#Story Tropes

[hurt-and-comfort-me-please]

Bathing in Whump

Ooo the vulnerability! The intimacy!

-Carefully positioning Whumpee in the bathtub to prevent their casts from getting wet.

-Helping Whumpee get in/out of their clothes before or after a bath if they're too beaten up.

-Blood being washed away, revealing huge bruises and scrapes.

-Caretaker carefully carding their hands through Whumpee's hair, washing out all of the dirt and blood.

-Bathwater stained pink from rehydrated blood.

-A sponge bath for a bed bound/unconscious Whumpee.

-Whumper forcing Whumpee to bathe in ice water, not allowing them to get out until they're suitably clean.

-Whumpee obsessively scrubbing their skin raw, desperate to get everything off of them.

-Soap stinging the small cuts on Whumpee's knees and elbows, the already inflamed skin becoming even more painful.

-Whumpee being so tired they almost fall asleep in the bath.

-On the Run Whumpee having to bathe in unclean river water.

-Sick Whumpee having to take a cool bath to break their fever, shivering all the while.

-The implicit trust and nonsexual intimacy of allowing someone to help you bathe, love it!

[ftl-faster-than-life]

Characters who die and are brought back, and have reverse survivor's guilt. Intellectually they know there was nothing they could have done to prevent their own death, and it isn't their fault that they weren't there for the other characters, but that doesn't stop them from feeling anguish for not being there when they were needed.

[paintsplash1712]

I love me the 'previously rule abiding character turning to the dark side and fighting their previously rebellious turned perfect leader boyfriend' trope.

It's my favourite trope.

[the-overanalyst]

Different flavors of mentor:

Definitely 100% doesn't care about this brat... totally...

"Please God just let me retire or die"

Hot mess of an upperclassman who only seems wise to you

"Aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you just wanna go apeshit?"

Good bad example

[imbecominggayer]

Giving Your Characters A Unique, Distinct Voice (With Examples)

What does "unique voice" mean? Basically, every single person has their own manner of speaking. This difference can be from politeness, the volume or "loudness", confidence, emotional quality, maturity, accents, cultural slang, and other variables that can be shown in a character's voice.

This can also be shown through "prioritization". Prioritization is what a character or narrator decides is worth focusing on for any given scene.

For example, Tree of Heaven is a cynical cinematographer whose inner life is primarily eclipsed by beautiful landscapes and settings. However, Jukka is a highly dedicated actor who neglects the trees for the people, whether they be strangers or loved ones. While Jukka and Tree of Heaven could be walking through the same park, they would be focused on entirely different things. Heaven would be focused on the way the sunlight scatters through the autumn-coated, gold-platted leaves while Jukka is people-watching!

Sometimes, I use other stories and their tones as inspiration for my characters!

For Haun, their inspiration for tone came from "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". Specfically, AM's monologues like the "and I began to hate" or the bee monologue describing AM's thoughts on bees radio play! The reasoning behind this was the fact that Haun Anatemori, my character, is someone with deep-seated resentment. Rage and hatred born out of a feeling of injustice, self-loathing, and a feeling of deep-seated betrayal. However, Haun confines their emotions to logical actions and long-term planning meaning there is no outward way to express these emotions. Leading to his entire inner voice being coated in hatred.

Education and social standing often has the most outward influence on a character's external voice. That's the unique thing about protagonists and narrators. Because narrators don't have to worry about social standing and protagonists can have visible inner life, protagonists often have "two" voices. Their "outside" voice, aka the voice they use to speak to others, and their inner voices they use for their own feelings.

Haun's inner voice is resentful with metaphors and analogies of disgusting things such as bodily fluid used to provide an artful crassness to his voice that shows Haun's education and anger but his outer voice is far more innocent and self-contained with less verbosity as Haun is attempting to portray an innocent, less literate farmer type in order to trick others as he rises the social ladder.

Another highly influencial factor is maturity! If a character is emotionally mature, then they often have a more composed tone of voice with simple, yet profound metaphors that often express clear motivation and clear emotion. They often have accurate ideas about others and themselves. This is different from how emotional a character is! A mature character can be emotional but they have a clearer understanding of their emotions. Not the mood swing type!

Nonkosi Tyali is the most compassionate yet mature character I have with their inner voice and outward voice both having a sense of "refinement". Nonkosi understands what they want, why they want it, and how to get it. Despite their cheerful tone, it's obvious they aren't naive or out of control. Nonkosi also has remarkable observational skills as they are deeply intune to the thoughts and emotions of others which allows them to have accurate and insightful observations about other characters.

