1. TheApprentice

    TheApprentice Senior Member

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    Tropes for your work

    Discussion in 'Setting Development' started by TheApprentice, Nov 22, 2015.

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  2. Commandante Lemming

    Commandante Lemming Contributor Contributor

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    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
     
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  3. Shbooblie

    Shbooblie Senior Member

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  4. Bryan Romer

    Bryan Romer Contributor Contributor

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    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.
     
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  5. Shbooblie

    Shbooblie Senior Member

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    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.
     
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  6. peachalulu

    peachalulu Member Reviewer Contributor

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    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.
     
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  7. Shbooblie

    Shbooblie Senior Member

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    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.
     
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  8. daemon

    daemon Contributor Contributor

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    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.
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2015
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  9. Simpson17866

    Simpson17866 Contributor Contributor

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    Last edited: Nov 27, 2015
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  10. TheApprentice

    TheApprentice Senior Member

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    Im just seeing which tropes fit for fun, but I made my story first.
     
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  11. Simpson17866

    Simpson17866 Contributor Contributor

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    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 :p 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 ;)
     
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  12. Vanthu

    Vanthu Member

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  13. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    I think my characters are too complex to fit a standard trope/s. At least that is what I wish to believe. :p
     
  14. Simpson17866

    Simpson17866 Contributor Contributor

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    There's a trope for that :D "The Tropeless Tale"
     
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  15. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    I figured as much. Way to bring a S.A.M to an airshow. :superlaugh::superlaugh:
     
  16. zoupskim

    zoupskim Contributor Contributor

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  17. Simpson17866

    Simpson17866 Contributor Contributor

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    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 :D
     
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  18. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    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. :p
     
  19. Simpson17866

    Simpson17866 Contributor Contributor

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    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 :D

    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?
     
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  20. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Very true, Sir. I had not thought of it that way before. Thank you. :superidea:
     
  21. Oscar Leigh

    Oscar Leigh Contributor Contributor

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    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.
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2016
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  22. Oscar Leigh

    Oscar Leigh Contributor Contributor

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    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.
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2016
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