What do you use? http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrapsaccharineWorld http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurMagesAreDifferent
I tend to think of my overarching plot as one long "Break the Cutie" exercise with a wide-eyed idealist at the center: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BreakTheCutie http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WideEyedIdealist Of course, this eventually requires a lot of people, including the MC, to "Take a Level in Badass" http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TookALevelInBadass I also have a Straw Nihilist (or two) providing running commentary on how the main character is doomed, although I eventually convert that person; http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StrawNihilist And I set up the villain as a Well-Intentioned Extremist: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WellIntentionedExtremist
I begin with a dash of : http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ViralTransformation http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhoWantsToLiveForever Add a teaspoon of: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BroodingBoyGentleGirl Then infuse with a bit of: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HorrorHunger http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BodyHorror Mix well... And finish by baking in an oven filled with: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RescueRomance
I don't think about tropes at all. I create a situation, a plot, an objective. Then I create characters, who act in accordance to their personality and as compelled by circumstances.
I don't use tropes as a basis for any of my writing, I just enjoy reading them and seeing which relate to my particular plot points, it's just a bit of fun. The story comes first though.
Holy Mackerel, you're not really using this to add tropes to your story are you? I like reading them for fun or to avoid tropes but I wouldn't use them as an ingredient list.
Not at all @peachalulu . Just responding for a bit of fun. I've read the tropes just cause I enjoy reading them too. I've tried to turn them on their head as much as possible. I'm not picking tropes to use in my story that way.
Like the above posters, I begin with a story and then have fun seeing which tropes it contains (or better yet, subverts). The core trope is The Greatest Story Never Told. It is a first-person story from the perspective of a hero who cannot be remembered. By extension, she is a Forgettable Character, and a literal version of an Un-Person. And a Determinator who keeps trying to find a way to be remembered. What You Are in the Dark is taken in many directions and explored in great depth. The climax is a Heroic Sacrifice that flirts with My Greatest Failure and a Fate Worse than Death. Ultimately, it leads to a Bittersweet Ending.
Oh, this could take a while SciFi Story: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ElsewhereFic http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/DoctorWho http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TimeTravel http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheTimeTravellersDilemma http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StableTimeLoop http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TemporalParadox http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SapientShip Main character: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VillainProtagonist http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeWhoFightsMonsters http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AffablyEvil http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Transhuman http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Supervillain http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LightningBruiser http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RippleEffectProofMemory http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilBrit http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PopCulturedBadass Horror Various stories/characters: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheCorrupter http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumanoidAbomination http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArtifactOfDoom http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouCantFightFate http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealDreamsAreWeirder http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LaserGuidedAmnesia
If it's not too late: I'd like to take this a step further and ask if anybody else has made a TV tropes page for a work that you've completed. I did http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/Gemini It also ended up looking slightly different from what I'd written in my earlier post. I'll have to work on that at some point
Some that I can think of right now. I have a lot of: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldianConversation http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RandomEventsPlot http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Asexuality (since I'm asexual) I have had: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AmbiguouslyGay http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ComingOutStory http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EmbarrassingFirstName http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EmbarrassingLastName
I think my characters are too complex to fit a standard trope/s. At least that is what I wish to believe.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheCakeIsALie http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlaveMooks?from=Main.SlaveMook http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TorturedMonster http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AGodAmI
Oh no no, you were the one coming to a tropes discussion and saying that tropes were "uncreative" I was using my laser cannon to defend the airshow from your missiles
I hear ya. I was just hoping to avoid having my characters lumped into some cookie cutter ideal is all. Alas that was for not.
I just said this about MyersBriggs on a fan-fiction website and I'll say it again about tropes here Choosing between either well-developed characters or easily-described characters is a false choice, the best characters are always both Writing cookie-cutter characters around cookie-cutter descriptions doesn't work, but if you write a character that you can't describe at all, then why would you care about that character instead of a different one? Isn't the character just a person-shaped plot device if you can't describe the character and how s/he is different from a different hypothetical character in the same position?
It probably fits under tropes anyway. There's a page dedicated to the fact that tropes aren't cliches, you can't really avoid them because they're just identifications. There's nothing wrong with tropes. Its cliche, where it feels bland, unbelievable, corny and/or predictable, that is the problem.
There are way too many tropes in my stuff to list here. As I would say is the truth for most people's work. That site has sooo many pages. I'll do it for just Strange Days, and just some of the main ones: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LowFantasy http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AllMythsAreTrue (not everything is shown but it's implied it's all there) http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife (a key theme) http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GreyAndGrayMorality (Mostly) That's a starter.