Writerly Ways
Apr. 27th, 2025 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessTropes and why maybe I should take them as a sign. In the writers' online meeting we were talking tropes and I admitted I do not like two big ones in romance 'enemies to lovers' and 'fake dating' (if you like them, fantastic, they're just not me). I think they were horrified that I don't like them and it got me thinking, maybe this is why I don't sell as well as I probably should. I am not fond of a lot of romance tropes so I'm not likely to write them. It's even why I shied away from duckprintspress LGBT reading challenge on storygraph (something I was like whee new and then forgot about 2 weeks later). It's heavy on the tropes (but it looks like a great challenge and I recommend it. It's just not a me challenge but I might look at it again to see where I can slot some of my reads into)
Not following the tropes might turn off some readers. They're there for the comforting formula. Even in my fandom challenge![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
unconventionalcourtship the blurb I chose did include fake dating and I'm like yep let me dance around that. I would like to think, however, that there is plenty of room for other not as tropey stuff (I just know every one of my novels has absolutely flatlined no matter how much effort went into the marketing. It has pretty much killed my desire to continue on as Jana).
How about you? What are your favorite tropes (Hurt/Comfort for me, found family)? Which ones do you write? Which ones have you subverted? How did that work? (and let's not yuck on someone's yum please). How well do you play with tropes? Apparently I play poorly with romance ones at least.
Open Calls
Tractor Beam Issue 2 Soilpunk (sci-fi involving soil) with the theme of ‘The Garden’ Caveat by me - no one is sure if the 1,200$ is split between all the authors or per story (my bet is on the former). I checked the webpage and it's weird, made by Tractor Beverages, some organic juice thing. I'm like i have a story that fits this but....
Archive of the Odd #7 stories told in the style of found footage, also known epistolary, neo-epistolary, found file, or found document fiction. Essentially, stories told in the form of other documents.
Bizarro Circus of Madness Bizarro
Neurodiversity and the More-Than-Human Neurodiversity and the More-Than-Human
5 markets and more
From Around the web
Writing 101: Effective Dialogue Techniques
How (and Why) To Define a Strong Author Brand I do like the examples here
What Makes an Antinovel? 6 Key Elements and Examples
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Six Ways to Make Fantasy Travel More Interesting
Six Pieces of Misunderstood Storytelling Advice
What Storytellers Should Know About Normalization
Bringing Necromancy to Life in Your Story
Making Your Story Immersive
Five Tips on Writing for the Second Read
Can Placeholders Cause Problems?
The Best Way to “Show, Don’t Tell” –Scene Segmenting
Cinematic Technique for Fiction Writers
Trigger Questions: The Worldbuilding Game-Changer
6 Tips for Creating Chemistry Between Characters
A Peek Inside the Mind of a Developmental Editor
5 Red Flags Your Novel Might Be Too Much Work to Read
Villains vs. Antagonists
What’s A Writer to Do NOW With Social Media?
The Heart of the Matter
Character Secret Thesaurus: Living Under a Curse
Character Secret Thesaurus: Giving Up a Child
Writing 101: Effective Dialogue Techniques
Seven Writing Fears That May Be Holding You Back from Greatness
The answer is always community
How to Write Believable Characters in Unbelievable Situations
How to use hopes and dreams to make a character come alive
When the Hero in Your Manuscript Can’t—or Shouldn’t—Change
Writing Research isn’t for the Fainthearted
How to Battle One of a Writer's Worst Enemies—PROCRASTINATION
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The Pooh Crew—Real-life People Every Writer Needs in Their Writing Life
duckprintspress LGBT reading challenge on storygraph (something I was like whee new and then forgot about 2 weeks later). It's heavy on the tropes (but it looks like a great challenge and I recommend it. It's just not a me challenge but I might look at it again to see where I can slot some of my reads into)Not following the tropes might turn off some readers. They're there for the comforting formula. Even in my fandom challenge
unconventionalcourtship the blurb I chose did include fake dating and I'm like yep let me dance around that. I would like to think, however, that there is plenty of room for other not as tropey stuff (I just know every one of my novels has absolutely flatlined no matter how much effort went into the marketing. It has pretty much killed my desire to continue on as Jana). How about you? What are your favorite tropes (Hurt/Comfort for me, found family)? Which ones do you write? Which ones have you subverted? How did that work? (and let's not yuck on someone's yum please). How well do you play with tropes? Apparently I play poorly with romance ones at least.
