Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 108

Tropes, A Defense Of

So I fell down a black hole there for awhile (past two weeks, sorry about that) and survived on Diet Coke and Vernors and a LOT of romance novels. So now I have Thoughts. I wrote a whole post on “smirk,” and then realized I was just repeating myself–“Damn you, writers who don’t bother to know the precise meanings of words, get off of my lawn Kindle!”–and nobody needs that. Then I started thinking about tropes.

A trope is “the use of figurative language, via word, phrase or an image, for artistic effect such as using a figure of speech.” (Thank you, Wikipedia.). That’s the definition I learned doing my lit degrees. But “The word trope has also come to be used for describing commonly recurring literary and rhetorical devices, motifs or clichés in creative works.” And in fact, the Merriam Webster Thesaurus gives as equivalents “banality, bromide, chestnut, cliché, commonplace, groaner, homily,” and several more tsking equivalents.

I disagree.

While a trope can certainly become a cliche (star-crossed lovers, fake dating, dystopias with the Chosen One, space opera, mean-streets detectives, there’s a zillion of them), individual stories based on those tropes are not necessarily cliches. Look at Shakespeare: he not only worked with tropes, he stole almost every plot he ever wrote. Then why is he the giant in the field of drama? Because nobody ever told those stories as well as he did. Pick a trope, do it better than everyone else, be a genius.

So back to reading romance. LOTS of tropes in romance. Some I cannot abide and dump early in the selection process (“Can he protect her?”). Of course, I’m a big hypocrite about some of them: I hate romances that start with a bet, and yet I wrote one. (In my defense, I was rewriting a book that never sold and I was stuck with the premise after somebody bought it, but . . . nah, that’s not a defense, I could have changed it. I wrote a book about a bet. Damn it. There goes the high road.)

Some I should dump but I just can’t quit them. The Fake Dating plot, for example. It’s just the modern version of the Convenient Marriage, but it ticks so many boxes for me, including the one I love most, two people falling in love as they work together and really get to know each other. Hey, Fake Dating requires a lot of heavy lifting together (see Mhair McFarlane’s If I never Met You and Alexis Light’s The Upside of Falling). A sister trope to that one is the plot where something goes terribly wrong and now two people are stuck together because they have to fix it: they’re stranded by a snowstorm, a business deal they’re both involved in goes south, they’re sucked into somebody else’s problem (usually a much loved friend or relative) and have to figure it out together. Like the Marriage of Convenience, the key is “stuck together.” They can’t resign from the action because the stakes are too high, so they have to deal with each other. That’s catnip for me.

Then there’s the friends-to-lovers trope. They’ve known each other for years, taken each other for granted, and then it’s “Oh, hello.” Loretta Chase’s Last Night’s Scandal is a favorite, but I realized that Murderbot and ART are in that trope, too, although Murderbot would vehemently reject the idea that it’s in a relationship even though it almost shut down when it thought ART had been deleted (Network Effect, great book, but read the first four novellas first, especially “Artificial Condition” which is where Murderbot meets ART). I think I like that trope because it’s such a good basis for mature love: they already know pretty much everything about each other so they’re going in with open eyes.

So what I’m saying is, tropes can be good. They can guide you toward the story you know you need at the moment, they’re probably tropes because they work so well, and they’re a great place to experiment if you want a firm foundation before you spin out of control (say doing the stuck-together plot with an angry heroine and a dead hero from Hell) reaching for something new. Do not bad mouth tropes. If Shakespeare went for them, who are we to sneer? Or smirk. NO SMIRKING EVER. Unless you’re a bad guy. Then you can smirk your little heart out. Until the heroine slaps the stuffing out of you.

Where was I?

Right. Tropes are useful. Respect the trope.

NOTE: You will notice I have not mentioned TV Tropes nor provided a link. That’s because that place will suck you in and you’ll emerged dazed and enlightened many hours later. Although come to think of it, someplace you can lose yourself is a damn good idea right now. Here, abandon all sense of time when you enter TV Tropes.

Happiness is Good People in the Time of Snow

Before the storm, Mollie called me and made sure I had plenty of everything I needed. That made me feel loved.

After the storm, my neighbor-across-the-street Allan came over with his snowblower and made a path from the street to my front walk because he is a good man. That made me feel grateful.

During the storm, Bob e-mailed me and we had this exchange . . .

BOB: Do you know how to trap for food?

JENNY: No, I don’t know how to trap for food.  I know how to shop for food and put it in the fridge.

BOB: Trapping is much more efficient than hunting. If you haven’t bought any snares– I recommend Redneck Snares on Amazon–you can always rip some ligaments out of your non-primary arm and use those.

JENNY: Good tip about the non-primary arm.

BOB: And then you can eat the arm but only after stopping the bleeding.

