In Defense of Tropes
Often times when speaking on a topic of fantasy writing, I’ve seen young and inexperienced writers fighting religiously and willing to die on a hill, that tropes are inherently a bad thing and should be avoided at all cost. This can be also seen in modern writing practices (or even at institutions of higher education), where subversion and novelty is ingrained in a way young to be creatives are introduced to the craft. I honestly believe that this stance is a wrong one to have and in the end instead of expanding our worldview and making us better writers it accomplishes the opposite.
First let’s start by getting on the same page when it comes to what the trope even is. In general it is a common theme or device used by the author. It may show itself in some sort of a plot pattern or a specific way of story development. One of the most recognizable tropes in writing is “hero’s journey”, that originated in antiquity and has been in use ever since.
So here we have a point often brought up. If some tropes have been used for thousands of years, wouldn’t that make them stale and predictable? My response to that is not necessarily. It all depends on the writing ability and skills of the author. While the trope itself may have a specific structure it is important to remember that it is only a part of a story and even the same trope packaged a little differently may be fresh. I’ll give a strange example – a steak will perceived differently depending on how and with what it is served: plain boiled one may evoke disgust, but the same one grilled with aromatic spices may may be worth a fortune.
It is also important to distinguish a trope and a cliché – the second one being a trope overused to the point of boredom with no possible variation, which is often a butt of a joke. Still everything is salvageable if the writer is truly passionate about what they are writing about, as some series are known for their great use of the clichés.
I’m saying all that, but now it is time for me to speak out on why I think the tropes are important, especially when writing for TTRPGs, as this is my area of expertise. I believe that the tropes are a great starting line – they allow us to have a foundation to build upon and make something of our own. Building a grand castle atop a foundation does not mean that we did not do well. It serves as a fallback line and something keeping our in check, allowing us to not flounder around and get straight to the best parts of writing.
I of course recognize, that this may not suit everyone, but I believe that with some tropes being used for millennia, they are a great foundation and should be at least known by everyone who picks up writing. If you believe that you can tear down the foundation and build something greater, then that’s great and you should do so, but don’t leave the land barren and foundation destroyed and also don’t be surprised that when the time comes the building collapses, as that is only natural.
Subversion by its nature is a destructive process, that tries to break an existing trope and turn it into something people usually do not expect. But… destroying is much easier than creating, so many forget, that while subverting you should also build back up something different – the subversion should have a pay off instead of existing for its own sake, which is much more noticeable in TTRPGs. Here players can look into every nook and cranny, so while subverting you should consider how the change impacts the totality of the world, where we start finding problems, that I’ve mentioned before with grand ambitions – deconstructing what existed and rebuilding in our own image, but often times it leads to only the 1st part being completed, as the 2nd turns out to be too daunting and leads to burnout.
If you were to take one thing from this blogpost, take away that tropes and not inherently bad and have their place, even if only as a reference or a foundation, so that you will not become lost in the grandness of writing as a task. I remember the words an artist friend told around me, when she was teaching young student who refused to use reference, as that would be “cheating” – “Without reference one stops expanding, as they can create only things they know, limiting their potential”.