What trope is most common in your stories?

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  • #102144
    Kathleen
    @kathleenramm
      • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
      • Total Posts: 635

      What’s the most common trope you use in your writing? Chosen one, love triangle, damsel in distress, old wise man, tragic backstory, secret identity, etc.

      The most common trope I use in my stories is most definitely the secret identity trope. Without even realizing, I end up with three characters with secret identities in pretty much every story I write.

      (I seriously need to get a handle on it, but at the same time my characters can’t tell the truth for the life of them.)

      Secret identities are my guilty pleasure in both reading stories and writing them. XD Even from the stories I wrote back when I was ten I had secret identities. I think I just love the drama and conflict it gives the story haha.

      What trope is most common in your stories? Why do you think it appears so often in your writing?

      #102145
      Elfwing
      @elfwing
        • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
        • Total Posts: 486

        @kathleenramm

        mine is so secret identity!!! I have at least two people in each book of my series; sometimes the same and sometimes new ones. Not intentionally

        i love the chances for discovery and adding layers

        “well… we’re like onions.”

        “So… they smell?”

        “Yes— no! We have layers! Onions have layers!

        “Well cake has layers!

        “We’re not cakes!”

        anyways yeah I live the secret identity trope best. I like chosen one next I think… though usually the chosen ones have a companion who ends up helping them succeed.

        I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title

        #102146
        ella
        @nova21
          • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
          • Total Posts: 604

          @kathleenramm

          Undoubtedly, most definitely, undeniably dark and brooding love interests… 😐

          They’re just so amazing, you know?  And even if he isn’t the love interest, he’s probably gonna be a side character.

          Also, hate-to-love romances are pretty amazing.

          So ya, to some it up, romance tropes are most common in my WIPs… hehe!

          what we do in life echoes in eternity
          -gladiator, 2000

          #102156
          Anonymous
            • Rank: Eccentric Mentor
            • Total Posts: 1379

            @kathleenramm

            Mine is DEFINITELY the found family trope.

            I love that trope because I strongly believe that family isn’t determined by biology and that it’s determined by the love of Christ. Family are the people who are bonded together by the true blood-ties of the crucifixion. So found family makes its way into my stories all the time.

            #102158
            SeekJustice
            @seekjustice
              • Rank: Chosen One
              • Total Posts: 3365

              @kathleenramm

              I have a couple of tropes that will have to be pried from cold dead hands. I do like secret identities and I usually have one or two in any given book. But found family is my number one trope, it’s literally in every single book I’ve ever written.

              INFP Queen of the Kingdom commander of an army of origami cranes and a sabre from Babylon.

              #102166
              Linyang Zhang
              @devastate-lasting
                • Rank: Eccentric Mentor
                • Total Posts: 1700

                @kathleenramm Secret identities —- your works sound lowkey like Durarara!, which has quite a bit of that around the climax.

                Hmm…for me I find myself pulling more light novel tropes, usually, such as getting hit by a truck, white curtains blowing in a classroom, fireworks festivals, etc…. I watch too much anime…

                Um…I use “the quest” a lot. A lot of the stories I first came up with (that I’m working with right now) are in a quest-like format, though that’s all going to change soon…

                Also tragic backstory but I’ve found that more recently I’ve run out of tragic backstories to give and now I just give slightly twisted but normal backstories. To be honest, ever since I stopped plotting out characters before I wrote them, when it comes to give them their backstory in the story I just write whatever makes sense in that situation to be their motivation. Which I think helps a lot.

                Lately, it's been on my brain
                Would you mind letting me know
                If hours don't turn into days

                #102167
                GodlyFantasy12
                @godlyfantasy12
                  • Rank: Chosen One
                  • Total Posts: 6645

                  @kathleenramm

                  Chosen one and found family. Tho also best friends turned lovers if that counts. Lol

                  #IfMarcelDiesIRiot
                  #ProtectMarcel
                  #ProtectSeb

                  #102168
                  GodlyFantasy12
                  @godlyfantasy12
                    • Rank: Chosen One
                    • Total Posts: 6645

                    Oh and tragic backstory…

                    and secret identity…..

                     

                    ermmm. Let’s just say most of them 🤣

                    #IfMarcelDiesIRiot
                    #ProtectMarcel
                    #ProtectSeb

                    #102181
                    Jean Coul
                    @hallie-jean
                      • Rank: Loyal Sidekick
                      • Total Posts: 167

                      @kathleenramm

                      HoW aM I sUPPosED To chOoSE?!?!?

