Tropes vs. Writers in Fan Fiction

[ParaChomp]

As we all know, not all tropes are bad but obviously we've run into them as writers. Which ones do you tend to write yourself into? Any idea why? Doesn't matter what kind of trope it is or if your writing an original work or not.

 

[Kutie Pie]

I seriously have no idea unless I really surf around TV Tropes. I don't doubt that there are author appeals that appear in works like a signature of sorts, but from story to story, there may be different variations, or a new one is used. Or hell, there are multiple clichés that an author likes to use in various ways depending on the story. I myself have kinda noticed that I go for the happy-go-lucky/ditzy female love interest whom the guy is really not all that attracted to, but she's taken such a liking to him that he gives up running from her. They don't fall in love immediately, though--I think only once they don't at all, or at least it's one-sided. I'll have to check through my (many unfinished) stories to see. A lot of these girls tend to be smaller than the guy, too, which I personally find adorable because I'm small, though one's about the same height as the guy--albeit still tiny.

Though I have exceptions when it comes to the happy-go-lucky/ditzy typing. Sometimes, the girl has an attitude, and is not afraid to exploit it. So she and the guy bicker a lot instead of just having the guy getting frustrated at her. One of them also likes to hit, and is pretty... harsh. But by the end, they do warm up to the guy. These are also the girls who do not end up with the love interest. The reasons why differ from the both of them, but yeah, the guys do not get the girl they've grown to like. This only happens in two, maybe three stories of mine.

Speaking of ditzy girls, the reason why they're ditzy is because they tend to have disorders, like autism or just bad memory. Things like that. This could be a case of "write what you know" as I have Asperger's, so for the most part, that just gets thrown in there without my knowing until someone points it out. Twins and/or sister siblings are also pretty common, if only because I have brothers who are twins, and I don't have sisters and always wanted one.

And then I have one that appears to be... growing on me, at least if it has that part of the story: the wife having pregnancy complications. Yeah... not gonna go into too much detail here, but... it's a bit of an inspiration from somewhere. That's all I'll say on that.

So anyhoo, yeah. Those are only a few of what I've noticed in my work, and there are more, but I'm fairly certain that the majority of writers, while they may have a signature style, they at least attempt to do something different with it. Or they don't have a personal preference at all and just write whatever comes to mind. No matter what, you're going to write down a cliché whether you're familiar with what it is or not. So there really shouldn't be an exact favorite cliché that you just stick with every chance you get. Because it'll get noticeable and possibly has your name printed on it in fans' minds, but it can also get old very, very fast. And that's why a lot of people hate clichés, because they did get old very, very fast. But we keep using them because they're still effective. For the most part.

 

[jireh the provider]

Its true that recently in my original novel, I mix tropes from video games and novels a lot of times. While not always working, there is a unexplainable charm to it. I don't now but it makes me think of the Spiderman movies and Spiderman video games combined to my work at times.

As to the themes of any story or series that I created, I personally mix my personal experiences in life with many idealistic beliefs from different Spiritual Well being books (Chicken Soup to the Soul series, The Secret of Ronda Byrne, Bo Sanchez's books [A famous Flipino writer], Dan Brown's mythical Books [Da Vinci code, Angels and Demons, etc], and L. Ron Hubbard's Novels and Scientology Series [Look. I'm not a scientologist if I got their books okay?]). I mean, I guess that applying realist themes and beliefs on a fantasy Story like the one I'm working now is something like The Godfather series [The one with Don Corleone's family and mafias]

 

[Firebrand]

I don't know if this is a trope per say, or at least I haven't seen anything about it on TV Tropes, but I have noticed that in a lot of modern fantasy and sci fi, Slavery is Bad.

I mean, yes, we all know that slavery is bad, but if slavery is present in a story, I have noticed that the protagonist (or at least characters who identify as "good") are always opposed to it.

 

[jireh the provider]

I don't know if this is a trope per say, or at least I haven't seen anything about it on TV Tropes, but I have noticed that in a lot of modern fantasy and sci fi, Slavery is Bad.

I mean, yes, we all know that slavery is bad, but if slavery is present in a story, I have noticed that the protagonist (or at least characters who identify as "good") are always opposed to it.

Interesting. You see, in a lot of today's media, a lot of slavery references always go hand in hand with either of the two opposing sides:

Individualism vs. Society.

Perhaps I could match it with the Humans and Mutants relationship from X-Men first class that I just watched again this 12 in the afternoon

 

[JX Valentine]

Interesting. You see, in a lot of today's media, a lot of slavery references always go hand in hand with either of the two opposing sides:

Individualism vs. Society.

