Don’t get trapped by tropes

When my kids were little and we’d sit down to read a book or watch a movie, they would often say, “Is this supposed to be like …?” Fill in the blank.

The Little Mermaid. The Muppets. Arthur. Take your pick.

While children are inclined to relate their world to things they already understand, they are also notoriously loath to try anything new. Hence, the popularity of chicken nuggets, mac and cheese and orange Jell-O as menu items. (Is it any coincidence that they’re all about the same shade?)

I would say, “It’s not supposed to be like anything. It’s supposed to be what it is.”

When they would say, “What’s going to happen?” I would say, “You’ll have to listen (or watch) and find out.”

That’s the beauty of storytelling. It’s a kind of discovery.

Well-trod or the path less taken?

That brings me to the somewhat controversial topic of tropes. Unavoidable and indispensable? Or predictable and overused? A scan of online articles by writing “experts” will find all these descriptors associated with the word “trope,” but perhaps the most common is … “common.”

You could say that a word means whatever you think it means, but it’s useful in any argument to have a referee, and where language is concerned, Merriam-Webster makes a darned good one. So what does M-W have to say about the word “trope”? Among other things:

“A common or overused theme or device: cliché.” In other words, “a hackneyed theme, characterization or situation.”

Overused. Cliché. Hackneyed. Are these things you want in a story, whether you’re a reader or a writer? Some people think you do.

I read a blog post that described a trope as “the scene that makes you squeal, ‘Yesss, I knew it!’” I heard an author on a podcast brag that she actually makes a list of all the tropes she wants to include in a story before she sits down to write.

Good or bad, what are these tropes anyway? They can be characters, situations or plot devices, but they all have one thing in common: You’ve heard them before.

Call Central Casting

• Chosen one — Maybe we have Joseph Campbell to blame for this, or maybe it was Walt Disney, but the chosen one is frequently an orphan, as well. Think Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter. Sometimes, it’s a hat trick because he’s a reluctant hero, too, like Frodo Baggins.

• Mentor — Wisemen, wizards and the like, frequently with white beards, like Obi-Wan, Dumbeldore or Gandalf.

• Femme fatale and her counterpart, the damsel in distress — Brigid O'Shaughnessy in “The Maltese Falcon” or Ann Darrow in “King Kong.”

• Endless numbers of bad boys and mean girls, geeks and brainy chicks.

We have a ‘situation’

• Love triangle — This one has such whiskers that it’s often called “the eternal triangle.” “Pride and Prejudice,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Twilight” (did I actually mention all three of those in the same sentence?) — whichever you like.

• Trading places — I’d like to think that Mark Twain invented this with “The Prince and the Pauper,” but there are lots of swapping and mistaken identities in Shakespeare, too. If you prefer Disney, you can choose from at least three versions of “Freaky Friday.”

• Body in the library — This one’s so common that Agatha Christie even wrote a book with that title, but inconsiderate bodies are always washing ashore, winding up in swimming pools or falling out windows. Time to cue the detective, professional or otherwise.

• Romantic ladies are forever meeting secret billionaires, getting stuck in elevators with sexy frenemies or entering into fake relationships. Go figure.

Deploy the device

• Amnesia — This one has “soap opera” written all over it, but this old wheezer has also been used effectively in movies like “Spellbound” and books like “The Bourne Identity.”

• Fish out of water — Everything from “The Martian” to “Howard the Duck” to “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

• Here comes the cavalry — Although it’s not always literally the cavalry, John Ford (bless his memory) deployed this so well in “Stagecoach” that it became a standard for everything from “Attack of the Clones” to “Apocalypse Now” (at least in one ending).

• Priceless gizmos and powerful artifacts — See my MacGuffin blog post.

Calling in an air strike on Mr. Darcy

Am I saying “Pride and Prejudice” is a bad book (and risk patricide) or that “Apocalypse Now” is a dog of a movie? Of course not. But I don’t believe that stories are made of tropes in the same way “trees are made of wood,” as one online expert claims.

And I don’t build mine out of Lego bricks labeled “bad boy,” “love triangle” and “amnesia” (or “femme fatale,” “body in the library” and “priceless gizmo”).

Nor do I think helping the reader know what to expect ahead of time is a necessary, or even desirable, thing (all squealing aside). As a reader, I can find that out for myself.

Isn’t that the whole point of storytelling?

As a writer, you may encounter some tropes along the way, but don’t set out for them. Go for broke, but don’t go for the trope.