Welcome back to Top Ten Tuesday! Once hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, it is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It’s a weekly book feature where a topical list-prompt is posted and readers respond with their top ten for that prompt. Yours truly tends to go over ten, but hey, what can a passionate reader do?
This week’s topic is: Favorite Tropes
I think a lot of people know that I…kinda usually love tropes I’m supposed to hate and grow tired of? If it’s a well written story and it makes me feel something for the characters, then absolutely, 100% I am probably going to love the story, even if the trope is overdone or overused in literature (which, is true for cishet white ((and typical male)) authors, but PoC and LGBTQIA+ writers deserve to tell all of these stories too, without it being considered overdone or too late).
These tropes below, however, I’m probably always going to love no matter what, so…
Chosen One: I know, I can practically hear you groaning, but I just can’t help it? I’m a sucker for a good chosen one story and I love even more to see it twisted on it’s head, but give me a classic chosen one story (especially if it’s written by a PoC) and I will always be content.
Only One Bed: I LOVE THIS TROPE. Some romance tropes drive me up the wall, but the, “We’re forced to work together and don’t want to admit feelings for one another but we most definitely have to travel together to get through this next part of our journey before we can finally part ways but oh no, there is only one bed, whatever shall we do?!”
I am trash for this trope.
Quest: Let us go on grandiose adventures traversing mountains and lakes and oceans and rivers and forests where we have to fight so many dangerous creatures and elements and enemies to try and vanish the evil that is plaguing our world. It’s classic, but oh does it always feel like coming home.
Coming Of Age: Similar to the chosen one trope, there is just something about this story that still resonates with me and I’m happy to read new takes on this classic plot.
The Mentor: What can I say? I just love it when you have that mentor figure who has to help train or prepare the next generation to take up the mantle of what they have worked to protect for their entire lives.
Secret Romance: When you can’t resist falling in love, but you can’t risk telling anyone else about it, so you are always looking for dark corners or shadows to sneak in another kiss or something even slightly more scandalous. *waggles eyebrows* YES, I am HERE FOR THIS.
Fake Romance: Or, almost even better, the “Let’s pretend we’re engaged even though we have absolutely no feelings for each other whatsoever but it’ll help us deal with X, Y and Z and oops, now I want to be engaged for real, shit.”
Last Moments Revealing True Feelings: I haven’t encountered this one too much, but I am definitely here for the slow burn romance and resisting until the last possible moment, when finally, you have to admit your feelings for someone right before the eve of the final battle, because you don’t know if you’re going to make it to tomorrow.
I feel like there are so many other tropes that I’m either forgetting that I love or just completely missed talking about, so I really want to see your posts for this week. So please, link them up in the comments below or simply tell me some of your favorite tropes!
Read on!
![Hello writers, storytellers and wordsmiths! This month, Thoughts Stained With Ink Editorial turns 3! 🎉
To celebrate, I wrote a really sappy blog post about it, which you can read linked below. On that blog post is also a special thank you, including 10% discount for anyone who books a full manuscript edit this month AND three query critique giveaways (open until 8/12).
Thank you all for the wonderful three years of editing. I cannot wait for see what the next three hold.
Read the blog post and enter the giveaway here: https://thoughtsstainedwithink.com/celebrating-my-freelance-editing-anniversary/
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I like all sorts of tropes. They are not old and boring to me if the author is talented and puts a new spin on it.
Yep, I totally agree!
I love the Chosen One trope.
My TTT
https://thereadingrebel.wordpress.com/2019/08/20/top-ten-tuesday-favorite-tropes/
I like mentor figures in fiction, too. It’s always interesting to see how they react to the hero.
My TTT
That is so true! And I love when it’s a reluctant mentor, too; such a sucker for that shit.
Quests are always good fun and I do enjoy a wise mentor! Great list! 😊
My TTT: https://lifewithallthebooks.com/2019/08/20/top-ten-tuesday-favourite-tropes/
Thank you so much!!
