History JustForFun / TheTropelessTale

* AnAesop: [[TropesAreTools You can't write a story without tropes]], and that's OK.

Heck, the "story" can't even exist because there is no world, characters, plot, themes, etc.; everything ''IS'' a trope, you will just do nothing for that's lazy... to "create" your "franchise", it just can't actually exist... What all just is ''plain nothing'', but think... what the merchandise be made out of. It can't be plastic, wood, fabric, metal, paper or any material at all; can it be made out air?!? '''You can't mold air''', and it has no shapes... the idea may be already "existing" and that "idea" is '''''nothing™️''''' in the living mater of existence of the world if it does not...

# [[AuthorAppeal You can't write about anything you like]]. That might be fixable, if you just write about what you hate--No, wait! [[PetPeeveTrope You can't do that, either]].

Heck, the “story” can’t even exist because there is no world, characters, plot, themes etc. everything ''IS'' a trope, you will just do nothing for that’s lazy.. to “create” your “franchise”, It just can’t actually exist.. what all just is ''plain nothing'', but think.. what the merchandise be made out off. It can’t be plastic, wood, fabric, metal, paper or any material at all, can it be made out air?!? '''you can’t mold air''', and it has no shapes.. the idea may be already “existing” and that “idea” is ''''nothing.™️'''' in the living mater of existence of the world if it does not..

You stare in silence for several seconds. [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle Finally, Trope-tan asks you, "So what did you learn?"\\
And you reply, "I learned two things:"]]

# "I can't write a story without tropes, and that's OK."
# [[SpaceWhaleAesop "Trying to write a story without tropes will make your head explode."]]

%%To put it another way, the Tropeless Tale is [[SelfDemonstrating/TheTropelessTale this]]. [[note]][[EmptyRoomPsych Oh wait.]][[/note]]

%%Or this: ∞ [[note]][[{{Infinite}} No, wait, this won't work either.]][[/note]]

-->...And that, folks, is the reason why we say Administrivia/TropesAreTools around here. Even the mere ''concept'' of a Tropeless Tale has {{trope}}s.

Heck, the “story” can’t even exist because there is no world, characters, plot, themes etc. everything ''IS'' a trope, you will just do nothing for that’s lazy.. to “create” your “franchise”, It just can’t actually exist.. what all just is ''plain nothing'',

* AnAesop: You can't write a story without tropes, and that's OK.

* NamelessNarrative: The Tropeless Tale has absolutely no characters in it.

But then it hits you: avoiding certain recurring elements invariably beings forth other tropes! As you think about this, you continue gathering tropes and learn:

# You should avert all tropes, but you cannot use AvertedTrope on any nigh-{{omnipresent tropes}}, either. Sound like some sort of LogicBomb? [[MindScrew Well, you have to avert that now too]].[[note]]And then you realize you have to avert MindScrew as well, and OverlyLongGag, and DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment, and ShapedLikeItself, and...[[/note]]

# You can't have a {{hero|Tropes}} or a {{villain|s}}. Not a deal-breaker so far, there have been works that did that.

But then it hits you: those two storytelling elements having been used by other stories means that they're [[DecoyProtagonist tropes]] of [[NoAntagonist their own]], so you can't ''not'' have a hero or villain. As you think about this, you continue gathering tropes and realize:

[numlist:2]
# You can't have an [[ActionHero Action Guy]] ''or'' a NonActionGuy, nor can you have [[ChromosomeCasting only men or only women]].

# No matter how popular your story is, you cannot adapt it into a [[TheMovie movie]], a [[TheShowOfTheBooks show]], a [[LicensedGame video game]], a [[TheBoardGame board game]], a [[ComicBookAdaptation comic book]], an [[AudioAdaptation audio play]], a [[LicensedPinballTable pinball machine]], a [[AllMusicalsAreAdaptations musical]], a [[{{Novelization}} novel]], or [[TheMerch any merchandise at all]]. It looks like you have NoAdaptationsAllowed... wait, there's a trope for that too?

# You will not have a {{narrative|Tropes}} in your story. That means no {{Dialogue}}, no {{Conflict}}, no {{Characters}}, no {{Plot|s}}. Your story will be about the [[NoPlotNoProblem purely abstract]], maybe even nothingness. [[SceneryPorn Just a page or two describing the non-existent scenery]] that is [[{{Pun}} uTropia]]. [[PurpleProse Or maybe just describing nothingness]]. [[SeinfeldianConversation Aww, nuts, that won't work either...]]
# You should avert all tropes, but you cannot use AvertedTrope, either. Sound like some sort of LogicBomb? [[MindScrew Well, you have to avert that now too]].[[note]]And then you realize you have to avert MindScrew as well, and OverlyLongGag, and DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment, and ShapedLikeItself, and...[[/note]]
[/numlist]

[numlist:8]
# "Even if you actually accomplish it somehow, despite all the other issues you encountered, even if you manage to create a story that is well and truly tropeless, what happens if other people decide they like your ideas enough to [[FollowTheLeader copy them in]] ''[[FollowTheLeader their]]'' [[FollowTheLeader stories]]? Then your tale would no longer be tropeless, but instead be the TropeMaker for an entirely new set of tropes, because that's what a {{trope}} is: a pattern of elements meant to convey meaning."
[/numlist]

Then you get an idea. You know what you're going to do! You're going to write one yourself! A [[TitleDrop Tropeless Tale]]! So you go on Wiki/TVTropes and [[ArchiveBinge start finding every trope that exists]] so that you won't use them, consciously or unwittingly. Work something out afterwards once you know what you're left with.

