Tropey McTropeface

[Kelliezgirl]

Wait, is that what we were talking about? I thought we were just talking about stories where the MC goes home for summer break (maybe) told in first-person past tense. Which is in a sense, I guess, being told by the MC's future self, but the narrating future self doesn't really have to be an active character in the story, if that makes any sense. Either way, none of the WIPs I mentioned are written nostalgically in that way.

Well, that's what I thought @ElectricBlue was referring to.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Well, that's what I thought @ElectricBlue was referring to.

It was. I reckon the opening sentence, "When I went back home for summer break," is the Literotica equivalent of, "It was a dark and stormy night."

 

[AlexBailey]

It was. I reckon the opening sentence, "When I went back home for summer break," is the Literotica equivalent of, "It was a dark and stormy night."

And that’s a tired trope because you’ve seen it too many times or because people usually write it badly? Both?

A Wrinkle in Time is a good and well loved book, despite the fact that it begins with, “It was a dark and stormy night.”

 

[ElectricBlue]

And that’s a tired trope because you’ve seen it too many times or because people usually write it badly? Both?

Both, generally. For some reason, it's a common trope here on Lit, and only needs a couple of hundred words to nope out. They're mostly a variation of high school stories, written by people in their second year of college...

 

[TheExperimentalist]

It was. I reckon the opening sentence, "When I went back home for summer break," is the Literotica equivalent of, "It was a dark and stormy night."

And that’s a tired trope because you’ve seen it too many times or because people usually write it badly? Both?

A Wrinkle in Time is a good and well loved book, despite the fact that it begins with, “It was a dark and stormy night.”

"It wasn't a dark and stormy night. It should have been, but that's the weather for you."

 

[MillieDynamite]

I watched Sisters, a pre-Superman movie featuring Margo Kidder (she was such a kidder, too). The movie was directed by Brian De Palma and starred Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, and Charles Durning. It follows Dominique Blanchion, the separated conjoined twin of a French Canadian model, Danielle Breton, who is suspected of having committed a brutal murder witnessed by Grace Collier, a newspaper reporter in Staten Island, New York City.

The screenplay for the film was inspired by the Soviet conjoined twins Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova and features narrative and visual references to several of Alfred Hitchcock's films. Margo plays both twins, but there's a twist (isn't there always one with Hitch and De Palma?). So, the twin thing is tropy, as it has one good sister and one evil, and to add to it. Adding to all this tropiness, a doctor hypostasized Jeffier Salt, destroyed one memory, and planted a new one.

The pacing was a bit slow, and there are a couple of glaring plot holes, big enough to drive a MacTruck through.

But Mr. Siskel and Mr. Ebert, I gave it a thumbs-up, but couldn't manage a second! I can't say more without spoiling the movie for those who haven't seen it.

Most of our discussions on tropes here focus on the particular tropes of erotic fiction. 10 in cock, 38DD breasts, and on and on.

What about ones that are story driven rather than sex driven?
What's your least favorite trope? And have you ever seen it used well in a story?

Personally, I hate the amnesia trope. Character gets hit on the head and suddenly can't remember who they are. And even worse when a second bump on the head reverses it at just the right narrative moment.

That said, The Long Kiss Goodnight was a great story centered around amnesia, and Memento was a brilliant movie centered around memory loss.

Your thoughts?

 

[Dodola]

One of my least faves is enemies to lovers.
The kind where the MCs hate each other, then have angry sex, then go back to hating each other.
I'm sure it happens in real life, but I couldn't be intimate with someone I disliked.

 

[TheArsonist]

Any trope can be done well, but I'm not a huge fan of the Obligatory Romance Subplot embedded within other genres (often in action adventures, thrillers and mysteries), where two people who just met and don't know each other at all go through a short, scary experience together and realize that they are soul mates.

Another one is the Designated Expert on Everything, where a character who is smart is therefore an expert on any topic that requires research/exposition, whether it's medicine, archeology or quantum physics. And in general all stereotypes that portray scientists as some kind of alien race rather than regular human beings.

