Potato is yum

When used right. So yeah. Their not always good. But it’s impossible to write any story without them so what matters is the execution of a trope. Okay so like why do I care about this random stuff so much? Well it’s because I’ve been writing this little book called “Fool In Space” and I’m using this website and these posts as a kind of advertisement for my book that will be release on January 4th. Okay I’m done with the shameless plug.

What is a trope? Well to put it simply, it’s a common occurrences in similar stories that provide a framework for readers and writers to fill in a story. At least, that’s how I define a trope. Some might have other ideas. It’s impossible to make a story without a trope since the trope is often what brings in your audience. Without some kind of framework, why would a reader ever give your story a chance? They wouldn’t. You need something familiar to get a reader attached to your story but also need something to keep the reader to continue reading.

So Mudkip, what you’re saying is make a story predictably unpredictable. That’s insane. A total contradiction. Well… yeah. That’s why writing is hard. It sucks. Why do you think it took me 4 years to write a hardly coherent book that I’m scared will flop? Anyway, let’s pull a trope directly from my story. So I’m pretty sure everyone has seen the “hidden OP” character trope that is often used in anime and webcomics. I decided to take a little piece out of this for some of my characters. So how did I do this?

First of all, I had to understand what made the trope successful. To break it down I looked at countless different media and found some similarities. Each of the characters that hide their OP power do so because of a reason that is tied to them as a character and not a plot point. This also helped reinforce my understanding that it’s better to build a story around characters rather than characters around a story. Personally, I give quite a lot of power to my characters. If I think my character wants to kill someone, they will kill someone. However, I carefully tuned my characters in such a way that I have the freedom to put them into situations where their development as a character progresses.

Okay back to the trope thing. Hopefully I stop getting distracted. I’ve already spouted my hate for the use of the phrase “that person” as a horrible feeling trope. However, I’ve decided to use “that person” as a means of letting the reader paint a picture in their own head of the hidden powerful person in question. In my case, that would be the main character’s mother. Throughout the first five chapters, we never meet the mother but my main character and his father constantly ask each other “What if mom finds out?” painting a picture in the reader’s head that these two are screwed if mom finds out. I think this application of the “that person” trope is able to perfectly mix with the hidden OP character trope to make someone mysterious while also not annoying the reader as the main focus of the story at this point was never on the mother as a character but rather mother’s power over the family.

I find that these two aspects of the character that is called mother are different. Just like how a businessman treats a politician and a policeman differently, one who is in the face of family would act differently than one who fears the power of another. In this case, the two characters fear mother’s power in the military rather than mother as a character which is clearly articulated through the dialogue. By doing this, I manage to somewhat eliminate the annoyance of “that person” while maintaining the promise of the “hidden OP character” trope.

Anyway, I hope this helps anyone else who is trying to write. I’m relatively new to this thing so I’m just spouting what I’ve found. That’s it for me today. And PC now half works so that’s good.