The Trope Thesaurus by Jennifer Hilt
Even a quick glance at popular books, movies, and streaming series says it all-- a skillful application of tropes sells stories. That’s because tropes create a foundation between the audience and the action.
I’m not suggesting we slap a few tropes together and call it done.
I’m talking about twisting tropes to create characters that fans can’t stop thinking about to increase story conflict.
How do we do that?
By digging down into the functions of tropes.
But isn’t a trope just a trope? What do secret baby, road trip, and revenge have in common?
Conflict. Conflict. Conflict.
The Trope Thesaurus explores tropes common in romance, mystery, suspense, thriller, science fiction, and fantasy. It also features a listing of tropes with their definitions, along with some ideas about how to use them more effectively to craft stronger stories.
New and established writers will appreciate this different take on a craft topic in the quest to become a fan favorite.
As a lover of various romance tropes, I couldn't wait to read this when I found out about it. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was excited!
The Trope Thesaurus encourages writers to embrace tropes by demonstrating how they appear in all fiction--movies, TV, literature; romance, mystery, fantasy. The emphasis really is on embracing tropes and learning how to use them (because audiences love them!) instead of trying to avoid them.
Overall, it's a fun book, though it's much more for beginners than intermediate or advanced writers. If you've been writing for any length of time, you might not learn a lot of new information from this book, but it's a good refresher, and I appreciated the list of tropes at the end of the book.
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