Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2013-07-21 03:32 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2013-07-21 03:32 pm
[ SECRET POST #2392 ]
⌈ Secret Post #2392 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 064 secrets from Secret Submission Post #342.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
no subject
Then I made the mistake of clicking one character type trope, expecting at most four or five examples but seeing... a lot. I felt pretty miserable and like asking "so what's the point of creating anything ever then? If it's already been done?" But then after thinking about it, I decided that being miserable about the hypothetical "That's your character? Way to be a trope, Tropey!" was about as logical as being upset when meeting a person you have a lot in common with and bonding over "Oh my GOD, I used to make tidal waves in the bath tub, too!"
So I got out of there quick and haven't been back since because all Trope Finding is going to point out is how creative works have similar themes and situations.
I decided this, and I hope this can help you reclaim some of your joy, OP: humans are going to have a lot of the same experiences as one-another and will use it in their writing. It makes sense that your author will have something in common with other people who write in that genre. That doesn't mean the story is not worth telling.
I have no idea what those books are about, so please forgive this example, but just tell those tropes in your head "Yeah, I know lots of magic users have shown up on white horses. This is his story about it, so kindly shut up while he tells it because I want to hear it."
no subject
(Anonymous) 2013-07-22 02:34 am (UTC)(link)It doesn't. That's an odd conclusion to come to.
"There is nothing new under the sun." Tolkien did it, Shakespeare did it, Chaucer did it, the Norse, the Greeks, the Ashanti and the Egyptians did it. It doesn't mean anything if "Simpsons did it." The world of storytelling doesn't operate like internet comment section--no one yells "FIRST."
Buffy was a girl with magical strength who kicked badguy butt. Linda Carter did it earlier as Wonder Woman. It doesn't make Buffy any less good, or cheapen it in anyway.
Archetypes exist for a reason. Tropes exist for a reason. The only thing that's inherently bad is lazy storytelling.
no subject
Y'know, I considered adding that. It's true, everything you said. I guess I was coming at it from the P.O.V I read the secret in because the wording seemed to be expressing lament or ruined enjoyment. Or because of the negativity I've seen. I'll try not to, but at the moment, it feels like calling something a trope has a negative connotation.
Maybe it is odd, maybe it is just me, but I'm coming at this from my own experience, which is seeing "and so and so does X, using the common trope of The X does the Y". But I tried to make my comment say what you did, that a trope doesn't have to be a mark against a story.