Stop Avoiding Tropes: How to Use Them to Write Better Stories
I’m sure you’ve all heard the writing advice to avoid using tropes. I know I have. Well, I’m here to tell you to not only ignore that advice but to embrace the use of tropes! Tropes are the building blocks of all stories and, unless you’re attempting to write something literary and ‘edgy’ (whatever that entails) you’re going to need to use tropes.
Tropes are the backbone of any story. Think of them like the foundation of a house. Every house needs a solid foundation, giving the builder (or designer or architect) the freedom to be creative with the structure above it, yet the foundation remains essential. The same is true with stories. Think of a story, any story. I guarantee you there are at least two or three tropes in it.
Harry Potter
The Chosen One
Orphaned Protagonist
School Setting
Hidden Magical World
Legally Blonde
Ditzy Blonde (turned on its head)
Collage Setting
Sleazy Teacher
Defrosting the Ice Queen
Lord of the Rings
Powerful Mentor
Death of a Mentor
Magical Objects
Road Trip
I’m sure you can think of many others, or even more tropes in those three examples. The point is, all stories use numerous tropes to build their narratives; without them, there would be no story. Your story shouldn’t be any different. Even as a reader, you may not realise it, but there are tropes you gravitate towards. Maybe you swoon over Enemy to Lover romances, or Small Town dramas, or maybe you can’t go past a great Redemption Arc. Tropes, all of them. Look at your top five or ten favourite books or movies and you’ll probably see a few recurring themes in them.
That’s okay! It’s good to know what you like and what you don’t because then you can use them in your own writing to good effect and to keep your own interest up. Not to mention, it makes marketing so much easier if you can find other books with similar tropes (known as comps, or comparisons) and can use the tropes as keywords and tags.
Tropes versus Clichés
But then, what about the advice to avoid tropes? It has to have come from somewhere, right? Well, you’re not wrong. All writing advice, even advice I don’t personally agree with, comes from a good place. In this case, it’s trying to help you avoid cliches. You see, when a trope is the only thing going on in the story, it can become a cliché. What is classed as a cliché changes depending on the market, so by the time you read this, what I describe as a cliché may be the hottest thing going.
The Chosen One, for example, was often considered cliché. Harry Potter helped revive it somewhat but, especially before its success, the chosen one narrative was mostly relegated to pulpy fantasy novels with little depth and no real character development. It was predictable. Oh, there is a mysterious prophecy that says this farmer’s boy (and it used to always be a boy) is the chosen one to bring down the big bad villain. And look! He does! End story.
The problem here is it’s predictable. There’s nothing that varies from the standard narrative and, while this can be a comfort if that’s what you like, it doesn’t offer anything new or exciting. And personally, even though Harry Potter helped make this trope more popular, it’s still what I like least about the series as it feels trite.
Relying on stereotypes is also another way to turn your trope into a cliché. If you have a mentor character, ensure their personality isn’t just there to give advice. Give them some depth, some character quirks (not just quirks, mind; the quirky mentor is also somewhat of a cliché), give them some history to make them just as deep as any other important character in your story.
So the short of it is, don’t use tropes as a crutch for lazy character and world building.
Do’s and Don’ts on Using Tropes Effectively
Do use tropes when brainstorming your ideas. When you’re coming up with what to write about next, it often helps to pick your favourite trope. Enemies to Lovers is super popular right now (not one of my favourites, but a lot of people adore it). So let’s use that as the basis for our example story. The Enemies to Lovers theme has a few key moments that must be covered.
There’s the initial fiery meeting where their conflict and animosity is introduced.
There’s the underlying passion between the two characters; despite their initial reactions to each other, there’s something drawing the pair together
There’s the moment of overcoming their differences
There’s a happily ever after (or happily for now) ending
Don’t leave the story at that. That’s far too simplistic of a story. It might be okay for a first draft (or, let’s be real, a draft 0) but that’s it. Predictability equals boredom and the last thing we want is for our readers to be bored.
Do weave multiple tropes into the story. All the best stories have layer upon layers of tropes to build a complete narrative. Taking the Enemies to Lovers trope further, we could add:
Forced proximity - I live in Australia and flooding is a regular occurrence here, so let’s say there is a flood going on and floodwaters trap our two heroes into the same residential block.