JENNY: I am not eating my left arm.

BOB: After you use the ligaments to make snares, you use the larger bones as clubs and the ones from the hands as fishing lures.

No waste.

JENNY: No.

BOB: Wimp.

. . . which made me laugh.

And then Krissie’s box of Christmas presents arrived which made me feel like a little kid again, presents and snow and something to look forward to on Christmas.

What I’m saying is, the people in my life make me happy (and grateful). What made you happy this week?

This is a Good Book Thursday, December 17, 2020

This week I read like crazy while hunkering down for a storm. I read Connie Willis’s mostly Christmas anthology, A Lot Like Christmas, and re-glommed Loretta Chase because historicals are cosy and I need cosy right now. In fact, I think it’s going to be a re-reading month.

What was good for you this week?

Working Wednesday, December 16, 2020

I’m writing this on Tuesday because on Wednesday we’re supposed to get slammed with 16″ of snow. Upside: It’s not two feet, which we’ve gotten buried in before. So my work today and tomorrow (and for the pat four days) before the white stuff is making sure there’s firewood by my front door (in case the power goes out, which it always does, please don’t let the power go out) and plenty of food I don’t have to cook, which means cooking ahead. I have bottled water, blankets, dogs, and both people and pet food. As long as the power stays on, I’ll enjoy this–snow is beautiful–but if you don’t hear from me for awhile, it’ll be because I don’t have internet.

So what did you work on this week?

Happiness is a Little Snow

It snowed here Wednesday. It fell in gentle flakes and made my hellaciously overgrown yard with its backdrop of bare trees look like a holiday card. We didn’t get much, I could clear the walk with a push broom, but it fell for a couple of hours, and since it was going to be in the forties later that day, I didn’t even worry about the push broom. Weather Valium. Which is not to say that I want more, just that snow is beautiful (for about an inch) and that made me happy. (And now we’re getting fourteen inches on Wed. Because there is no free lunch winter.)

What made you happy this week?

This is a Good Book Thursday, December 10, 2020

Krissie and I agreed to read Ten Things I Hate About the Duke, and then we started talking about one of her faves, Mine Until Midnight, and I said she should read Last Night’s Scandal, although it’s better if you read the book that comes before that (Lord Perfect) since that’s the one where Olivia and Peregrine meet as children and start their friendship (in fact most of that mini-series is good so I’m re-reading my way through the other three books, too). Then Krissie bought me her fave, The Prince of Midnight, so it’s pretty much been historical romance 24/7 here.

What did you read this week?

Working Wednesday, December 9, 2020

I think my brains dribbled out my ears this week. I have about fifty unanswered e-mails and several online tasks that my frontal lobe keeps sliding off of. Plus writing. Cleaning. Sending out my Christmas cards (ha). Getting presents sent since there will be no family get togethers. Yeah, I did none of that.

I’m covered with shame. Please tell everybody what you accomplished this week to distract from my slothfulness. (Sloths are five times slower than a drifting iceberg. That’s been me this week.)

Grrrrrrrr

I just got halfway through a book where the hero smirked, the heroine cried all the time, and they all circled the drain without arcing. So I skipped to the end. THREE epilogues. THREE.

I don’t know whether I’m just grumpy–I’m behind on everything–but lately romance is just annoying the hell out of me. I think I’ll go read Murderbot again.

THREE EPILOGUES. With smirking. Jesus wept.

Happiness is Hearing a Loved One’s Voice

I haven’t seen my daughter in forever, but tonight she called and we talked about pretty much everything, including remote gifting, which was almost like shopping with her. We had some professional gifts to talk about that, in the past, had always been huge boxes of really good chocolates (Esther Price) sent to businesses. But business is all remote now, so now the gifts are personal, and we both hit the net and looked at Tea Forte gifts and squeed and laughed over the same ones (those red holiday cups!). It wasn’t as good as being with her, I couldn’t hug her, but I could hear her beautiful voice and that made me so happy.

What made you happy this week?

This is a Good Book Thursday, December 3, 2020

I read Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall, and it was really, really good. If you liked Red, White, and Royal Blue, this is that with more edge. Plus funny as hell. Now reading Wild and Crazy Guys by Nick de Semiyen, a book about comedy in the 80s (all male) to be followed by a palate cleanser, Pretty Funny: Women Comedians and Body Politics, by Linda Mizejewski who I just realized was on my PhD general exams committee, something I’m sure she forgot immediately.



Then probably a re-read of Regina Barreca’s They Used To Call Me Snow White But I Drifted, Women’s Strategic Use of Humor. I learned a lot from that book, time to review. Oh, and I read If You Ask Me, one of Betty White’s memoirs, more of a stream of consciousness thing that was like a nice chat. Very good to read before bed.

What did you read this week?