My Most Common Tropes
I was tagged by @i-can-even-burn-salad in this post. (....in August, lol.) Thanks, Elli!
Rules: Look back on your work, both past and present, finished and unfinished. What are five to ten narrative elements or tropes that continuously pop up in your work?
OPEN TAG
My most common tropes and narrative elements are....
Angst
Girl Power
Violence & Power Dynamics
(Sad) Family Stuff
Slow Burn
Classic Big Bad Villains
And because I'm me, find four billion examples below the read more. :)
āØ Angst
What more can I say? I love it when my characters are sad. And hurting. And feeling hopeless. And helpless.
No matter what I do, I canāt move. I canāt get to her. Iām helpless. Iām useless. Maybe thatās all Iāve ever beenāfailing Jamie, failing IA, and now Iām going to fail Bree, too. - TPOT
What difference did it make? He would take her home, and sheād be his pretty possession once again, and every choice sheād made to escape the fate sheād so foolishly chosen for herself four years before would mean absolutely nothing. - TQOL
Yes, the thief thought, he was lucky. Lucky to have had Breeāwho didnāt even know himāand her gentle hands on his skin, taking care of him for reasons he didnāt know or understand, doing something for him when he could never, ever pay her back. [...] Lucky that she was real, and that she had been there. Lucky, most of all, that she was gone, and that he would never see her again, because if he did, heād have to face all over this alien, unwelcome pain of farewell. - TQOL
Being dead and suffering through some kind of purgatory was the least palatable option heād come up with, yet the scholar half-hoped it was true. If he had died, the hell he was living through now was the false reality. It would eventually crumble into oblivion, blown away on the wind with his ashes, or buried in the ground with his decomposing corpse. - Man of Letters
āØ Girl Power
Action Girl / Plucky Girl / Determinator
Pour one out for my girls Bree, Colette, Alice, Fen, Ivy, Bridget, Nalia, Oriana, Ker, and Balain. Even when they're fucking up, which they do a lot, they're making it through and, in some cases, saving the day. Girls rule, boys drool. (shhh I'm just kidding)
Those same fears come back, renewed and armed with sharper, more vicious teeth than before. But so, too, does that promise. And even though the wind is just as cold as it was that night, and even though what I am leaving behind is infinitely more precious than what I abandoned four years ago, the taste of freedom on the wind is just as sweet. - TPOT
āPut the princess in a pair of pants and watch what happens.ā- TQOL
āI chased a fucking wagon across this goddamn city. And then I chased a carriage across it again. I nearly got trampled twice. Do not fucking start with me.ā - TQOL
They didnāt know what they were getting themselves into when they decided to kidnap me. I hope I get the chance to make them regret it. - TCOR
āI may be dying,ā she said, her voice trembling with fury, ābut Iām not dead. And Iām not going to lie around waiting to die, either.ā - Book 1
āØ Violence & Power Dynamics
Violence is the Only Option / Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique / No-Holds-Barred Beatdown / Restraints / I Will Punish Your Friend For Your Failure / Defiant Captive
No respiteāthe rope grew tight again, accompanied now by Baden Hatchettās hand on his chin. āTried to take what wasnāt yours, and when she was rightfully repulsed by you, you thought youād get to me another way instead?ā - TQOL
I canāt suppress the cry that escapes as he twists and presses his fingertips against the wound. - TPOT
āAnswer me,ā the prince said softly, tightening his grip just enough that the scholarās jaw began to ache. - Man of Letters
āTry to run away and Iāll let him drown your friend,ā she said, digging her fingers into Naliaās arm. - Book 1
āØ Family Stuff
Annoying Younger Sibling / Disappointing Older Sibling / Dead Parents / Abusive Parents
When Will kept bouncing, seeming not to hear their motherās question, Jamie picked up one of his brotherās abandoned socks from the floor, crushed it into a ball, and hurled it at his head. - TPOT
