The wonderful DDog has just added Chasing the Bard to TV Tropes website and it was a very interesting thing for me as the writer to read.
A trope is a common pattern or theme and they have been around since humanity first decided that telling stories was a great idea. Some of the ones DDog picked up on are powerful tropes that get repeated again and again in literature and film. Such as;
The Chosen One; a person with a destiny to forfill- in CTB’s case William Shakespeare. (actually I think Will has two destinies- saving the world and writing great Art)
Ultimate Evil; The big Bad Creature who is not usually seen until the end. In CTB that was the Unmaker- my worst nightmare- the flip side of creativity.
Lady of War; The beautiful, powerful woman who will kick your ass. In CTB this is Sive- naturally, but these types abound in literature, and probably stem from the original war goddess- the Morrigan, Kali etc. Women give life, but they can also take it.
As a writer does that mean you should avoid writing tropes? I would challenge you to write a story without one of them cropping up. They are common themes for a reason- they speak to the human condition and have for centuries. It comes down to the old adage, there’s no such thing as a new story. However if you give a hundred people a trope, say ‘farm boy finds he is the Chosen One’ you will get a hundred different stories. We all see things differently, we’ve all had different lives so our stories will always be unique to us.
So have fun with tropes- twist them, reconfigure them- but please don’t lose sleep over them.
And thanks to DDog for taking the time to unravel all the tropes in Chasing the Bard- some of them I didn’t even realize were there!
