How Writers Can Reimagine Common Storytelling Tropes
About The Author:
Isobelle Lans is a UK-based author and freelance fiction editor at Inspired Lines Editing. In 2019, she left her in-house editing job to go freelance and has been helping writers refine their manuscripts and hone their writing skills ever since. You can connect with Isobelle on Instagram, where she shares insights, tips, and encouragement for fellow writers.
As writers, we tend to roll our eyes when we catch common tropes in literature. Popular writing advice teaches that tropes are bad and that writers should avoid them at all costs. For the most part, this is true. However, there are ways to reinvent old tropes that can breath fresh life into our stories.
But what is a trope, exactly? Great question!
A trope can be defined as a significant or recurrent theme in literature. Writers are often warned against using common tropes because they can weigh a story down, filling them with predictable and unimaginative elements that feel unprofessional (or even lazy), ultimately diminishing readers’ enjoyment of your work.
To give evidence to this assertion, let’s take a look at a few common character tropes…
The Chosen One
Perhaps the most common character trope of all, the Chosen One is an average Joe Schmo who just so happens to have secret powers and who usually holds the fate of the world in their hands. This trope isn’t a bad concept, as evidenced by the fact that some of the world’s most popular stories center around Chosen One characters. Nevertheless, it is a trope that’s been done to death.
How can you reimagine this trope?
Perhaps your character believes they are the Chosen One when they aren’t or even becomes the Chosen One by accident. J.K. Rowling pulls a similar twist in Harry Potter as Voldemort unwittingly makes Harry the Chosen One by deciding to believe a prophecy. If you’ve read the books, then you’ll know that Neville Longbottom might also have become the Chosen One if only circumstances had played out differently.
The Secret Heir
Another favourite amongst fantasy writers is the Secret Heir trope. After all, who wouldn’t love to grow up poor only to discover they are the first-born son of a good-natured king? However, because this trope is so common, it’s often one that fantasy readers can easily predict, leading to a boring story.
How can you reimagine this trope?
Perhaps your Secret Heir’s father is a tyrant king, or perhaps their newly revealed heritage isn’t true after all. The HBO adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series successfully reinvents this trope by revealing that Jon Snow, bastard son of Lord Ned Stark, isn’t a bastard after all. He is, in fact, the son of Ned’s sister Lyanna and the deceased Prince Rhaegar Targaryen.
This twist not only reveals Jon as the rightful heir to the Iron Throne but lends new depth to Ned’s actions. Despite the strain it placed on his marriage, Ned raised his sister’s bastard as his own to protect Jon from Ned’s friend Robert Baratheon, the man who slew Rhaegar Targaryen and usurped the Throne.
The Tough Female Protagonist
Many writers mistake strength for physical prowess as they seek to give their female characters agency, leading to an influx of tough female characters who act more like men than well-rounded women — so much so that the kick-ass female warrior has become a modern storytelling trope.
How can you reimagine this trope?
A woman can be strong and well-developed without being a well-trained killing machine. Just take Hermione Granger’s intelligence, loyalty, and resilience for example, or Sansa Starks’ perseverance as she fights to survive trauma after trauma. A woman’s skills or emotional maturity can make her just as tough as any prowess with a sword.
The Dark Lord in His Dark Tower
Another popular fantasy trope, the Dark Lord lives in a dark castle with his dark clothes and his dark, ugly minions. Consider Saruman from The Lord of the Rings or Galbatorix from the Inheritance series for example. Often, readers know nothing about these villains other than that they wear black and greatly dislike the story’s hero.
How can you reimagine this trope?
Remember that your story’s villains are people, too. Despite their love of black, they should be more than evil for evil’s sake alone. J.K. Rowling reimagines this trope well in Harry Potter by giving Voldemort a backstory that allows readers to better understand his actions. In A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin flips this trope entirely on its head by casting the Lannisters as blonde-haired, beautiful antagonists and the Night’s Watch as heroes (of a sort) who wear nothing but black.
The Elderly Mentor
Many a protagonist can benefit from the influence of a mentor who inspires and educates them throughout their journey. But elderly, bearded, mysterious mentors — while successful in many fantasy and sci-fi classics — have become a bit of a storytelling cliché.
How can you reimagine this trope?
There’s no reason you can’t get creative with your mentor. Maybe they’re not old. Maybe they’re not male. Maybe they’re young and hip and not actually all that morally-minded, though they’re still able to teach the protagonist a thing or two.
Exploring Common Plot Tropes…
Of course, tropes don’t end at clichéd characters. Just as many arise when we take a good, hard look at the motifs that appear in many a story’s plot. For example…
The Love Triangle
Ah, bless… The love triangle has been heavily overused in literature, especially YA fiction. At the centre of these triangles, there’s typically a female character who’s arguably quite plain and doesn’t realise that she’s worthy of attention, when in fact two (or more!) boys are vying for her attention because they see the beauty within. Sweet, right? Maybe even a little sickly?
How can you reimagine this trope?
It’s okay for more than one boy to be interested in your female character, but try lending something new to this well-worn trope. Perhaps your female character recognizes her worth and realises that more than one boy is interested in her. Or maybe one boy is pretending to love the girl with an ulterior motive in mind. Better yet, maybe everyone in your love triangle isn’t heterosexual or blindly, madly, inexplicably in love.
Dreams and Visions
There’s something your character needs to know. Maybe they’re in danger, or demotivated, or missing a valuable piece of information. Lacking a better way to address this issue, many writers rely on dreams and visions to move their stories forward — a trope that can easily feel a bit lazy and contrived.
How can you reimagine this trope?
Like many tropes, you can use dreams and visions successfully. The key lies in establishing in-story context that explains how and why such revelations are plausible. Take Harry Potter for example. Harry dreams about Voldemort because they share a unique and well-established connection, which also explains many of the strange happenings in Harry’s life, such as his ability to speak Parseltongue.
Convenient Rescues
Also called a Deus Ex Machina, the Convenient Rescue is a literary trope that sees a character spontaneously saved by a little-known or previously unknown force after they find themselves in a dire circumstance. Convenient Rescues are commonly found in literature because they serve as an easy way to remove a character from a situation in which they can’t remove themselves. But the easy choice isn’t often the most well-written choice.
How can you reimagine this trope?
Like dreams and visions, convenient rescues have their place. Just be sure to establish your rescuer well before the rescue takes place, giving them an important role outside of their ability to save your character from danger.
Though they’re frequently villainized, most genres and sub-genres wouldn’t exist without the tropes that define them. Just consider friends-to-lovers, the unhappy marriages that often live at the heart of contemporary dramas, and the ticking time-bombs that lend suspense to hundreds of thrillers and murder mysteries.
Tropes are common for a reason, and it’s perfectly okay to use tropes in your stories. Just remember that what’s common can also be predictable and overdone. Be mindful of how you incorporate tropes into your stories, and work to twist or reimagine them when you can. In doing so, you’ll create stories that readers’ will find fresh and exciting rather than cliché.
