader did not see coming...that is something I find quite satisfying because thought I kind of assume the hero will win the day, the fun of finding out how and watching him succeed is enhanced by the fact that the success meant that something more. Examples: Lord of the Rings, Da Vinci Code

3.) The Chosen One.  I mean, duh, it's kind of right there at the head of the Heroes Journey thing and I can be a sucker for this kind of story...IF that chosen one is someone who resonates with me. My series is basically this at its core and because I hate it when this trope moves too quickly I am making sure that Seph has to grow and earn her success. Just because a character is 'the chosen one' does not, to me, mean he/she will win, it means that he/she has --more than others-- the potential to win if they prove they have the character and heart to see it through on every level: emotional, spiritual, mental, physical, etc.

3 Beloved Fantasy Tropes

Long-time readers of this blog know I am a vocal proponent of the Contract of Expectations between author and reader. Tropes are part of what define genre expectations. How an author frames those tropes and leverages them into something interesting and compelling is a big chunk of what makes a book...good.

There are many slivers within the definitions of "trope" that bunch some boxers. Jeffe & James have already reviewed them. On the positive side, I am particularly fond of how WriteWorld carves up the differences among stereotype, archetype, and trope. Their definition of trope is: 

Tropes: Culturally-specific norms in storytelling. Tropes are cultural classifications of archetypes. There can be many tropes found under the umbrella of one archetype.

"Culturally-specific norms in storytelling." I love that. It makes me want to know more about tropes from around the world, particularly non-Western tropes.  I also wonder if there is a hashtag or a thread out there in the Diversity in Fiction discussions focusing on culturally-unique tropes.

So, all that preamble aside, my 3 Favorite Fantasy Tropes are:

1) Whelp-to-Wizard
I do have a soft spot for the nothing-special kid who becomes a kickass wielder of magics. I like to read about the trials of their education, their screw-ups and the plot-changing repercussions of said screw-ups. Pug from Feist's Magician/Riftwar series and Hyacinthe from Carey's Kushiel series are examples. Yes, even Harry Potter, but Harry was a a bit too Chosen One for me. Imagine the story from Neville Longbottom's POV, eh?

2) The Artful Conjurer of Vengeance
Probably due to my deep, deep love for the classic The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas (père), any story that holds my hand through the crafting of the perfect revenge--all meticulous detail of setting up the villains and watching them fall due to their own flaws--I wish I could find more of these. 

3) The Human God
The protagonist begins the book as an every-man and ends the story on the threshold of becoming the deity known throughout history. The prequels of the Divine, if you will. What is not to love about the well-written seemingly plausible prequel?  Epona, The Horse Goddess by Morgan Llywelyn and Red Branch (the stories of Cuchaulainn) also by Morgan Llywelyn.

There you have them, dear reader, my favorite fantasy tropes. If you have any recommendations, let me know!

Embracing the Tropes - Love, Not Hate

Spring definitely begins in March here in Santa Fe. I spent a few hours sitting outside reading with my coffee in the sunshine this morning. Lovely!

This week at the bordello, we're discussing our favorite genre tropes. Since we get to pick the genre and I write in three at the moment, I'm talking about one from each. Also, since I'm the topic-kickoff girl, I'll take on the job of defining "Trope," for those who aren't familiar. Particularly because the way we discuss tropes in fiction writing doesn't exactly match the first definition of the word in most dictionaries. Basically a trope is a plot device. Many definitions add in a bit of a sneer, using words like "overused" and "cliché." Amusingly - at least to me - the purveyors of these discussions immediately move to subverting or avoiding tropes. This ignores this one simple rule:

Readers of genre fiction LOVE THEIR TROPES.

I shouldn't have to say this, but I'm going to.

1) This does not make them stupid.
2) This does not make them lazy readers (whatever the hell that means).
3) This does not mean the author is lazy (because, hoo boy, writing books is SO EASY).

A book that takes a beloved trope and runs with it in a fabulous way is a great treasure. Personally, I think all stories exploit tropes (because there are no new plots under the sun, right?). You could name me any book at all and I'll tell you what trope - or tropes - it uses. (GONE GIRL: unreliable narrator; HUNGER GAMES: the chosen one; etc.)

Okay, that's my soapbox. On to the lurv!



Fantasy

I'm going with the Fish-Out-of-Water trope for fantasy. This means a story where a person is plucked from their usual world and immersed in one alien to them. Often these are called "portal fantasies," because the protagonist much travel through some kind of portal to this other world. Oddly, it seems many portal fantasies these days are limited to books for YA and younger. My Covenant of Thorns trilogy is one of the few current adult ones that also includes romance. (Um, very adult. *cough*) I know this because we had a huge Twitter conversation about it - not started by me, but I got roped in, due to a mention of Covenant of Thorns - and most of the books we could think of were not at all recent.

Fantasy Romance

For this one I'm picking the Marriage-of-Convenience trope. This is a staple of romance novels for a very good reason. Two people are thrust into close proximity (lots of enforced situations can count as the "marriage") and must come to terms with each other. It's a classic because the conflict is inherent in the situation (something outside the couple forces them into the relationship) and because the emotional tension is easy to mine. Neither person is allowed to simply walk away when things get difficult. The problem with this trope outside of historical romances is that our modern world allows so much more freedom that it's difficult to come up with believable reasons for a Marriage of Convenience. But in fantasy - Aha! Because fantasy romance gives us room to build worlds and societies, it's a rich genre for playing with this trope. Which is what I did in THE MARK OF THE TALA.

Contemporary Erotic Romance

For erotic romance, my favorite trope is what we affectionately call dubcon, for dubious consent. This is not unlike the Marriage of Convenience and often requires a similarly deft hand and meticulous worldbuilding - even in a contemporary world. With dubcon, the protagonist is caught up in a bargain or situation that pushes them to explore sexual boundaries that they wouldn't have done in the normal course of their lives. This can range from extreme noncon abduction stories to mild dubcon where outside forces conspire to force the protagonist down a particular path. In my upcoming UNDER CONTRACT, the heroine is financially destitute and accepts a bargain from the hero where he pays her for BDSM sex. Again, this kind of trope creates delicious emotional and sexual tension - and keeps the hero and heroine from simply walking away when conflict arises.

I could probably make long lists of my favorite tropes, because there are tons out there. What's your favorite?