The usual tropes

[Rob_Royale]

trope noun - ˈtrōp​

: a common or overused theme or device : CLICHÉ​

In my life and other artistic pursuits, these have been something I've always avoided. If it was popular and other folks were doing it, it wasn't for me. I'm not a militant non-conformist, like someone who won't see a film that the whole world likes. But I do cast a bit of doubt on a popular thing because one must never underestimate the stupidity that people in large groups are capable of.

So when I turned my attention to writing erotica, it was with this mindset in place. I know you are smiling right now, if not laughing out loud, because as you expect, in erotica it's damn near impossible to do. You'd have to dip your toes into circus clown vs. hare krishna BDSM in the time of the American revolution, to find something that hasn't been done before.

And my first story was as tropey as it gets - best friend's mom. And yeah it bothered me quite a bit. But as I brainstormed on the idea, I realized, that in this genre of fiction, most ideas are kinda tropey.

So I've decided to just say 'fuck it' and embrace it. Knowing that the best I can do is put my own RR stamp on the trope, like metaphorical graffiti. And that's been my new challenge. The plumber's visit, horny MILF next door, pool boy, church ladies descent, but done my way. Bow-Chicka-Wow-Wow.

So right now, I'm starting what seems to be a time-honored tradition here. The - Mature Woman Sits on my Lap During a Trip, story. I say "mature woman" because I don't do incest within the nuclear family. Looking forward to it. No clowns, saffron-colored robes, or powdered wigs to be found.

So what " usual trope" in erotica have you enjoyed the most? Feel free to self-advertise and post a link.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Don't know so much about your standard porn tropes, but my own stories are littered with:
Long hair
Quiet moments
Stasis before ecstasy
Cupping a face like a prayer
Cupping a palm or a mouth over a pussy after orgasm
Freckles in her cleavage like tiny leaves in autumn
Shadows falling over a table
Cafes and coffee
Rain outside
The lingering scents of perfume in her hair
Car rides, usually in a dark blue one, but I now drive a blue Subaru WRX
Cats and quiet paws
Looking down from high rooms
And so on...

 

[THBGato]

According to Booker, there are only 7 plots (Foster-Harris has 3). So originality is basically impossible. No only that, but it's over-rated: getting what we expect from a story is actually one of the key factors for enjoyment - it's what helps trigger the dopamine release. Swerve too far off piste and your readers won't come with you.

Took me ages as a writer to realise this and I was so worried about being original that I didn't write anything for ages.

To answer the OP's question, I love:
- the straight girl realising she isn't straight, which leads to
- coming out tropes, which leads to
- over-coming prejudice tropes

I'm also quite fond of the rescue tropes

 

[GlennJenko]

No clowns, saffron-colored robes, or powdered wigs to be found.

Shame. Been looking for that.

But if I had to find tropes in my own writing, it's the "faithful" wife who is seduced and has explosive sex once she lets herself go.

 

[StillStunned]

The one I've played straight is "siblings sharing a bed" (or sleeping bag, in the case of my story). It was fun to write, trying to make the dialogue plausible and engaging.

I've also done "student is blackmailed by her professor" and "massage client is too sexy to resist". But I think I put my own spin on both of them.

 

[toughfire]

Years ago I came to the conclusion that an original story is not as relevant as an original style. A talented author can tell the most predictable story in the most interesting way, using good prose. I'm not saying my prose is good though. I only care about pacing and readability.

The tropes I've used so far include the dominant and hung older man, the good-looking guy who discovers something new about his sexuality, and the sweet attractive woman who is taken by force and loves it.

 

[AchtungNight]

I have used a lot of tropes and subverted a few too. It’s fun to do both. Some of my favorites include-

- Heroes with chaotic dispositions.
- Polyamory is hot.
- Redemption arcs.
- Learning from mistakes.
- Buddy action comedies.
- True Love.
- Therapists with unusual methods.
- Thwarting villains.
- Diversity.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Big titties, I guess. I don't think I do ordinary tropes as we see them.

 

[StillStunned]

Tropes sounds bad. But in literature you're always looking for types, and those are good. A bit like stereotypes and archetypes.

