TVTropes as a Writing Tool by Elijah Workman

I have not read a book since high school. Before you throw your pitchforks and tomatoes at me, hear me out on what I’m saying. Though I haven’t read a book in a while (mostly just due to lack of motivation), I have kept up with my reading, in a way, through a little website called TVTropes. 

For the uninitiated, TVTropes is a website dedicated to defining narrative features and conventions across various fiction mediums. It’s like Wikipedia, but for all the little patterns you notice in fiction. A basic way to use the website is by clicking the “Random Trope” at the top of the page, then clicking the Laconic section, which will define the trope in simple terms without going into great detail. 

The main page will provide a definition, how the trope typically begins to be used in a given work, variations of that trope, and similar or opposing tropes. After the basic information comes the examples found across media. You will find examples from anime and manga, comic books, literature, live-action television, video games, and animated series. Occasionally, you’ll see examples of tropes within mythology, religion, or even in real life (the article Truth in Television goes into greater detail about tropes that have real-life examples). 

Through reading about the tropes that show up across genres, I’ve gained a greater understanding of the skills that go into writing a narrative. In the work I’m writing, the two tropes that form its foundation are the Five Man Band trope and the super-trope (umbrella term for a collection of related tropes) of Elemental Powers. The Five Man Band trope is a way of organizing a core ensemble that typically divides characters into distinct roles: the leader, the narrative foil to the leader, a designated "strong guy", the designated "smart guy", and the emotional support. Though I'm writing a sci-fi work, that came about as a result of the world the story takes place in rather than any central element of character or plot(whether this is a merit or flaw is up to you).

To keep these tropes, however, I've opted to play with them. With regard to elemental powers, I've chosen to focus on the Eastern elemental system instead of the Western one (for the unfamiliar, it’s fire, water, earth, wood, metal). I figured this would be a novel take since I rarely see it in Western media. As for the Five Man Band trope, I got a lot more playful with that one. As mentioned before, the “Leader” is often the protagonist. My work gives the largest slice of protagonist pie to a character that borrows traits from the “Big Guy” and the “Lancer” (he has the "do my own thing" kind of attitude you would expect from a lancer while being stated to be the best fighter as you would expect from a “Big Guy”). As for the leader, he's more of a deuteragonist in this book (though the next book will see him get the largest slice of “protagonist pie”). There's also a more traditional lancer who occupies the role of second in command and is tasked with challenging the perspective of her commander. Due to their childhood friendship, her criticisms settle better when compared to the main character's blatant defiance. 

With the smart guy character, I made sure their (intentional use of they; the character is agender nonbinary) focus was on strategy and logistics research instead of the tech skills that are more common in science fiction works. I also wrote them outside the timid nerd archetype that one might typically expect (they antagonize the main character in a role reversal of the typical brains v. brawn dynamic).  

I feel I got the least creative with the character designated as emotional support, but I have made sure to let her call out people on their nonsense in equal proportion to giving encouragement and positivity, since I feel that these sort of characters are often reduced to just being sunshine and rainbows. 

I won't claim to be a master, but I know that I wouldn't be half the writer I am now if I didn't have a knowledge of tropes to form the foundation of my work and play around with to create something distinct. I recommend anyone who finds it a bit hard to read books to doomscroll through TVTropes, find a trope you like, and challenge yourself to see how you'd portray it in a work of fiction.

Photo by Pinho . on Unsplash