Tropes: To Use or Not to Use in Storytelling?

I used to think a trope was a bad thing, assigning it the taint of a cliche. Well, a trope can become a cliche if overused andbludgeonedsenseless, but I wasn't bothering to think beyond that.

Took me a while to realize...

Tropes Are Not Bad

The key for genre writers is to balance well-known tropes with innovation

I have a writer friend who says that one reason she started hitting the New York Times best seller lists was she began applying tropes in her stories. I'm reading one of her books now...