āNo one says anything. No one. Even you. You got arrested and you never fucking told me and he had that old record and thatās how he knew your name, and I canāt believe you never said anything, for fuckās sake, and that happened when Ma was still aliveāā - TPOT
The entire time I was in jail, truly believing and even hoping that my brother had skipped town and saved himself and left me to die, I never wanted to hurt him as much as I do right now.Ā - TCOR
A knife under the ribs. ItĀ wasĀ Bridgetās fault. āI didnātāI shouldāveāI know I waited too long to go to the feds. Iām going to regret it forever, you know.ā - Fen and Freddie
āKeeping me here to suffer more because your mother died on you, thatās not fair.ā I know these words will hurt her. I donāt care. āI watched my ma die, too.ā - TPOT
āMy motherā¦she used to. She lives in the country now.ā A distant look came into his eyes. āMy dadās dead. Of the fever. When it came here.ā - Book 1
The soft words of her mother often came to her in such momentsāthe gentle but fragmented counsel that had helped Cecilia Cooper through her own marriage to Silas Cooper, a bitter man prone to temper and partial to drink. Stay with me, my love, she had whispered so often, and I will keep you safe. A mostly empty promise, untrue but well-meant; Breanna had known even then that her mother had tried her best. Letās practice some sums, she would sometimes say, smoothing away her daughterās tear-damp locks, watching the door with a frantic eye in case the handle began to turn. - TQOL
āØ Slow Burn
Make them go through a billion and a half awkward moments and almosts before they kiss!
Almost Kiss / Rescue Romance / Sleep Cute
I bet that hair practically glows red when the sun hits it just right. Especially in the light of sunset, when the sky turns to pink and orange flame. - TPOT
Dawn, of course, does not reach us inside our cell. Its rays canāt drift inside and wake us gently, canāt illuminate our fingers that remained entwined through the night; perhaps it is some innate, natural understanding that itās almost time to rise that makes my eyes flutter open. A pair of hazel ones stares back. - TPOT
Are we closer than we were a minute ago? Can I better see the flutter of her eyelashes, glittering with tears, as she looks up at me, her cheeks pale, her lips parted to let every frightened breath pass, her hair brushing against her skin in perfect disarray? - TPOT
This was different: lovely, potent, thrilling. Like silken threads woven with bronze, like some entity of creation had crafted this man from warm earth and molten metal. - TQOL
This gaze burned like sunshineālike spring, like warmth on meadow grasses, like the glint of golden light off a pond. It burned, and it didnāt waver, and she knew where he was looking when he shifted a strand of damp hair away from her neck. - TQOL
He fixed her with that annoyingly penetrating gaze, like she was a book he wanted to read. - Book 1
āØ Big-Bad Style Villains
Big Bad / Lack of Empathy / Blaming "The Man" / The Chessmaster / Implacable Man / Evil Gloating
āMouth off to her again,ā he said softly, āand Iām going to make you very sorry.ā - Book 1
āOops,ā Brockhurst said. āThat might have broken a rib. Or several.ā - Fen and Freddie
āLook at you. Youāre no hero,ā Hatchett says. My eyes fly open again. āA thief is all you areāa terrible one at that. Iustitia aecum, indeed.ā He bares his teeth. āYou and the others, you wear your guise of honour. Still, you are nothing more than lowlife, thieving criminals. Her, just as much as you.ā He scoffs. āShe says you saved her, once upon a time. Today, you will not.ā - TPOT
āI most certainly am not mistaken,ā says Jean Regent. āI did hope we could be civil from the start, but if you continue to be evasive and spout pointless lies, then I am afraid I shall have to resort to more barbaric measures rather quickly.ā - TCOR
āRemember this, will you?ā Regent lifts the poker from the hearth. āRemember that I could have ended your sorry life and chose not to. Remember that I showed you mercy. And rememberā¦ā His smile widens to a grotesque, gaping grin. āRemember that if you anger me again, the girl pays the price.ā - TCOR
OH MY GOD THIS WAS SO FUN THANK YOU FOR TAGGING ME IN THIS AHH
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