Okay, as if you need another excuse to lose several hours of your life on the Web, welcome to TVtropes.org. Sam, one of my UNC students, turned me onto this site and it is amazing!
What is this about? This wiki is a catalog of the tricks of the trade for writing fiction. We dip into the cauldron of story, whistle up a hearty spoonful and splosh it in front of you to devour to your heart’s content.Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members’ minds and expectations. On the whole, tropes are not clichés. The word clichéd means “stereotyped and trite”. In other words, dull and uninteresting. We are not looking for dull and uninteresting entries. We are here to recognize tropes and play with them, not to make fun of them.
As an appetizer, just feast your eyes on the Narrative Tropes:
- Applied Phlebotinum
- Characterization Tropes
- Characters
- Dialogue
- Genres
- Motifs
- Narrative Devices
- Beginning Tropes
- Chase Scene
- Continuity Tropes
- Death Trap
- Ending Tropes
- Fight Scene
- Flashbacks And Chronology
- Kissing Tropes
- Missed Him By That Much
- Montages
- Pacing Problems
- Room Shuffle
- Serious Business
- Short Story Long
- Skills And Training Tropes
- Stock Superpowers
- The Tale
- What Do You Mean, It’s Not Symbolic?
- Paratext
- Plots
- Settings
- Show, Don’t Tell
- Spectacle
Great resource for brainstorming stories and characters, yes?
You aren't kidding. I too have lost hours and hours at the site. Haven't spent so much time on a single site for a single session in a long time. Must… not… go… Must… polish… script…
Scott,
Great resource — thanks!
Keep Writing!
I ashamed to consider how many hours I've wasted on that site over the years… truly addictive.
The biggest problem with that site is all the links contained within the descriptions. You never ever finish reading about one show, because you just keep going from one trope explanation to another, and then forget to backtrack back to the beginning. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it's the primary reason why you waste so much bloody time on it. You can kill an entire day on it.
That being said… WHY did you have to remind me of it. I will not got anything done today as a result! But I digress…
One trope of note is Chekhov's Armoury (love that name, by the way), which "is when the writer uses several (and in some cases, uses too many) Chekhov's Guns, not all of which are painfully obvious." Essentially Lost personified.
While I thank you, my employer, family and friends may not.
Damn you, Scott. I'll never get out…