Has anyone else been on TvTropes.org?

[Courtney]

I'm not sure if others are familiar with this site, but TvTropes.org is an interesting pages where people deconstruct media (not just television, despite the name) based on tropes.

The reason I'm mentioning it is I find the breakdowns of characters and stories informative because you appreciate how many layers are applied to work. I refer to it also while writing because it gives me ideas of how to get more depth while avoiding any cliches I can help.

Even if you're not a writer you might want to go to the site and search for your favorite series of books you've read (there are spoilers, so caution there) and see how people have analyzed the material. I do it pretty much every time I finish reading a book or watching a movie to see if I can get more appreciation for the work.

[Kyra]

I've been there. Cool site, but if you aren't careful, you can dive in and not be seen again for weeks, if ever. One of the great black holes on the Internet.

[Kyoko]

What Kyra said. It's so engrossing that you'll spend hours reading pages and not even notice.

My book has a tropes page. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php...) It's not helping it sell, but at least it's there.

Though I admit that tvtropes went through a recent change where they are now REALLY anal about people keeping the examples formal instead of as humorous as it used to be, and people WILL delete things you write without your permission. It kind of got my goat so I'm not on it as much as I used to be.

However, it's a FANTASTIC tool if you're writing something and you have a character or subplot in mind, but you need an example of how to go about it in a way that won't suck. That's why I have it listed on my Useful Links page.

[Courtney]

I agree that it can become a total time waster lol.

For what it's worth I think it would be awesome to have your book there. Maybe you should make sure it's cross referenced with a few tropes to draw attention to it?

[Kyoko]

Courtney wrote: "I agree that it can become a total time waster lol.

For what it's worth I think it would be awesome to have your book there. Maybe you should make sure it's cross referenced with a few tropes to ..."

Man, I so want to do that, but since I'm the author, that seems SO VAIN. I know it counts as simply marketing, but I don't want to do it and then the admins frown at me for hawking my book. Sigh. The perils of being a self published author...