Verne Lawless, in contrast, is highly immature with a tendency for rapid mood swings, ranting, and catastrophizing. They rarely compose their emotions with them having to spend far more time detailing and failing to "accurate" translate their emotions for the audience. They rarely focus on the emotional lives of others. While Verne can use flowering, verbose words and nostalgia, this fails to counteract the obvious desperation and run-around Verne has in their thoughts.

Finally, just think about what their emotions are. This doesn't have to be something as simple as "happy" or "sad".

Verne is a nostalgic person who constantly references old classics like Jules Verne with long, verbose poetry. This is influenced by Verne's obvious intellect and his emotional center of love. However, whenever they are emotionally in a tailspin, they often resort to manic, modern slang with firey self-hatred and self-deprecation. This is due to the fact that Verne adores love but he believes that he will never find love. This desperation often leads him to be more psychologically "fragile" with his ability to contain his emotions constantly threatened.

Emotions: Mania, nostalgia, desperation, and love

Nonkosi is an optimistic person which can sometimes veer into surpressing negative emotions and experiences. They maintain the belief that they can be eternally strong and compassionate as they act more like a force of nature then the human they actually are.

Emotions: Awkward optimism, gentle melancholic, and confidence

Jukka is mostly possessed with a quiet melancholy for most of life with pretentious verbosity surrounding the nature of society in a similar vein of "No Longer Human" by Osamu Dazai. However, whenever Jukka is bound up in the passion of acting, Jukka can often dance with mania, emotional highs, and life coated in fandom and acting. Jukka's language is primarily references to media such as Main Character Syndrome, tropes, rivalry, found family, and some not really 4th Wall Breaks because Jukka believes he lives in a series but he doesn't know he is actually a written character.

Emotions: melancholy, sentimentality, and minor resentment.

[autie-j]

I am such a sap for stories about selfish, perhaps miserable people finding true happiness and fulfillment through acts of kindness, and a sense of community with others. That even the most selfish person can change and become happier than they were by reaching out to the people around them and extending a hand in kindness and receiving one in return

[blogthebooklover]

Analyzing Evil: Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes

[witchthewriter]

[hurt-and-comfort-me-please]

We need more vain/egotistical whumpees, please

Whumpees who won't allow anyone to see them cry, no matter how much they need the support, they can't take any more blows to their ego

Whumpees who refuse pain medication because they think it makes them look weak

Whumpees who act mean or cold to those who try to help them because it's the only thing that keeps others away from them

Whumpees that are encouraged to ask for help, but think that others would be impressed if they didn't ever need it

Whumpees that cannot, under any circumstance, allow others to know what has happened to them, even if it allows Whumper to get away with it, because what would the others think of me if they knew how weak and helpless I was? Or that it actually left a lasting impact on me?

Whumpees who obsessively cover up their scars with makeup

Whumpees who isolate themselves whenever the people around them get too 'invasive' by asking basic questions about Whumpee's mental state

Whumpees who are offended at the mere mention that they may have actually been traumatized, because they're too strong/tough/resilient for anything to actually affect them, and claiming anything else amounts to a personal insult

Whumpees who will not tell anyone if they're sick or injured because they don't want anyone to see them hurting, until they collapse and have to be dragged to a doctor

Whumpees who think that they're better than others because they were strong enough to survive nevermind the debilitating trauma

[woodlandcreatur]

[bunnie-tells-stories]

Allow me to tell you about my novel, in tropes. Perhaps if there’s interest I’ll give out a little sliver of a sneak peek

Arranged marriage at birth

Long lost princess

Love triangle

Lovers to Enemies

Enemies to lovers

Royal wedding

[shadowpuppetteer]

Changeling Fantasy and Neurodiversity

Can we talk about the trope "Changeling Fantasy" in regard to neurodiversity? Yes I stumbled across this on tvtropes.com. Yes I finally found the name of the trope I related to too much as a kid. Yeah I've been putting this trope into my fanfic I have in my head without realizing why. And yes, I'm gonna rant about it. The changeling fantasy is basically the trope where a character finds out that their family is not their real family and that explains why they are different. It is an explanation for being outside the norm. The family group is the norm, and not being the same as everyone else means there is something wrong with the person/situation. But this trope gives a satisfying and logical explanation as to why you do not fit into this status of normal, because you were never supposed to. You are a different creature than your family, and that is ok. Great even in some cases. The story usually begins with the adoption. A stork making the wrong delivery, a tragedy befalling the original parents, or the classic baby in a basket down the river.

The family takes in the child and does their best to take care of them, despite their differences. Sometimes with the trope "interspecies adoption" the child will even get confused as to what they really are.

Although sometimes, the caretakers that either found them, or stole them away, are not as caring as they appear, and can even be the real danger...

But of course, because the child in question is different, there will always be a yearning to find out why. What can't they fit in? Is there another way of living that's more suited to them? Are there others like them out there?

Suddenly, either someone tells them, "Suprise, you're adopted!"...

