Category Archives: Writing Craft

TV Tropes

I recently stumbled across an awesome wiki resource for writers.

The site is named TV Tropes because it started out with a TV series focus, but now includes many different forms of fiction. It describes tropes as patterns in storytelling. Each one is given a descriptive and usually humorous name. For example there is a trope about love triangles named “Betty and Veronica” after the characters in the Archie comics.

It is entertaining to browse this site aimlessly, by following any links you find appealing or clicking the Random button, but here are some suggestions on how to use this site specifically as a resource while writing a story:

  1. Find entries for tropes that you are planning to use in your story to see how it has been done before. You can use this tactic to ensure you don’t include an overused trope or to take note of pitfalls to avoid when using one.
  2. Find your favourite movie, book or TV show and take a look at some of the tropes it includes. Read about the ones that resonate with you and consider including some of them in your story.
  3. When you hit a brainstorming wall for an element in your story, browse through examples on the site. For example use the “Villains” section to help create an antagonist.
  4. If you know the genre you want to write, but not much else about the plot, check out the Genre Tropes section for lots of overall plot concepts.

Be warned: This site is extremely addictive. Betcha can’t read just one!

Here are a few tropes I like to get you started:

Leave a comment

Preparation

I am starting to work on my first novel. As I mentioned in my introductory post, I have been writing for over ten years, but I kept getting hung up at the stage of defining a plot with a cohesive set of characters. I also refused to commit to a single genre and setting. I didn’t suffer from writer’s block or a lack of ideas; it was just the opposite. I had way too many ideas for a single story. Spaceships kept cropping up in my heroic fantasy and I kept wanting my protagonist to be a magic user and a blank (non-magic user) at the same time.

I knew the problem was my aversion to making decisions but I persisted. It is absurd to let something that could be as simple as a week’s worth of effort keep me from my lifelong goal. Fortunately, I am not willing to leave this on the back burner any longer. I started by deciding to decide.

This past week I watched a series of lectures from fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson. They are posted online for free by his former student Scott Ashton: Brandon Sanderson Creative Writing 2012. Thank you Scott and Brandon for sharing this invaluable information! Brandon’s lectures gave me a concrete plan on how to get started along with an intense craving to create, write, revise and eat gummy bears. Brandon’s insights into his personal writing processes, the writing industry and the nuances of fantasy and science fiction were practical and inspiring.

Yesterday I decided that my first project will be a young adult science fiction novel. Specifically, I chose space opera. This genre can be described as adventures in space of the Star Wars and Star Trek variety. While it includes weapons and speculative science, it doesn’t need to be as detailed or accurate as military or hard science fiction. So far I know there will be magic and a spaceship pilot; her name is Dakota St. Clair. The rest, well, I have more decision making to do. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Leave a comment