Open Calls
Tractor Beam Issue 2 Soilpunk (sci-fi involving soil) with the theme of ‘The Garden’ Caveat by me - no one is sure if the 1,200$ is split between all the authors or per story (my bet is on the former). I checked the webpage and it's weird, made by Tractor Beverages, some organic juice thing. I'm like i have a story that fits this but....
Archive of the Odd #7 stories told in the style of found footage, also known epistolary, neo-epistolary, found file, or found document fiction. Essentially, stories told in the form of other documents.
Bizarro Circus of Madness Bizarro
Neurodiversity and the More-Than-Human Neurodiversity and the More-Than-Human
5 markets and more
From Around the web
Writing 101: Effective Dialogue Techniques
How (and Why) To Define a Strong Author Brand I do like the examples here
What Makes an Antinovel? 6 Key Elements and Examples
From Betty
Six Ways to Make Fantasy Travel More Interesting
Six Pieces of Misunderstood Storytelling Advice
What Storytellers Should Know About Normalization
Bringing Necromancy to Life in Your Story
Making Your Story Immersive
Five Tips on Writing for the Second Read
Can Placeholders Cause Problems?
The Best Way to “Show, Don’t Tell” –Scene Segmenting
Cinematic Technique for Fiction Writers
Trigger Questions: The Worldbuilding Game-Changer
6 Tips for Creating Chemistry Between Characters
A Peek Inside the Mind of a Developmental Editor
5 Red Flags Your Novel Might Be Too Much Work to Read
Villains vs. Antagonists
What’s A Writer to Do NOW With Social Media?
The Heart of the Matter
Character Secret Thesaurus: Living Under a Curse
Character Secret Thesaurus: Giving Up a Child
Writing 101: Effective Dialogue Techniques
Seven Writing Fears That May Be Holding You Back from Greatness
The answer is always community
How to Write Believable Characters in Unbelievable Situations
How to use hopes and dreams to make a character come alive
When the Hero in Your Manuscript Can’t—or Shouldn’t—Change
Writing Research isn’t for the Fainthearted
How to Battle One of a Writer's Worst Enemies—PROCRASTINATION
The Enduring Relevance and Power of Written Words: 3 Essential Tools for Writers
The Pooh Crew—Real-life People Every Writer Needs in Their Writing Life
no subject
Date: 2025-04-28 01:31 pm (UTC)I can't speak or other readers, but when I've chosen books based on a tropey premise, but I ended up either DNFing them or disliking them. A lot of OW authors loading up their books with tropes and marketing their books as such, but what works for fanfic doesn't translate to OW, because the media the fanfic is based on has already done the work of characterization and worldbuilding, so the fanfic author has a starting point. The OW author is starting from scratch, and if they're writing it like a fanfic, and not investing in the characterization, worldbuilidng, and premise, they fail to execute a good story.
Quite honestly, overreliance on tropes makes for terrible books. The characters are flat and boring, the characterization isn't consistent, the stakes are unclear, or there are no real problems to solve. Using tropes is fine, but I won't choose a book based on that anymore. Give me interesting characters, give me a solid premise, give me good writing-that has a better chance of getting me hooked, every time.
I hate the way books are marketed these days, but that's a different rant :)
no subject
Date: 2025-04-29 02:31 am (UTC)I can see that and you're right, it's not always easy to translate fanfic to OW and the latter definitely takes more work since you have to build for scratch. I also find tropes can end up too predictable, especially the enemies to lovers but there are a whole group of readership who want that predictability.
Yeah I hate how books are marketed too. I don't think it works but what do I know? I can't sell worth a damn
no subject
Date: 2025-04-29 01:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-30 03:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-05-05 11:59 pm (UTC)