Or the character finds another one of their kind (or akin to them)

This then takes the character on the journey of finding others of their kind, the "there is another" trope at times. And if/when they do find more, and if more of their kind is friendly/not wanting to kill all humans, then the feeling of belonging and understanding finally washes over them

I can say for some, that's the same feeling for neurodiverse folks. Family either, tries their best to raise you even when it can be a challenge from society, or takes advantage and abuses the child. You feel "off" from everyone else but can't tell why. You either discover or are told, "Hey guess what? You're (enter neurodiversity here) There is a great search for more knowledge about your condition and for others with it. And finally, the elation of finding a community of others like yourself. You are not alone there is whole community waiting for you. You are not a freak, what you do is normal and healthy. And despite what people have said in the past, you matter.

That is the fantasy and wish fulfillment of this trope.

[the-overanalyst]

big fan of when the very actions you take in your desperation to save someone end up dooming them to never be saved

[imbecominggayer]

What Are Archetypes And How To Use Them!

Character archetypes are one of the many tools in a writer's arsenal to write believable and universally relatable characters which transcend geography, time, and culture!

Throughout this post, I will be discussing what archetypes are, how to use them, and how to subvert them.

What Are Character Archetypes?

What are character archetypes? Archetypes are kinda like templates that are grouped into categories depending on their traits, experiences, and actions.

When thinking about "archetypes", your mind may jump to the archetypes in the major Arcana which represent different aspects of life! Like character archetypes, the archetypes represented in the Arcana encompass a multitude of various traits, experiences, and meanings depending on the reader of the tarot or, with character archetypes), interpretations by the author!

Archetypes are meant to transcend time, geography, location, and the differences between other individuals to communicate universal truths about humanity.

But it's important to use archetypes correctly! All characters require character development and if you don't use character development or there isn't enough character then the characters are going to be flat, boring, and unoriginal.

The difference between "stock characters" and "archetypes" is the fact that stock characters aren't meant to be main characters. Stock characters are the strict librarian that tells the lovers to be quiet, the mean bully that gets humiliated, or the MC's lovingly dead mom.

They are static, flat characters who are meant to serve as filler. Archetypes are the foundation to create complex, changing characters!

Mixing Character Archetypes

Most characters fall into multiple character archetypes depending on the perspective that you are looking at. Mixing character archetypes allows your characters to be familiar but not cliche!

Character Archetypes (And How To Subvert Them)

There are way too many archetypes so I'm just going to give a quick run-by!

The Caregiver

The caregiver is a character who selflessly and whole-heartedly supports their loved ones. They often tend to fall into the Mentor role, the Best Friend role, or something else. It's common to see the Caregiver as an accompanying character to the Hero.

Traits: Selfless, Kind, Compassionate, Honorable, Loving

Pitfalls: Too selfless, tends to lack growth or goals, a bit too dedicated to assholes

Subvert: Caregiver can serve as an enabling force who encourages the Hero or the Villain to follow all of their desires and will force their loved one to deny any healthy accountability for their bad behavior. The Caregiver can be a shallow individual who has a tendency of nearly abandoning the group when things seem hopeless. The Caregiver can show some selfishness

Everyman

The Everyman is your regular Joe-Shmoe who isn't smart enough to be a Mad Scientist but not dumb enough to be the resident Idiot. They aren't particular ugly nor particularly attractive (but they tend to get the love interest anyway). They are kinda average in most respects.

The Everyman is humble and cooperative but not stand out.

Traits: Humble, Hard-working, Grounded, Relatable, Cooperative

Pitfalls: This is the protagonist for 95% of stories. Tends to flail around so much that the audience wonders why they are even needed.

Subvert: The Everyman tends to fall into the Innocent type. Basically, oblivious as all heck and a bystander. The Everyman could be a secret mastermind behind the whole operation and more aware than anyone suspects.

The Creator

Constantly creative and constantly making something. Their creation can be physical (inventor) or in the divine sense. To the Creator, there is nothing that is more important than what they are trying to make, and they are willing to sacrifice themselves and others to reach their goal.

Traits: Obsession, imaginative, strong-willed, egotistical

Pitfalls: The Creator tends to be unsympathetic and not that obviously relatable to the non-creative types.

Subvert: Actually try and make this Mad Scientist or God relatable. Many people have that one thing that they would sacrifice their time and life for whether that be their job, their family, their identity, or their creative pursuits. Connecting that creation to these universal truths will turn your one-dimensional character into a tragedy or masterpiece.

The Explorer

They want to break boundaries, take risks, and travel the world for something new. They yearn for something more than a normal life. They want to find their purpose and they don't believe their purpose lies in the mundane life everyone wants them to live.