But tropes/types are just tools to hang your story on. Like I mentioned above, I have a story with a student being blackmailed by her professor (Ben's Big Mistake). It doesn't turn out the way the blackmailer expects. Fun with Fingers (I still wish I'd thought of a better title) seems to be a straightforward "being groped in a public place" story, but the end puts the whole event in a different light.

Even so, a well-written story with a common plot is better than a poorly written story with a contrived plot.

 

[ColinPiper]

trope noun - ˈtrōp​

: a common or overused theme or device : CLICHÉ​

The use of the word trope in a negative way is a relatively recent interpretation, and is not the full picture. The negative connotation tends to be in relation to overused story mechanics, as shown by the above and the discussion so far.

On the other hand, while the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms may be a bit up its own arse with its over-long definition, it does present a more traditional meaning:

trope a figure of speech, especially one that uses words in senses beyond their literal meanings. [...]

So the original meaning relates to literary devices like metaphors and similes and hyperbole. Modern use has expanded the meaning to include themes and motifs and plot devices. This expansion is probably the closest to the true meaning of the word. However, a further bastardisation has occurred to give the impression the word only relates to the overuse of the broader definition.

I'm just saying it doesn't necessarily mean bad. If you want to use tropes, knock yourself out kiddo.

(I wrote this before I saw StillStunned's reply - I guess we were coming from the same place. I also used the expression "up its own arse" - yeah, I know.)

 

[Lifestyle66]

My stories are mostly in Loving Wives, so the trope is the swinger or "cheating" wife. Even with the swinger stories, they tend to show misunderstandings and disagreements between the couple, as if one "broke the rules" and sort of cheated.

One story I wrote about an extreme case of misunderstanding and humiliation between the swinger couple was "A Hard Lesson" "A swinger couple's adventures can be humiliating." (9K words, 34K views, 3.2 with 224 votes)

That story is about the wife thinking she saw her husband in a position which she found humiliating, and she insisted on her form of revenge.


I also wrote a very blatant, "in-your-face" cheating wife story (non-consensual, cuckolded husband) for the 750-Word challenge last month to see how the LW audience would react. It came to me due to the discussion in the forums over female agency, monogamy, and controlling spouses.

"Pavlov's Dog - 750 Words" "Her needs and routines might get a girl killed." (750 words, 10.6K views, 2.14 with 632 votes)

It's about a wife doing what she wants, while trying to maintain her "loving marriage" with her high school sweetheart husband. The very low rating on that reaffirmed the obvious assertion that the majority of the LW readers insist extra-marital sex MUST be punished!


EDIT: And I agree with the last two positions that tropes may be a prevalent way of storytelling, but there are still plenty of ideas for entertaining stories which don't fit any mold.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Friends-to-lovers (or teammates-to-lovers or roommates-to-lovers or whatever) is one that I use a lot, but I think mostly because it lets me skip a lot of stuff that sometimes feels even more boilerplate, namely the meet-cute and “getting to know you” stage.

 

[MrHereWriting]

trope noun - ˈtrōp​

: a common or overused theme or device : CLICHÉ​

In my life and other artistic pursuits, these have been something I've always avoided.

There's no such thing as avoiding tropes and cliches, no matter how hard you try. It's all been done to death.

 

[StillStunned]

There's no such thing as avoiding tropes and cliches, no matter how hard you try. It's all been done to death.

I believe that you can avoid clichés if you pull out all the stops, go the extra mile and avoid the pitfalls.

 

[lustychimera]

Knowing that the best I can do is put my own RR stamp on the trope,

Exactly! Damn near everything's a trope. Take a handful of those and use them as the jumping off point to build your own thing. Super useful tools, and you go crazy trying to avoid them.

When the entire story is just a pile of tropes or you don't add anything to them (take a penny, leave a penny), that's when it becomes a worrisome cliché. I don't really worry about overused tropes--- there's clearly a market there if nothing else. I just worry the story bouncing from one trope to the next, just Save the Cat beat by beat, no creativity to branch out from.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't fret about the use of tropes one way or another in my stories. I've been reading online erotic stories for about 25 years and I have a pretty good idea about the things that interest me, some of which are bald-faced, overused cliches. I happily indulge in some of them in my stories. I think it's all in the way you do things. It's true, in a way, that nothing is original, if you reduce a story to a sufficient level of abstract generality. But it's equally true that there's a near-infinite number of ways that words can be arranged, always giving one an opportunity to put one's own unique stamp on a familiar idea.

