If You Haven't Already Guessed...

I'm on hiatus. I really should have put up a notice saying so, but it kept slipping my mind. The reason for the break? It's threefold. Firstly, due to school and miscellaneous busyness that I always have. Secondly, because I'm trying to devote a little more time to fulfilling promises, such as beta reading for people, praying more, and spending time with my siblings in the all-too-easily consuming school year. Thirdly, - drumroll, please - it's because I'm finishing a novel. Finally. I know it's taken me long enough - after all, Alomina, my first-written current WIP, just celebrated its fourth birthday last month. Unfortunately... Alomina will have to go on waiting. I won't reveal which project it is I'm finishing until it's actually finished (whereupon I will start announcing it to the world), but that will be the gauge of my hiatus. As soon as it's finished, I will blog more regularly, and you will hear bells ringing as far as I can reach to annoy you with the news. As for now, what can you expect? Probably little or no posting for the next couple weeks to a month. That's not a super big change from what's going on. And then still probably varied amount of posting after that, depending on the status of the work in question. Trust me. You'll know when it's done. But, for now, mio amici, arriva derci!

10 Terribly Tiresome Tropes

I hate modern culture. I make no pretense of enjoying modern music, modern movies, or modern books. For the most part, I cannot stand any of those three. And so usually I don't give a dime to those things, and let them be, so long as they're away from me. But sometimes, there're a few screwy things that I have to notice. Because - and I'll try to be fair about this despite my distaste for modernity - there are a few elements in a story that have gotten old and nobody has said anything. At this point, they are commonplace, and bad writing, but few people say anything about them because they've become custom. So I will say a few things about  them.

Tiresome Trope #10 - The Copycat

This trope certainly isn't the worst out there, but it's still too common. It consists of a character whose background and setting is taken from another character's, and then said first character's history being conveniently taken as well, subtly, of course, under a different being. This is fan fiction for you. Not all fan fiction is like this, mind you, but most fan fiction I have read takes the setting and background of a popular published character and then takes all their conflict and history and transposes it onto a just conveniently different, new character. For instance, there may be a character who was trained to be an assassin in HYDRA, succeeded for a time in Russian undercover groups, and is eventually reformed, but this character is now a man rather than a woman, or African rather than Russian, or an extrovert rather than an introvert or whatever. But it's basically like taking the backdrop of a portrait and just painting a different face over the original. It's an oft overlooked form of plagiarism, unfortunately. And worse, oftentimes, if the names are changed, this stuff can get published. Ugh.

Tiresome Trope #9 - Fight, Fight, Fight!

This is the trope that we see in most action and sci-fi movies. This is the loooooooong battle scene where most of the characters die, and meanwhile, many character show off their splendid fighting abilities. There is nothing wrong with battles in stories, nor climax battles, so don't get me wrong. It just that when you invent this cataclysmic, do-or-die battle scene and most of what the characters do during it is just fight and kick butt and maybe one or two die just at a moment when all the characters can see and have a dramatic moment shouting "Noooooooooo!," then something's wrong. (This is like every Avengers climax, btw.)

Tiresome Trope #8 - Civil War

Perhaps a very similar trope to #9, but it is different in that all the fighting goes on within the circle of main characters. When the characters just start pettily bickering for no reason, that's about when I put the book down for a while. Why? Firstly, because it's done too much without good cause other than lack of good conflict ideas, and it's bad writing, and secondly, because it drives me nuts when otherwise likable characters behave like spoiled brats. And usually it's just to provide silly conflict in the story or even just among the readers! To quote the immortal HISHE's (How It Should Have Ended) perfect summary of it, "You could have some kind of a civil war for conflict - you know, like a 'pick a side' type thing?"

Tiresome Trope #7 - The Silver Tongue

I get it. Nobody's perfect, even in real life, and so character shouldn't be either. But you know one sure way to make me - and a lot of other more valuable readers - despise a supposedly good main character? Make them lie. Constantly. To everyone. Whenever they're in a scrape. And even when they're not, if you really wanna throw down the gauntlet. Just make them lie, lie, lie. That'll make your readers love them. And it will totally reinforce your depiction of them as a good guy. There are characters who get away with it, maybe, but generally those characters are neither main, nor supposed to be good. Plus, they're usually such well put-together characters that a common trope like that barely dents their lovely, well-polished writing. So... unless you have the next Loki, Dustfinger, or Yank in the R.A.F., then it's a trope better left alone.

Tiresome Trope #6 - Tough and Tiny

These are the characters, usually small, and usually animals, that are all bark and bite and no brawn. Of course, these characters somehow magically conquer everyone they face, despite their usual size disadvantage and the skill disadvantage that realistically they would have. Good examples of this are, I'm sad to say, in many a movie and book I love. It wasn't always cleche writing. Narnia did it, and that's one thing. Chronicles of Prydain did it, and that's one thing. It wasn't old the first few times, maybe. But then, when everybody started doing it, and every kid's movie had one of those characters necessarily, it got old.

Tiresome Trope #5 - That Brat Upstairs

I'm sure all you have seen some movie or read some book with that older sibling - usually a sister - who just stays upstairs, never coming out to the light of day, constantly on her phone/headphones/computer/pad/whatever technology, who hates her younger siblings and is always rude to her parents. She is a teenager who has no respect for most people, bullies and bosses her siblings behind her parents' back, is always put in charge as the tyrant of the house, is usually stupid and easily outsmarted by her rival little siblings, and generally cares nothing for things that are not dating, driving, napping, or partying-related.