I'm also usually unimpressed by fantasy settings that jump through hoops to replicate very specific features of modern America, such as a dragonrider academy with frat houses and spring break, or magic artifacts that works exactly like a cell phone. To my mind it bespeaks a lack of imagination.

 

[SkyBubble]

Make your damn aliens alien

Yeah -- any Trekker knows the mark of an alien is a different forehead.

 

[SkyBubble]

"You, hero, were chosen by destiny, and nobody else could have possibly done this task!"

Until you collapse and your best friend carries you into Mordor.

 

[SkyBubble]

"It wasn't a dark and stormy night. It should have been, but that's the weather for you."

"It was supposed to be a dark and stormy night, but the weatherman was wrong again."

 

[SkyBubble]

One of my least faves is enemies to lovers.

One of Shakespeare's favorites.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Another trope: A writer is writing a story about someone in a mid-life crisis, so they go to some European country to write a novel, because writers can only imagine people handling their European mid-life crises by writing novels and literally no other activity.

Painting?
I dunno, I don't see someone going to Paris to paint. Wouldn't they write a novel?
Uh... Cuisine?
Nobody would handle their midlife crisis on Paris by doing anything food-related. It's obviously a novel.
Fuck hot French dudes?
Oh, that's a great idea!
Wonderful, so you'll take out the-
Fucking hot French dudes in between writing their novel! Thanks, great advice!

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Another trope: A writer is writing a story about someone in a mid-life crisis, so they go to some European country to write a novel, because writers can only imagine people handling their European mid-life crises by writing novels and literally no other activity.

Painting?
I dunno, I don't see someone going to Paris to paint. Wouldn't they write a novel?
Uh... Cuisine?
Nobody would handle their midlife crisis on Paris by doing anything food-related. It's obviously a novel.
Fuck hot French dudes?
Oh, that's a great idea!
Wonderful, so you'll take out the-
Fucking hot French dudes in between writing their novel! Thanks, great advice!

Well, there is a reason so many Literature professors write novels about literature professors having a midlife crisis and sleeping with a hot grad student...

That said, making the main character is a writer works really well in Romancing the Stone and Castle. Otherwise it's generally too self indulgent.

 

[designatedvictim]

My attitude is, if three months ago is when "everything started," find a way to tell that part of the story in the same tense as the later parts of the story. One introductory paragraph, or sentence, or phrase, of simple-past tense narration about what res we're in media now immediately followed by hundreds of words in past-perfect is clumsy and spammy.

My other attitude about in media res is that it calls for at least a whole-ass scene describing what res we're in media. I won't wonder or care how everything started if I only have one paragraph, or sentence, or phrase, about the present situation. That isn't enough storytelling to establish the stakes, and it isn't enough of a hook to make up for the clumsiness of spamming "hads" (the past-perfect marker).

At first I was wondering what the issue would be... then I re-read it.

I haven't tried doing anything like this yet.

I was actually thinking of a first-person present tense initial scene, followed by the 'How'd I Get Here' / 'Set the Wayback Machine to Three Months ago...' type of internal remark and after a clearly-specified scene break continue the story from it's beginning also in first-person present tense.

Maybe that's wrong to do, but it was what I was thinking of when I tossed off that comment. This was simply to clash with my habit of slow-building to the first sex scene.

 

[anthrodisiac]

At first I was wondering what the issue would be... then I re-read it.

I haven't tried doing anything like this yet.

I was actually thinking of a first-person present tense initial scene, followed by the 'How'd I Get Here' / 'Set the Wayback Machine to Three Months ago...' type of internal remark and after a clearly-specified scene break continue the story from it's beginning also in first-person present tense.

Maybe that's wrong to do, but it was what I was thinking of when I tossed off that comment. This was simply to clash with my habit of slow-building to the first sex scene.

Nothing inherently "wrong" about your approach. There aren't really wrong approaches when it comes to writing. This seems like a pretty decent example, and if you're trying something new, then absolutely go for it. It's always good to experiment with your writing, it's how you learn and grow.

Maybe you find you really like this approach and it works for you, maybe you find it's miserable and you hate every second. But don't ignore pursuing it because it's a trope or it "might not" work. Give it a shot, see what happens.