My incest stories tend to be very tropy. I have stories about mom and son on a seat together, son "filling in" for dad in some way, son spying on mom and being turned on by her, mom turning to son out of sexual frustration, etc. All of these have been done many times. I've written mail girl stories, stories about sex-crazed "hot" wives, women with insatiable desires to show off their bodies, etc.

I've also written stores with plot ideas that, as far as I can tell, are different from anything I've ever read at Literotica, like magical bikinis, alien penis fish, a dirt town intended to be a fictional allegory for the Author's Hangout, etc.

 

[Dearelliot]

Dominant wife, sister, aunt etc, submissive male.

 

[alohadave]

I actively use tropes in my stories. I take things I like in stories I read and incorporate them into mine.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I’m more than aware that as a petite blonde open to sexual experiences, I’m a walking talking trope myself. Surely those types of people only exist in fiction .

Not sure all of these are tropes, but things that feature in my writing include:

1. Broken people seeking redemption
2. Sex as a form of healing
3. Conflict in relationships
4. Struggling with commitment
5. Misunderstandings and things left unsaid between people
6. Most women being bi (write what you know)
7. Most women enjoying anal (ditto)
8. I have strong archetypes - most obviously my demon / angel girlfriends where the demon is snarky and confident [a bit of a front] and the angel innocent and other worldly

 

[StillStunned]

I’m more than aware that as a petite blonde open to sexual experiences, I’m a walking talking trope myself. Surely those types of people only exist in fiction .

Remember: fiction has to be believable, real life doesn't.

 

[karina_jayde]

Enemies-to-lovers is a trope I love, and one that I think I executed quite well in my Drowning at Dusk series. The series opens with the two MCs nearly killing each other, and ends with a tearful profession of love after a bout of magic-infused sex.

The fantasy tropes of 'savage' barbarians are so fun for me to write and play around with. I love worldbuilding and giving depth to cultures that at first glance we would dismiss as savage and primitive.

 

[John_Vandermeer]

I neither deliberately seek or avoid using tropes. But I would not be able to write at all if I were somehow disallowed from writing yet another femme fatale story. I make it my own I think, or hope at least. But yes, every single one of my FMCs is some flavor of femme fatale, seeking the psycho-socio-sexual destruction of the MMC. Sometimes for love, sometimes for hate, sometimes because she is simply bored and he is at hand or in the way, the result is the same. Within that I like to play with taboo themes, primarily about infidelity or incest. And with princess/pauper themes. Which are also tropes. Classic example that includes it all is my story about a rich legitimate half sister that sets out to seduce and destroy her newly discovered poor illegitimate half brother for having committed the terrible crime of... being born.

 

[samhasstories]

Tropes are only a problem if they're used artlessly. You can see through it when that's the case - in the second act of a rom-com, the lie that one of the protagonists has been telling all the while comes out, and the characters fall out, but we know a heartfelt speech will bring them back together in the third act. I don't think that means you can't, or shouldn't, employ that device - just don't employ it because it's the done thing. Employ it because it's what makes sense for your story and your characters. It's a fine line, but I think readers can tell the difference which side of it you're on.

I'm honestly not sure what the common erotica tropes are, but I'm sure I use many of them. I just write what I find sexy, and that's informed by the things that have turned me on in my life, whether in real life or fiction. I'm not trying to reinvent anything here.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Friends-to-lovers (or teammates-to-lovers or roommates-to-lovers or whatever) is one that I use a lot, but I think mostly because it lets me skip a lot of stuff that sometimes feels even more boilerplate, namely the meet-cute and “getting to know you” stage.

Interesting. Since powerplay and its slow and seductive buildup is my thing, I focus on that exact stage you are trying to avoid.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

enemies->lovers is my absolute jam. Also FWB->true love