Perhaps I could match it with the Humans and Mutants relationship from X-Men first class that I just watched again this 12 in the afternoon

Actually, a lot of anti-slavery and us-versus-them messages in published media are actually straight-up historical and political metaphors. Your example, for one, is actually a metaphor for LGBT rights movements and its opposition, and X-Men itself is a franchise pretty famous for being a flat-out metaphor for the Holocaust (made particularly obvious by Magneto, an actual Holocaust survivor). Then there's the fact that a huge chunk of dystopian media is actually commentary on whatever political movement is going on at the time of their publication. (Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Cold War, for a pretty famous example.)

In fanfiction and original sci-fi/fantasy fic, however, slavery and us-versus-them kinds of wars (like Pokémon rebellions) tend to be used because they have convenient built-in conflicts, enemies, and levels of dark and grittiness. Plus you've got sides labeled pretty clearly from the beginning, so even if you end up playing with morality, there's still pretty clearly a good and evil or a side the reader is meant to sympathize with more. Usually.

To answer the original question, I'm a little hesitant about looking for tropes in my own work because I really don't want to sound egotistical about my stuff or anything. (Like, "Oh yeah, I totally use fridge logic all the time" kind of egotistical.) But I can tell you for certain that there's hella lot of author appeal going on. *motions to monsters, aliens, women with improvised weapons, and Bill in literally everything she writes*

 

[Firebrand]

You're right, Jax, but I was talking less along the lines of the slavery conflict itself and more along the lines of the personal feelings of the protagonist on the matter. What I mean to say is, even if having slaves is a part of the culture they live in and it is widely accepted to own slaves, the protagonists will be against the institution and there will likely be a scene where they liberate at least a few slaves if not a large portion of them.

To bring the discussion back to more general terms, the original piece I'm working on now is an inversion of a lot of tropes commonly found in fantasy. It's told from the perspective of the villain as they rise to power. I'm taking a lot of things that fantasy novels have/do and either completely inverting them or approaching them from the other side. So, while I will have a chapter where the villain protagonist goes to a slave port operated by an enemy state and while she will liberate the slaves there, she will make it a point only to free the gladiatorial pit fighting slaves. It's not out of any sense of altruism she may have, but only because the chaos and confusion it causes will allow her to slip out of the city unnoticed.

 

[Dragonfree]

I don't think that's about tropes so much as the fact that today slavery is widely considered a bad thing and people might feel similarly about a protagonist who cheerfully thinks robbing innocent people of their freedom and forcing them to work for you is just dandy as they would about a protagonist who kicks puppies for fun. Which isn't to say that's how people should be doing it - embracing values dissonance can do good things for a story, and it's always rather silly and convenient how protagonists in societies with very different values just happen to be visionaries with values nearly identical to modern Western society - but it's not exactly being done simply because it's conventional.

 

[JX Valentine]

You're right, Jax, but I was talking less along the lines of the slavery conflict itself and more along the lines of the personal feelings of the protagonist on the matter. What I mean to say is, even if having slaves is a part of the culture they live in and it is widely accepted to own slaves, the protagonists will be against the institution and there will likely be a scene where they liberate at least a few slaves if not a large portion of them.

Um. Whenever people other than the person I'm replying to come in to tell me, "Jax, you've got a point, but I was really talking about ___," is it just that I'm not clear that I'm only addressing what the person I'm quoting is saying, or is there another misunderstanding going on? Genuine question here because it happens a lot, and it's definitely possible that I'm just not clear enough when I quote-respond.

In any case, yes, but also keep in mind that the protagonist's thoughts are part of the bigger picture in the us-versus-them kinds of stories. They're what define which side the reader should sympathize with, and frequently, a writer will have a character choose which side to take because it's easier. As for protagonists who are always against slavery, that's because it's difficult to argue that slavery is both humane and necessary without sounding like a complete monster (even if you do establish that your characters' views are separate from your own). This feeds into the fact that it's just, in general, extremely difficult to write a character who has absolutely no regard for one or several basic human rights without creating a villain or an extremely cliché anti-hero. It's possible to write in a way that makes people who do horrendous things into protagonists or the characters the reader is meant to sympathize with, of course, but you really do have to be careful with it, not only to avoid going over-the-top with it but also because people are, for whatever reason, incredibly willing to assume that you're writing about your own views if you tackle a genuinely terrible political statement for the sake of exploring ethics. *motions to Machiavelli*

So I'd say as tired as it may be, there's not that many ways to write a protagonist in a slavery plot without either making them take the moral side or having them say, "**** you both; anarchy is the only decent form of society." (And sure, you could choose that route too, but that's not exactly easy in itself and shares a lot of similarities to the flat-out moral high ground. And thus, we have the only reason why I liked Katniss Everdeen in the third Hunger Games book.) You could have them take the less moral path by advocating slavery, sure, but that takes a lot of effort in the characterization department and careful wording on your part—more so than the moral route would take.