I cannot even stress how harmful a trope this is, especially in kid's fiction. Ramona and Beezus; Spiderwick Chronicles; Zathura - there are too many. But the common nature of the trope is not what makes it bad writing, per se, in this case. It hurts.

Do you know how many impressionable young whippersnappers watch or read stuff like this and then forever imagine their older sibling as stupider, meaner, bossier, and overall less pleasant than a decent person? It works the same way with this figure as a parent. Little kids will read stuff with unintelligent parents, guardians, older siblings, or babysitters, and they will think that this means adults must just not be worth much. Trust me - as an oldest sibling, I can speak from experience on the impression it makes on younger siblings, and as a once-impressionable child, I can speak from experience on how much of and impression it makes on daughters and sons. It really is not cool to trash older siblings, writers. It's not cool to trash parents. And it's definitely not cool to write something everybody else is writing without even thinking about what it will impress upon your readers.




Tiresome Trope #4 - I Know What I'm Doing!

Imagine this scenario. A main character who is usually rather strong-willed develops this bizarre, radical idea that nobody else believes. Most people doubt said character and eventually, even their friends think they're just being silly, lying, hallucinating, etc.

And then... poof! This main character, though their idea was unusual, and founded on mostly nothing but prejudice, instinct, or jumping to quick conclusions, turns out to be right. Perhaps even more right than they originally thought. And of course, everybody else pays for not acting on the main character's original gut feeling, because now it's too late (everybody believes them now, of course). And then the main character saves everyone, and they grovel on their knees for not yielding to the main character's every all-knowing whim. Yep. Sound like good writing to you? No? I think I've said enough.

Tiresome Trope #3 - Macho... But Not So Macho

How many male characters are there in fiction at this point who seem masculine and tough and then end up being sentimental or insecure? Really, writers. There's a reason men are called 'men,' for goodness's sake. It's because they are men, and not sops or women with guns or effeminate wimps.

Please. Just recognize that not all men out there are pathetic! This is a particularly harmful trope, too, because it has established the now all too common humor of stupid men and intelligent women, which, really, is incredibly sexist, guys. And don't think I'm just criticizing the muscle men with secrets - male characters who never even start out masculine (for no particular reason, too) are even worse, and also unrealistic writing.

Tiresome Trope #2 - Lil Sassy Feminist

I had a very hard time choosing between this and #1 as to which one was worse. Eventually, I chose this to be second place because it went more with #3 in its content. But, while #1 won out, this one is still one of the most ridiculous cleche tropes out there. There are so many women in fiction who fight (and do as well or better than the poor, pathetic men), are cleverer than all their surrounding people (usually comically egotistic or stupid men), and are generally more skilled and insightful than the other characters (need I even say it again?).

Every single girl. In every single book. Everywhere.They also coincidentally wear tight or showy clothing, dislike dresses, are uncomfortable in feminine society, scorn womanly practices, and are generally rebellious, sassy, and unintentionally egotistic. They think the best of themselves because they are the best. They fight because they are better at it than the men. They read, invent, and design not, despite appearances and claims, because it is a hobby they enjoy, or because they with to educate themselves, but merely because the brutish, Neanderthal males would deny them the privilege of it. I would supply examples, but I am quite confident that you shall be able to easily think of many without my help. And if I hadn't already complained enough, I would elaborate further upon my disgust with this quite thoroughly tiresome trope.



Tiresome Trope #1 - Father Fallacious, Sister Sinister, and Brother Boorish

This is perhaps the most tiresome trope of all.  Because it's another harmful trope. A very harmful trope. Because the Catholic Church, and Christianity in general, is so oft maligned, most people have a mental image of religious life, religious people, or even religion in general as stupid, outdated, or simply sinister. And, as opposed to the other harmful tropes mentioned above, this targets something that is not quite so easily off-key.

When you malign older siblings and parents in fiction, you are merely maligning an imperfect, human group. There are mean parents and bad siblings out there. When you malign masculinity, you are still maligning a mostly human thing. There are pathetic men out there. But when you malign Christ, Christianity, and His Church, you're maligning the very wellspring of Truth.

Yes, there are surely bad priests, bad nuns, bad monks, etc., etc. out there - there's no doubt of that. But the thing is, when you have only a single, or a couple representations of the Church or its members, and you choose to make them negative for no particular reason, then you choose to imagine that Church, that religion, and that Divine Savior as in general false, fearful, greedy, evil, outdated, and overall unintelligent. Fiction may be meant to imitate real life, but it is not real life. We write novels because we have ideas of what the world could be, not by necessity exactly, molecule for molecule, what it is. Because who would want to read an exact account of their daily life, word for word, nothing spared?

The thing is, we want novels to be like our life, but not just like our life. We would like a little bit of fancy. We would like a little bit of hope. We would like a little bit of Truth, and Beauty, and Goodness. So to pointlessly malign something, even in fiction, is not only oftentimes libel, but also incredibly bad writing.

All of these are pretty bad writing. But they're not the only options. To clear up the gray cloud, I hope to follow up soon with 10 more tropes, but these will instead be good ones that are in need of revival. Because I know that no one wants to just hear a post that is completely negative and critical without any practical suggestions - I certainly don't - I'll try and get that follow-up post ready as soon as possible. Thanks for reading! Tell what you think in the comments, whether it be (civil) debate, additions, critique, or suggestions for part two - chat with me! (As a last word, I must needs apologize - methinks I went a little crazy with the gifs.)