Traits: Courageous, independent, nonconforming, driven, curious

Pitfalls: Explorer types tend to be the garden-variety " I want to explore this place". Highly common protagonists.

Subvert: Have the Explorer be a little bit lost in the world. They aren't courageous about their desires and they don't even really know what they want. They just know they don't want to spend the rest of their life here. They are afraid of stagnation. They are afraid of looking back on their life and only being able to feel regret. Make it spiritual. Make it about fear.

The Hero

The Hero rises to the challenge. They can't or refuse to stand by any longer to the injustice surrounding them. They fight the villains.

Traits: Honorable, Justice-Orientated, Strong

Pitfalls: One-Dimensional. "really? another story about Superman going rogue and killing people because angst?"

Subvert: At this point, having a character who is genuinely a good person who wants to try and be a good person is a subversion. Seriously, if you can only write an interesting character when they are evil or "morally complicated", they you are putting yourself in a box. They aren't perfect but they try. That's the thesis statement for heroes.

The Innocent

The Innocent is defined by their unending optimism and naivety with a child-life attitude (if they aren't an actual child). The Innocent tends to be the starting place for a character who will eventually have their comfortable life radically shifted by worldly events until their ignorance is swept away from them.

Traits: Trusting, Loving, Sincere, Open, Powerless, Oblivious

Pitfalls: So innocent to the point where they are obnoxious and not relatable to anyone above the age of 7. "Why is a man who has the ignorance of a child the Chosen One?"

Subvert: What if the Innocent isn't this childish person but actually acts serious? A story could have a character going on this journey to become the Innocent in an effort to get rid of their memories of the horrors of life that they have deemed unbearable. And they succeed. The Innocent could be someone whose naivety about the world often has them acting in cruel and insensitive ways.

The Lover

Ranging from the hedonistic players to the dreamy romantics, Lovers are guided by their heart. Like Creators, they also have an all-consuming obsession and dedication, although, in this case, the object of their obsession is the receiver of their love whether that be a person or an object.

They often overlap with the Caregiver.

‍Traits: Devoted, compassionate, caring, protective

Pitfalls: They often tend to be one-dimensional and horribly problematic.

Subvert: The recipient of their love could be an object, a friend, or a family member. Their love could also be demonstrated as purposefully toxic as their codepedent traits have the potential to intersect with Superior Complexes, Inferiority Complexes, and/or Savior Complexes.

The Rags-To-Riches Orphan

While not always a literal orphan, the Orphan starts in a state of poverty and unimportance who transitions into a life of opulence and excitement.

Beyond that, Orphans tend to fall into Found Families, as a desire for belonging often reunites them with either social outcasts or the Riches group.

‍Traits: Survivalists, empathetic, determined, driven

‍Pitfalls:  Another orphan? Really? Wow, you got picked up off the street and became unbelievablely rich? How relatable.

Subvert: The Orphan uses their skills and resources from their time in poverty to secure power, influence, and popularity from the masses as their relatable upbringing, connects to the underground market, and survivalist mentality leads them to be even more cunning and manipulative than the natural-born. The Orphan isn't as innocent and ignorant as everyone seems to think they're. The Orphan falls from their rich status. The Orphan hates their found family and relishes in the opportunity to leave them.

The Rebel

The Rebel leads the charge against flawed leaders and power structures when the balance of society is threatened. They might be the public head of a rebellion, a charismatic outsider, someone who works in the shadows, or just someone whose another James Dean- knock-off.

‍Traits: Natural leaders, courageous, inspiring, strong, charismatic

Pitfalls: Romancization of rebel groups and abusive behaviors as , more often than not, rebel groups establish a new order that is the same or even worse than the previous group.

Subvert: What if we didn't contribute to the massive romantization of rebel authority and instead investigated how extremists groups can manipulate desperate citizens into horrible governments. Because Hitler was a rebel who instigated a national rebellion. What if we explored the topic of co-option as previous signs of rebelliousness and civil rights are being commercialized for right-wing non-pocs and "rebellious" teens?

The Mentor

The Mentor is the character who is typically off in the corner, training the protagonist with life advice such as "life happens man" and "if you klll a killer, that's somehow worse than being that killer".

Because writers don't know how to write actual wisdom so they copy facebook quotes and look up a thesarus for some "fancy" words

‍Traits: "Wise", caring, patient, insightful, rational

Pitfalls: "Author! Arthor! This a serious topic with a huge diversity of variables and an imperfect solution as humans are inherently imperfect! This advice seems really oversimplified and kinda biased!

Subvert: What if the mentor's teachings are revealed to be heavily biased and based on misinformation which is reflective of the mentor's upbringing? What if the mentor is secretly working with the antagonist to feed the fledgling Hero with false beliefs? What if the mentor genuinely hates the Hero but is still on Team Good Guys?