It appeared that the thread about clichés might be teetering on the edge of derailment, so I thought I'd start a new discussion about the relative merit of tropes and clichés.
By common dictionary definition, tropes and clichés are pretty much synonymous. There's a site that explores the differences, but I can't recommend it without providing two necessary caveats. First, TVTropes.org contains material that not everyone will find suitable for review, partly because it contains examples from books/films/television programs that the more conservative may likely find inappropriate, and partly because there are tropes that don't fall under the auspices of Philippians 4:8. Second caveat: If you have a weakness for tabbed browsing and opening multiple links to other wiki articles in one window, this site can eat entire days of your time.
However, it can be an invaluable tool to a writer in the exploration of common themes or elements in literature of multiple genres.
TVTropes wrote:
Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations. On the whole, tropes are not clichés. The word clichéd means "stereotyped and trite." In other words, dull and uninteresting.
Quote:
Tropes are just tools. Writers understand tropes and use them to control audience expectations either by using them straight or by subverting them, to convey things to the audience quickly without saying them.
Human beings are natural pattern seekers and story tellers. We use stories to convey truths, examine ideas, speculate on the future and discuss consequences. To do this, we must have a basis for our discussion, a new language to show us what we are looking at today. So our storytellers use tropes to let us know what things about reality we should put aside and what parts of fiction we should take up.
The article I pulled that excerpt from also pulls the old adage from Ecclesiastes 1:9 that there is nothing new under the sun, and that every story is influenced in some way by what has gone before.* It also points out that stories can benefit from having ties to other works that the audience has enjoyed.
The article also gives a view of the flip side - all tropes can be written badly, and all tropes can be overused.
Blizzard of Fire
made an excellent point in the other thread that certain elements are common in stories
because they work. Or at least because a large enough percentage of the target audience finds them appealing.
The Princess Bride is rife with cheesy fantasy tropes (Damsel in distress, arranged marriage, pseudo-medieval-European setting with castles, swashbuckling hero, pirates, giants... I could go on all night) and yet it's well loved, partly
because it takes all of those well worn elements and incorporates them in a really fun way.
Authors can use a trope without playing it straight - subversion, aversion and exaggeration are wonderful tools and can bring a fresh element to something your readers might like that's starting to look a little worn.
What are some common fantasy elements you've seen a newer author use in an unexpected way? Do you plan to take something old and try to develop a new spin on it in your own work?
We're all quite familiar with the "kids from Earth take off on a jaunt through a fantasy land" trope, thanks to stories ranging from Narnia to Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz and all points in between. I thought it was pretty clever of N.D. Wilson to change the pace in the
100 Cupboards trilogy
by having the MC be a kid from a fantasy world who ended up in Kansas. That would be an example of a subverted trope.
I'm hoping y'all will be willing to discuss this topic with me. I know we all want our work to be exciting, and I think it would be profitable to explore ways of taking the familiar and tweaking it into something just a bit out of the ordinary.
*Sometimes that influence manifests as a storyteller subverting a much-disliked trope - the warrior heroine so many on this board seem to despise often grew up out of an author's frustration with stories where the weak and helpless woman had to be rescued by the mighty-thewed sword-slinging barbarian, and those used to be the more common scenario by far!
