Every genre has tropes. They seem to be especially prevalent in YA Fantasy (and consequently either loved or hated), but you can find them in Contemporary, Sci-Fi, Romance, etc.
Many people will tell you to avoid X trope. (No one wants to see another Chosen One. Love triangles are dead.)
When I first started out writing—after my first draft—I started to get concerned about this.
Were there tropes that I should get rid of? Is everyone tired of reading this? Will anyone even want to pick up my book if I have a Chosen One?
The short answer is: yes.
The thing about tropes is that some people are going to love them and some people will hate them. But this is true of anything: the whole book, the writing style, Starbucks vs. Tim Horton’s coffee. Even if someone has a strong opinion about a trope I’m using, the next person might pick it up just because it has said trope.
That’s not to say we should ignore them completely. We should know our stories, we should be able to defend why we’ve included something (even it’s just because we love it), but we shouldn’t remove something because someone on the internet said that it was overdone.
We should also know what’s out there. Just to make that we’re informed about the market, but that remains true regardless of if we’re hunting for tropes.
But what is a trope, you ask? Well, a definition would be:
Trope: A significant or recurrent theme
Theme is a really great synonym. They can usually be defined in a few words, much like an elevator pitch.
And just to give you and idea of what’s out there, I’m working on compiling a list (general, non-biased) of tropes seen in YA Fantasy. They’re not necessarily exclusive to the genre, but they are there.
Enemies to lovers
Enemies to friends
Friends to lovers
Love triangle
Dead parents
Dead mother specifically
Dark Lord
Chosen One
Girl is an outsider (“not like other girls”)
Protagonist can’t see her beauty
The ONE BED *winks*
Mates/soulmates
MC is secretly royalty/person of note
MC has a secret (or unknown) power
Justified villainy (or humanistic villains)
Villains who are evil for evil sake
Love at first sight
Morally grey MC
“Kids” outsmarting or overthrowing “adults”
Two guys and a girl (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, etc.)
Dark and mysterious female lead
The-last-of-their-kind MC
Found family
Impossible quests
Do or die situations
Dynamic cast (think Six of Crows--multiple important characters vs. one MC)
Divided races/castes
Arranged marriage
Royal parading as peasant to experience the world
Medieval Europe setting
"I hate everyone but you"
Fake dating/marriage
Imminent war
Training montage/learning to wield mysterious power
"I'm supposed to kill you"
Right person, wrong time
Lovers to enemies
Friends to enemies
Rebellion against higher power/authority
The masked ball
The transformation (common to beautiful)
Rags to riches (farmboy to hero idea)
Hero against the world (society is the enemy)
Marriage of convenience
Star crossed/forbidden love
Hidden weapons (walking armories)
Forced proximity
Using a nickname until an ultimately fateful interaction almost kills them both (or the MC is hurt by someone else and the "bad character" isn't okay with it)
The list will continue to grow as I find/hear about more. There are definitely ones that I missed, and we could get into oddly specific ones. But for now, if your book had one (or more) of these, or even if it doesn't, you are still an excellent writer.
The golden rule of authorship is writing first for yourself. We are the biggest advocates for our books. So, we better like them.
What are your do or die tropes?
Happy writing,
Erin
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