Elsie King – Tropes

I’ve never really understood or considered tropes when I write something. I find it easier to write with a theme in mind. But Tropes are apparently important enough in the romance genre to provide the theme for the Romance Writers of Australia conference 2024. Time to do some research.

The Collins Pocket English Dictionary defines a Trope as ‘a figure of speech.’

The Collins National Dictionary is more extensive. It defines Trope as ‘a word or phrase used metaphorically.’

Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases links Tropes with metaphors. And a metaphor is a way of describing one thing with a phrase that describes something else.

Examples: Courage – a heart of a lion

                  Love – the light of my life

                  Lazy – a couch potato.

A look at Wikipedia (bless them) says that the word Trope has undergone “a semantic change” and is now used as a rhetorical (persuasive) device in creative works.

So, to summarise: A trope used to be a figure of speech but has morphed into a commonly used metaphorical device in genres of rhetorical creative fiction. In simple terms they are the themes that readers want to have in a novel.

Some common romance tropes are:

• Happy ever after
• Lovers torn apart, fight to get back together
• Forbidden love
• Love triangles
• Enemies to lovers
• Amnesia
• I have a secret

Some historical novel tropes are:

• Marriages of convenience
• Dual timelines
• Political/social upheavals
• Actual historical figures
• Protagonists ahead of their time.
• Research driven plots.

Fantasy tropes may include:

• Good versus evil
• Quests
• Magic
• Mythological species
• Time travel

The list of tropes can be extensive for each genre but from what I’ve read it’s important that the trope is subtle, that it emerges with the story or it can become a dreaded cliché. These are tropes used so often they become a bit of a joke. Think of the dreaded Bodice ripper.

I hope you found my exploration of tropes useful. I have discovered that I definitely like happy endings, most of my characters are ahead of their time and some engage in marriages of convenience. I also like to use historical research to describe political and social upheavals.

And these tropes put me firmly into my genre; historical novels with a touch of romance.

My photo is of the black sand beach in Iceland made famous in Game of Thrones. Yet another example where an image can be used as a literary trope.

Now I have to work out what costume I’ll wear at the RWA conference that will clearly define a romantic trope.

Cheers Elsie

Elsie King©2024

Photo by L.C. Wong©2024