Shared workplace - Along with forced proximity, it gives more excuses for our protagonists to interact together
Arranged marriage - Just to throw a curve ball in there, let’s add this one to it. Yes, it’s unconventional in modern romances, but it can still work (which I’ll touch on later)
Now you’re starting to see how this could take shape, with each of these tropes bringing something to the story, adding layers upon the narrative and spelling out what scenes are likely to take place.
Don’t romanticise toxicity. This is especially important in the enemies to lovers trope, but it can crop up in other stories as well. By all means, have toxic characters; no one is surrounded by positivity all the time (and if they are, that’s its own form of toxicity), but don’t make those character traits out to be romantic or in any way desirable. One common example of this is with jealousy and the infuriating insistence to make it out as romantic when it is anything but. By all means, use jealousy when it’s warranted. One character has an affair, the cheated on character should feel jealous. But chatting with a co-worker of the opposite sex at lunch time should not evoke jealousy, and if it does, it should be called out. It could even be a significant moment to build tension or for character development. Not treated as “cute”.
Do use lampshading, or meta commentary where it’s appropriate. In this case, an example is our arranged marriage trope in a modern day story. If the characters just went along with this plot device, it would make the story feel unrealistic. To counter this, it’s useful to have the characters involved comment on it. They can complain how it’s so archaic, their families should get with the times and so on. This reflects what the reader is probably thinking and makes it clear the characters in the story are aware of the ridiculousness of the situation. Another less on the nose example could be when a character goes down into the basement to change a blown light bulb. They can comment on all the horror stories they have read about where something bad always happens in the basement. Then, if something bad does happen in the basement, it’s not so clichéd.
Don’t portray one note characters. We touched on this a little earlier, but it bears repeating. Don’t have a bad guy who’s only evil just for the sake of being evil. Why is he evil? If he killed the puppy, why did he kill the puppy? It doesn’t mean we’ll empathise with them, it doesn’t mean we like them, but even Hitler believed he was the hero in his own narrative (yeah, I went there). Determine why a character acts the way they do, and you’ll avoid cliché character roles.
Do add misdirection and misleading hints. If your favourite trope has a common theme that most stories with it use, how can you turn it around and twist those expectations? One famous example is in Frozen with the Insta-Love trope between Anna and Hans. Typically, this results in the two characters who instantly fall in love getting to know one another, and then winding up married happily ever after. Not only does Frozen subvert this with Anna’s sister refusing to let them marry (you go girl!), but it is carried through when we find out just how much of a jackass Hans actually is (oops, spoiler alert, but you’ve all seen Frozen, right?).
Final Thoughts
Tropes are essential story telling tools, something to embrace and master, not to avoid. Avoiding a trope just to prevent falling into a cliché just means you need to dig down deeper into why you are writing a cliché and figure out how to change it into a trope that will hook your readers.
Tropes also let you market your work effectively and can be a great way to convey what your story is about, without going into the nitty gritty of the entire plot and character development. “It’s a slow burn romance set in a seaside town with a love triangle and friends to lovers dynamic” tells the reader a lot of what they’re about to read in one line.
Instead of fearing tropes, learn to wield them effectively to craft compelling and memorable stories.
What are your favourite tropes to use in writing? Mine are definitely slow burn, mentor-apprentice relationships, and found family. Let me know in the comments!
References
Cox, T. (September 27, 2018). The good, the bad & the overdone: tropes in fiction (and how to use them effectively). Tauri Cox. Retrieved March 14, 2025 https://tauricox.com/2018/09/27/the-good-the-bad-the-overdone-tropes-in-fiction-and-how-to-use-them-effectively/
Gold, J. (December 8, 20220). How to make the most of our story’s tropes. Jami Gold. Retrieved March 14, 2025 https://jamigold.com/2020/12/how-to-make-the-most-of-our-storys-tropes/
Gold, J. (December 8, 20202). Story tropes: to avoid or not to avoid? Writers Helping Writers. Retrieved March 14, 2025 https://writershelpingwriters.net/2020/12/story-tropes-to-avoid-or-not-to-avoid/
Sutton, H. (August 17, 2023). 5 tips for using genre tropes to generate new work. Writer’s Digest. Retrieved March 14, 2025 https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/5-tips-for-using-genre-tropes-to-generate-new-work
Understanding tropes in creative writing: what they are and how to use them effectively. (November 30, 2024). English Plus Podcast. Retrieved March 14, 2025 https://englishpluspodcast.com/understanding-tropes-in-creative-writing-what-they-are-and-how-to-use-them-effectively/