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 |  This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
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This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. If it falls this year (2024), then I may stop the whole blogging thing, but that's all a "wait and see" scenario. An index of topics can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"  Feel free to comment and interact. |
| My Most Hated Tropes So, last time I looked at the Chosen One Trope ("20250115 Current Writing Trend Issue (The Chosen One Trope)" ), a trope that is over-used and can be really tedious. But considering it stretches back to ancient mythologies, and I like me some good mythology, it is not a trope I hate. Nope.These are the three tropes I really do not like. 1) The Bad Guy Who Is Just Bad This is one I have always disliked â the bad guy who is just evil. Even in mythology, that is rarely the case (Abrahamic mythology is the worst for this). But it was not until I read the infamous Peterâs Evil Overlord list that I realised just how stupid this whole evil overlord thing really is.Even if the person does evil things, in the real world, every evil person thinks they are doing the right thing. In a story, this will make the bad guy characters more human and add an extra dimension. The only people who just want to be evil are sociopaths, and even then, for them, it is a matter of dominance because sociopaths gotta sociopath. People donât like to hear this, but Hitler thought he was doing the right thing at first. He went about it all wrong, and he did many, many truly horrendous things, but at the start, his reasons were understandable. It is why so many Germans followed him. So, yeah, bad guys who are bad for the sake of bad are boring and unrealistic. 2) Communication Issues This is just insane. People hear part of a conversation and leap to a bad conclusion. People think they are talking about something but it is something else. People assume knowledge and talk as if that assumption is valid. Yes, they make for alleged comedy and are the bricks upon which many a rom-com is built, but as a trope, it is annoying. Why canât characters just talk it over? In the real world, a relationship that is healthy will involve communication. Real people ask questions to clarify. Real people will not just accept a one-sided conversation as they hear it. A real relationship will not fall apart at the drop of a mis-heard conversation fragment. Truth be told, the misunderstanding comedy trope is one I find about as funny as an ingrown toenail. It is part of the humour of cringe. It is just awful. I know soap operas wouldnât exist without it, but canât it just stay there â in the soaps and bad romantic comedies? 3) The Special Stereotype This is when the âmagical Negroâ, âmanic pixie dream girlâ, âfabulous gay best friendâ, âsuper-deep in-tune-with-nature Indigenous personâ, âhyper-intelligent neurodivergentâ (ânext stage of evolutionâ trope), or even âmartial arts master Asianâ comes in. To avoid making the minority character be just a stereotypical minority character, they are made into something special, almost magical or mystical. And this just reinforced the stereotypes in the first place! Want to know how to write these characters? As people. Thatâs all. Just as people. I have mentioned in the past I use beta readers who match the people in my stories. This is so they come across as people. Yes, the âSpecialâ person is a positive depiction, but they are not real people, and so come across as just another form of stereotype⌠and they are nearly always in a position below the protagonist anyway. If they are the main protagonist, then it can come across as pandering. Want to know how to make them people? Donât have them be the first one killed. Donât have them say constantly, âIâm gay/black/ Indigenous/ not like other girls.â In the real world, people donât do that; why should characters? Have their âdifferencesâ not matter a whole lot. How others react to them might be different, but that is others, not the character themselves. And, yes, people who are constantly harassed will have some additional behaviours, as will those who are neurodivergent, but that is not their personality. That is just a behaviour. Anyway, those are the three writing tropes I really struggle with as a reader. You might disagree and find them all perfectly fine. Great. But, to me, these do tend to harm a story. |
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