Hello, Readers! Clevenger here.

Before I watched “Community” I really wasn’t aware of tropes. But as Graham and I have been writing, we’ve followed and watched a bunch of BookTubers (I think we’ll eventually have a whole post series on that topic) and have followed, discussed, and evaluated literary tropes. And there are a TON of them.

And each video we watched warned of the tired tropes. Tropes that have the power to kill a story. And each trope is dangerous, in the wrong hands. But Graham and I agree. Tropes aren’t always a bad thing. Some of them can breed familiarity in a strange and fantastical setting. It can help root a reader and make them feel comfortable in a way that they may not consciously understand.

And I think Graham said it best. There’s nothing new under the sun. The components are all the same. Our job as authors is to put our own take on the story, combine the elements in a creative and interesting way, and try to breathe new life into these common story pieces.

When looking at the Stories of Sainan, Graham and I have common elements familiar in many fantasy stories. A coming of age story, check. A street rat destined for a larger life, check. The wise mentor with a mysterious past, check. And all of these are just in the first book. But Graham and I challenged ourselves to find perspectives in these familiar tales that aren’t common. To build characters that are unique, but feel real and familiar. And sometimes, common tropes could be reused in a different light.

Tropes are common, and they’re common because they work. The “danger” comes in being lazy and just pinning a thin story on top of formulaic trope bones. And as the fantasy literature bodies of work continues to grow, avoiding tropes becomes harder and harder to do. And yes, I was blissfully unware of the “scar across the eye” trope that I very clearly violated with one of our background characters. Will I go back and remove it? Honestly, I doubt that I will, because it’s how I envisioned that character, trope or no trope.

Even now, as I watch TV, I find that my awareness of tropes allows me to appreciate their creativity. Tropes such as a “bottle episode” make me smile. And seeing how a show runner repackages it and makes it interesting is an appreciation of the art of storytelling. Tropes are tools, and in the right hands that tool can make amazing art.

Graham will continue this conversation, and I’ll see you all soon.

Be kind.

-Clevenger