                      I probably use too many tbh, and I haven’t really thought about it until rn… Anyhow!!!! I actually agree with what @joy-caroline said about the “found family” trope! I was thinking about it the onther day and realized that I think every story I’ve every written may have that trope XD And I totally think the ties with being one family through Christ is a great way to look at it!

                      Also, I may use this trope a lot since I also seem to use the “absent parent” trope too often… Whether they passed away a while ago or they got separated from their parents or something else, it does seemed to come up a lot for me.

                      And ones like “hate-to-love,” “the quest,” “tragic backstory,” “reluctant hero,” “dark-mysterious-love-interest,” “friends-to-lovers,” OH and that one trope where you have the sweet, outgoing, peppy character fall in love with the serious, quiet, logical character… and just recently I have hit the “secret identities” track!

                      But the main one is probably found family 🙂

                      Proverbs 16:2

                      #102184
                      Elfwing
                      @elfwing
                        • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
                        • Total Posts: 486

                        @hallie-jean

                        ohhh I did the bubbly gal falling in love with the tall dark n handsome guy toooooo

                        It is my FAVORITE love trope in my writingggg!!! the journey of learning to better understand each other is so fun and developing their characters can be a total hoot and also give some tears. I would say it’s my top favorite, but I have not used it so much because it’s harder to use really often like I can mysterious character tropes. XD

                        I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title

                        #102191
                        Jean Coul
                        @hallie-jean
                          • Rank: Loyal Sidekick
                          • Total Posts: 167

                          @elfwing

                          Hahaha!!!!!! Yes! My favorite romance trope is opposites attract!!!

                          I’ve been trying to write more morally gray characters and secret identities bc I love mystery too!!! Also love anti-villain and anti-hero tropes!!!!!

                          Proverbs 16:2

                          #102208
                          Keilah H.
                          @keilah-h
                            • Rank: Chosen One
                            • Total Posts: 5035

                            Found family trope. Definitely. I have, like, three stories with that theme (but in one of them, the character that finds his father is actually a minor character, and ends up dying in the end, sacrificing his own life to save the family he found….I know, sad). Like @joy-caroline said, it’s probably influenced by how that is really our lives as Christians. The absent parent trope usually happens along with that one.

                            Oh yeah, and I like the hate to love trope. Romance tropes show up a bit in some of my stories. So does the really annoying character who wants the two characters to GO AHEAD AND CONFESS TO EACH OTHER ALREADY!

                            Weirdly, the character that is supposed to be me in my fan fictions has a secret identity, but she kind of has to because she’s one of three renegade characters battling the villain alone, and she needs the secrecy in order not to get killed (What, of course I’m not going to kill myself..Who would do that?)

                            Where'd I get ya this time? The liver? The kidney? I'm runnin' outta places to put holes in ya.

                            #102223
                            Kathleen
                            @kathleenramm
                              • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
                              • Total Posts: 635

                              @elfwing

                              Secret identities are so fun right? Do you have a particular character with a secret identity in a story you’ve written most?


                              @nova21

                              Haha, Sometimes stories need a bit of angst you know? Plus those characters tend to be mysterious and I love mystery, (who knows they could even have a secret identity) XD.

                              Oh, I too quite enjoy the hate-to-love trope if it’s done well. Was there a particular book/movie that made you like that trope or have you always just gravitated towards it in your writing?

                              @joy-caroline @seekjustice

                              Honestly no matter how many times I see that trope, it never gets old. It’s so sweet, and like Joy said shows how we are all bound together through Christ’s love.

                              Do you have a particular way you like to write that trope in your own stories?

                              #102227
                              Elfwing
                              @elfwing
                                • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
                                • Total Posts: 486

                                @kathleenramm

                                hehe I do in fact lol

                                Ummm

                                it spans several books and he pretty much starts as villain then has a change of heart and becomes an ally then the girl he loves dies tragically and soon after he ‘dies’ and disappears

                                No one knows much about him in the first place and

                                then he… ummm

                                well I’m still working on this part, it’s in my WIP

                                sorry, its hard to explain because you’ve never read the books, he’s the kind of character who is very hard to describe lol lol

                                • This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Elfwing.

                                I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title

                                #102237
                                Anonymous
                                  • Rank: Eccentric Mentor
                                  • Total Posts: 1379

                                  @kathleenramm

                                  I really like doing the found family trope with characters who believe they’re all alone in the world and no one could ever care about them and love them, or with characters who believe having other people in your life doesn’t matter.

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