Navigating Tropes and Clichés in Genre Fiction

As you begin revising your November novel, you’ll probably notice a lot more about your manuscript now that you’re looking at it with a critical eye—some good, some that needs reworking. Today, writer Nathan Dhami is here to help you distinguish between tropes and clichés, and how they may help or hinder your novel:

Genre fiction, while being a very broad and catch-all term, is gaining mass appeal with contemporary audiences and writers alike. Newer writers may try writing their favorite genre, but might be lost as to where they should start. Maybe they are inspired by their favorite pieces in the genre they wish to emulate, but have no idea how to apply that inspiration. They may also be worried that their story is falling into trappings that leads to similar pieces being considered “boring” or “played out.” In other words, writers may have difficulty navigating and using the genre’s tropes in their own stories. 

In order to make writing these stories easier, we must understand the differences between tropes and clichés. The dictionary definition of “trope” is “figure of speech,” but that could also refer to idioms and, well, clichés. I’ve come to understand tropes as plot beats or patterns that are inherently recognizable from work to work due to how often they appear. (While you shouldn’t spend too much time on TVTropes, the website is a good informal catalogue of tropes in media.) 

In superhero fiction, one of the most recognizable tropes is “the Cape,” a superhero who is pure of heart and fights for justice, representing the ideal “good” hero. If the first example of the Cape that popped into your head was Superman, that’s because the DC Comics hero is the pinnacle of the trope- he even wears an iconic bright red cape!

“Tropes as plot beats or patterns that are inherently recognizable from work to work due to how often they appear.”

A cliché is a type of trope—one that has become common enough that its occurrence is expected in a work or set of works. Depending on the execution, a motif could be a well-used trope or a trite cliché. One such example that gets brought up a lot in writing workshops is the phrase “love is like a rose.” It’s easily recognizable, because we already associate roses as a gift or a symbol of love. However, this simile is played out and not very innovative. Your audience probably already expects roses to appear when you’re writing a romantic poem or story, and while I’m not saying that you can’t include roses at all, it is often best to explore the emotion of love with other images and phrases.

So why use tropes if they can be misused or if you’re worried about your audience recognizing them? The simple answer is tropes are tools that you employ in your writing to convey your plot beats in an efficient and compelling way. Tools are meant to be used. Just like I would have a difficult time constructing my work desk without the right hammer, drill, and screwdriver, you will have a difficult time constructing your story without using the right tropes. 

Your audience should recognize the tropes that you use when telling your story, especially when it comes to writing genre fiction. Genre fiction relies heavily on tropes because it’s written to appeal to a specific audience. Because your reader should already be familiar with the genre you’re working in, this means you can invoke and play with particular tropes in order to satisfy or defy your audience’s expectations, without having to construct or define specific plot beats for the first time ever in your story. You can’t worry about cynical fans pointing out everything you write that reminds them of [thing] from [another story]. Just use the tools that other writers and stories have provided to your advantage and construct your world the way you want to.

Nathan Dhami is a UC Irvine graduate with a BA in English. His creative work, often related to superheroes and video games, has been featured in Orange County writing journals such as New Forum and The Ear. He has participated in NaNoWriMo every year since 2014. Samples of Nathan’s work can be found at https://www.clippings.me/litetheironman.

Top photo by Foto T on Unsplash.