I first learned of the existence of tropes from Scott Myers. In a post on his blog, Go Into the Story, he wrote about the site TVtropes.org. I’d never even heard of a “trope” but I checked it out and was fascinated.

A trope is a device and/or a convention that a writer can rely on as being present in the audience members’ (or in our case, readers’) minds and expectations. But a trope is not a cliché. It’s not supposed to be trite or a stereotype, but there’s no denying the existence of tropes in every movie, TV show or story. You can consider the trope in the same way you think about the plot structure of the Hero’s Journey or character archetypes.

For the past few years I’ve been very interested in the structure of stories. I don’t think I plot as well as I could and in my struggle to learn more I encountered a few great books: STORY by Robert McKee and The Anatomy of Story by John Truby – both of these are screenwriting books because screenplays have no choice but to stay wholly focused on structure. I’m not sure why fiction writing and screenwriting are always somehow separated into two distinct camps when I find we have a lot to learn from each other’s crafts.

Scott warns at the opening of his blog post that you can lose hours on TVtropes.com and it’s a disclaimer to take to heart, because there is so much great information on this site. What I found is that tropes make up a part of the underlying structure of every story. The site started with a focus on TV shows but has grown to include other media , and it turns out that tropes show up everywhere – even in real life. For example who hasn’t encountered the poisonous friend, the absentminded professor, or the hot librarian? Being aware of tropes can help you to maximize the depth of the story you’re trying to tell.

When I asked Scott about tropes and how they play into the screenwriting classes he teaches at University of North Carolina and the Writer’s Program at UCLA Extension, this is what he had to say:
“Tropes are a natural extension of my work’s particular focus on character and story archetypes. One area where they can benefit a writer is in the brainstorming process. Whether you're looking to develop a character into a distinct, multidimensional persona who lifts up off the printed page or rooting around for possible plot scenarios, immersing yourself in the world of archetypes and tropes can open the floodgates of your imagination.”

Tropes alone won’t structure your story’s plot or create a character for you, but this site is an amazing tool for brainstorming. The idea is to play.

Here are some ways you can play with tropes:

1. Search your favorite movie or TV show (or check out the list of novels in the Literature section) and explore the tropes present
   
2. Do the same for your least favorite movie or TV show or novel – do you see any similarities in the tropes present?
   
3. Working on creating or fleshing out a character (or cast of characters)? Pick at random a trope on the Characters list and see how that trope might play into that character’s persona.
   
4. Have a basic structure in mind but something’s still just not right? Check out the Plots list and see if one of these tropes might add the perfect plot point to your story.
5. You’ve heard it said that it’s all about location, location, location so what is the setting of your story and what does where its set mean to the story you’re trying to tell? What would happen if you changed the setting? The Settings list of tropes gives you ideas for the time, place and circumstance of your story.
6. A motif is a recurring subject, theme, idea, etc., esp. in a literary, artistic, or musical work. (dictionary.com) Probably the most popular and recognizable is the fairytale motif. Does your story have a motif? If it doesn’t, could it use one? The site includes 7 motif groupings along with 10 others that needed their own page.

So go play with tropes. Explore. Brainstorm. Find your story. It’s all there.

lara
My Story Writer
www.mywritingsoftware.com