I am not au fait with the majority of the vocabulary of the writing community as such, primarily because I have more or less isolated myself in recent years from the community due to a mistrust of old friends I once had in the community.
Therefore I have been trying to learn some of the technical speech other writers now use. I only learned the other day what DNF truly meant “did not finish” in regards to the book reading community.
I should really make a DNF shelf on Goodreads, didn’t know that was accountable until now. Up until now, any books I read partially on Goodreads but did not finish was either said as such in the review or just removed from the currently reading list.
The word trope confuses me slightly too. I thought I understood what the word trope meant until I started to speak to a friend about tropes the other day who seemed confused by what I was saying. She then said, those are not tropes, they are themes or settings; they are not the same thing. So, what exactly is a trope?
I watched about eight YouTube videos last night trying to figure it out, hence why todays post is late. To me, I did seem to understand what a trope is, my friends are never really ones to explain themselves or correct someone fully, sometimes I feel that they are just critics for the sake of criticising and yes, some friends, this one included already knows I think that about them, because I am very open and say what’s on my mind! But still, it never prompts them to educate – some will feel that saying “Google it” is justifiable, but as a friend surely the idea of friendship is a sharing of ideas and opinions and to educate one another? Isn’t that what socialising means?
To me it does mean that – but to people I know socialising seems to mean to them a complaining of their lives, a competitive stance on their life with each other, a woe is me and sympathy chasing, gossiping about others, usually venomously or merely grumping about the state of the world.
So what I believe a trope is based on YouTube research is in fact based on themes and events that happen in the novel – such as found family, a bunch of friends get together with a communal task, or the story has a circus, or a vampire, or the scene is set in snowy Alaska, or it is autumn in the book, or there is a love/hate relationship. I think those are tropes, because some tropes are also themed.
But forgive me if I am wrong, can anyone help me?
If you can tell me what you think a trope is let me know in the comments below.
I was having a conversation with my friend about what I liked as tropes and apparently I am wrong, most of what I said was not considered a trope.
If I can find out the difference between tropes, a scene, an event and what have you, then I will make a post about what tropes I enjoy in the books I read and the kind of tropes that are in my stories that I write!
Happy reading!
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