Let's Talk Tropes

by Thomas Kies

 I taught a class last week on the campus of NC State University to room of fifty mystery buffs.  The subject of the talk was Mysteries and the Importance of Settings and Tropes.  I loved the ninety-minute time I had with those people because they’re my tribe.  They love mysteries.  We talk the same language.

And in doing the research for the class, I had a chance to think about settings (which I wrote about in my last blog) and, obviously, tropes. The big question that came to my mind was, can you write a mystery, or for that fact, any novel, without using tropes?

First of all, what are tropes?  

According to Merriam Webster:

: a word or expression used in a figurative sense 

: a common or overused theme or device   

In its most basic sense, it’s something that’s used over and over again.  Let’s talk about a few examples:

-Red Herrings—a false clue meant to mislead the audience or protagonist

-The Detective with the Tragic Past—a protagonist that has a haunting backstory

-The Corrupt Cop—An officer of the law obstructs or manipulates an investigation

-The Journalist Sleuth—Okay, okay…I use that one in my Geneva Chase novels.

-The Twist Ending---Yikes, don’t we all use that one?

-The Overlooked Clue---overlooked, that is, except by our eagle-eyes sleuth

-The Hidden Passage or Tunnel—I don’t know, this one kind of feels like cheating to me.

-The Serial Killer Pattern—How else would we know it was a serial killer?

- The MacGuffin--an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance

MacGuffins are really something we could spend a whole blog talking about.  Some famous MacGuffins are the Maltese Falcon, the briefcase in the movie Pulp Fiction, the Ark of the Covenant in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, Rosebud in the movie Citizen Kane, A secret letter in the Sherlock Holmes tale The Adventure of the Second Stain.

So, if tropes are used over and over again, are they cliches? They can be, obviously. But the skilled writer will know how to use trope and sometimes subvert them, making the story unique and fresh.

Like Gone Girl. First of all, that trope is the missing housewife, presumed dead and killed by her spouse (don’t we always suspect the husband or wife?) But the story is subverted by using another trope, the unreliable narrator.  In this case…two unreliable narrators. 

Is the Unreliable Narrator a new trope?  Of course not.  Agatha Christie used it in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. 

Are there any stories that don’t have tropes?  I thought that the novel The Maid by Nita Prose came close.  Her protagonist is a hotel maid who is neurodivergent.  Except that really isn’t new after all.  Think about the television series Monk. And possibly the Sherlock Holmes stories.  Was Holmes actually an investigative savant with Aspergers Syndrome?

So, my personal conclusion is that no, you can’t really write a story, any story, without using tropes.  That’s the nature of our beast.  But the true gift in storytelling is making those tropes your own and make them feel new or special with your own words. 

 

Don't Tell Me

   You may remember this comic strip:

    Linus is watching television. His older sister, Lucy, walks up and asks what he is watching.      

    He says "Citizen Kane."

    She says that she has seen it "about ten times."

    Linus tells her that he has never seen it before.

    Lucy turns to walk away. As she leaves she lets drop what "Rosebud" means.

    Linus's response?

    "AAUGH!!" 

I saw this "Classic Peanuts" strip in my Sunday newspaper. I was reminded of it again this week when I was reading a comment that one of my students had made in an essay about a movie that I have seen many times. The student wrote about having been in suspense ("edge of seat") during the movie and being "shocked" and "surprised" by the ending. 

I was delighted that the student had enjoyed the movie. 

And I was reminded of the need to be careful when I talk about movies and books to my students and other audiences (e.g., book discussion groups). 

Some people -- many people -- don't want to know how it ends. They will put their fingers in their ears, shouting, "Don't tell me!"

On the other hand, I'm one of those people -- probably a minority -- who have no objection to knowing in advance who lives or dies or walks away together into the sunset.  

Not only do I have no objection, sometimes I really want to know how it ends. No Country for Old Men? Yes, I cared about the characters. The Usual Suspects? I really enjoyed but could wait for the twist. Am I saying too much by revealing there was a twist?

If the level of tension is particularly high I like to know that the characters I'm invested in will survive -- or, at least, die well. In bookstores, I sometimes pick up a book, read the blurb, and flip to the last page.

I don't mind knowing the ending because I enjoy seeing how the writer gets there. But that's me. I need to remember that many other people don't want to know how it -- the movie or the book -- ends.

I need to keep my student and dear Linus in mind as I work on my historical thriller. My goal should be to write a book that an adult Lucy can read "about 10 times" and still enjoy. . . and that an adult Linus will close feeling satisfied that "The End" was worth the wait.