OH MY GOSH ONE BED YASSSS!!!! I love that trope. It’s always fun and then the chemistry *fans self* Brilliant picks for your TTT! Such an awesome post :))))
My TTT: https://alittlehazebookblog.wordpress.com/2019/08/20/top-ten-tuesday-favourite-tropes/
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS, exactly! Thank you so much! <3
I adore fake romance books. There’s something so fun about them. Although, I don’t know anyone personally who has ever had a fake romance… I had never thought of that before!
I just love a good quest story! There’s something about it that’ll never get old, I think. I’ve also found that the older I get, the more I seem to identify with the mentors in books, and I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but hey, I’m gonna roll with it.
Here’s my TTT post.
I’m pretty sure that means you’ll have to mentor someone as they go on an epic quest, honestly. 😉
Oh noooo. I don’t know if I have the patience for that. Isn’t the benefit of getting old that you can let all the young whippersnappers do the work while you sip cocoa by the fire or something? D: I’m clearly in the wrong archetype here.
Hahahahaha, that’s a totally fair point. 😛
Chosen one, quests and mentor – I’m always up for those if they’re done well. I also love redemption stories and an assorted ensemble cast who wouldn’t normally be friends but have to work together, preferably to save the world.
Oh shoot, redemption stories and assorted ensemble casts are my JAM. Damn, I knew I would forgot some classic ones, but yes, I agree 110%!
“they got into the room and there was just… ONE BED”. that’s The trope, honestly. i love any type of scenario that forces two characters that do not really care/like each other and even if they don’t immediately admit their feelings, they definitely get closer from such experience and it’s glorious.
as for quest, even though it’s an extremely overused trope, i’ve yet to find a book where it isn’t well done. i think so exciting whenever they go through different landscapes and fight all types of creatures. when there’s a crazy plot twist near the end, it gets even better!
(ALSO that gif for “secret romance”? oh dang it i’ll have to watch this movie now!)
and i do appreciate the mentor trope a lot too. for some reason, it makes me feel calmer whenever there’s a responsible, know-it-all figure to guide our protagonist. as much as it is fun to watch the character trying to figure it all out on their own, i feel like it’s safer whenever they have an adult to back them up, hahah.
YES, you described it perfectly!! I can’t remember which book I encountered it first (I think it was one of Tessa Dare’s) but after reading it, I was IN LOVE.
Yep, I just can’t get enough about an epic quest–and you’re right, where I have encountered it, it is really well done!
It’s The Duchess! I bloody love that movie (unfortunately, they actually aren’t in love, but that scene is incredible and I do really like the romance in it).
Oooh, yes, I think I feel calmer, too, actually. That’s a great point!
I am a complete sucker for Mentor tropes, just give me that beacon of light who is going to inevitably die so that you can escape and realize your full potential and ultimately destroy the bad guy.
YES, I am ALWAYS here for this. Though, I’d also love to see (or maybe write) a mentor story where they actually survive and how that would change the dynamic?
SO MANY IDEAS.
I’m a sucker for a well done chosen one story. 🙂
Lauren @ Always Me
Absolutely me too, 100%.
Only one bed!!! That is one of the classics I totally forgot about!
My TTT
I just love it! A classic, but one I wouldn’t mind seeing more of. 🙂
Ahh Nicole this is such a great list. I have to admit I’m a sucker for the Chosen One trope when it’s well done, just as well and the “there’s only one bed”, I LOVE THAT ONE so much. One thing I also adore is the slow-burning relationship, this always makes me swoon so so much ahhh <3 <3
I know so many are tired of the Chosen One trope, but I think it helped introduce me to fantasy, so I just have such a soft spot for it. AH, YES, GIVE ME MORE BOOKS WITH THAT TROPE PLEASE. <3 <3
YES! I love SO many of your picks. The taste truly jumped out for your favourite tropes!
Awww, thank you so much! I had to wrack my brain for ages to figure these out, so I’m glad you enjoyed them!
Fake romance and ‘only one bed’ are two of my absolute favourites 😀 I also really like best friends falling in love, and hero/villain romances (but I don’t come across a lot of those!)
Honestly, I need more “only one bed” romances in my life. I don’t think I read too many of those, too! I hear a lot of people love those tropes, though! I think I’m more a strangers to lovers fan, myself. 🙂