* SelfReferentialHumor: This is Wiki/TVTropes making fun of its troping ability.

* FlashFiction: Taken UpToEleven. The Tropeless Tale is as short as you can possibly make a story, as it has ''no words at all'' (not counting the title).

* {{Minimalism}}: Trying to make a story that uses absolutely no tropes at all is similar to the mindset of this, albeit taken to an [[UpToEleven insane and impossible extreme.]]

# You will not have a {{narrative|Tropes}} in your story. That means no {{Dialogue}}, no {{Conflict}}, no {{Characters}}, no {{Plot|s}}. Your story will be about the [[NoPlotNoProblem purely abstract]], maybe even nothingness. [[SceneryPorn Just a page or two describing the non-existent scenery]] that is [[{{Pun}} uTropia]]. [[PurpleProse Or maybe just describing nothingness]]. [[SeinfeldianConversation Aww, nuts]], that [[MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness won't work either...]]

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: A straight 0 on the scale.

Due to the ''impossibility'' of writing a story without tropes, it is generally not to be undertaken except as an artistic challenge, and attempting to not use tropes is not necessarily intelligent writing; instead, an easier end toward intelligent writing is to take old tropes and [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools use them in a new way]]. ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' is considered a masterpiece, even though nothing in it was new. It just used the old in a fascinating way. Creator/WilliamShakespeare lifted all of his plots from other works (except maybe [[Theatre/TheTempest one]] or [[Theatre/LovesLaboursLost two]]). ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' is one of the most critically acclaimed fantasy series in modern fiction, and was [[{{Troperiffic}} deliberately filled with every trope, convention and cliché that the writer could think of]]. Also, let's not forget that the three highest grossing movies of all time, ''Film/Titanic1997'', ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', and ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', are riddled with tried and true formulas, familiar story structure and arc characterisations.

You're sick of all of those ClicheStorm, {{Troperrific}}, and TropeOverdosed stories. It's getting on your nerves. Why doesn't anybody do anything ''original?'' Something new enough not to get the label of "trope" stamped on them? It's just a term used to avoid having to say [[TWordEuphemism the C-word]][[note]][[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant No]], not ''[[CountryMatters that]]'' C-word[[/note]], anyway!

Some works have come close to reaching this nebulous quality such as ''WesternAnimation/{{Allegretto}}'', ''Film/AfterLastSeason'', ''[[Film/Empire1964 Empire]]'', ''VideoGame/GrandPianoKeys'', ''Film/{{Koyaanisqatsi}}'', ''Film/MyDinnerWithAndre'', ''Film/ManWithAMovieCamera'', ''Music/NowThatsWhatICallMusic'', ''Film/RussianArk'', ''Film/{{Decasia}}'', ''Literature/AMillionRandomDigitsWithOneHundredThousandNormalDeviates'', ''Une semaine de bonté''[[note]]a series of collage artwork by [[{{Surrealism}} surrealist]] artist Max Ernst[[/note]], ''WebVideo/WebdriverTorso'', and quite a few TrueArtIsIncomprehensible works, although all of these are arguable and subjective, and well... they tend to come up with tropes anyway. The closest example in video games is arguably ''VideoGame/PyongyangRacer'', and that still has some tropes. Also, ''Literature/FinnegansWake''. No, wait, that's a MindScrew... Arguably, the closest thing to it is the film ''Film/RoundhayGardenScene'' which is 2 seconds long and depicts no real action, but it's questionable whether it can even be considered a "work".

* RealityEnsues: Writers attempting to create a tropeless tale, even one where absolutely nothing exists or happens, will discover that even that kind of thinking spawns a type of context due to the thought process behind it and the real life audiences reaction to it, as well as other stories and tropes and the thought process behind them contrasting the utter lack of content in the attempt at a tropeless story. Art and creativity does not exist in a vacuum, and for a tropeless tale to even remotely be possible, there would have to be absolutely no existence at all--and even that could probably [[LogicBomb spawn tropes by itself.]]

->''"One of the things we tried to do with Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus was to try and do something that was so unpredictable that it had no shape and you could never say what the kind of humor was. And I think that the fact that 'Pythonesque' is now a word in the Oxford English Dictionary shows the extent to which we failed."''

->''"One of the things we tried to do with [Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus] was to try and do something that was so unpredictable that it had no shape and you could never say what the kind of humor was. And I think that the fact that 'Pythonesque' is now a word in the Oxford English Dictionary shows the extent to which we failed."''
-->-- '''Terry Jones''' at the US Comedy Arts Festival, 1998

Due to the ''impossibility'' of writing a story without tropes, it is generally not to be undertaken except as an artistic challenge, and attempting to not use tropes is not necessarily intelligent writing; instead, an easier end toward intelligent writing is to take old tropes and [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools use them in a new way]]. ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' is considered a masterpiece, even though nothing in it was new. It just used the old in a fascinating way. Creator/WilliamShakespeare lifted all of his plots from other works (except maybe [[Theatre/TheTempest one]] or [[Theatre/LovesLaboursLost two]]). ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' is one of the most critically acclaimed fantasy series in modern fiction, and was [[{{Troperiffic}} deliberately filled with every trope, convention and cliché that the writer could think of]]. Also, let's not forget that the three highest grossing movies of all time, ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', ''Film/Titanic1997'' and ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' are riddled with tried and true formulas, familiar story structure and arc characterisations.

* LawOfConservationOfDetail: Ideally, the aim of the Tropeless Tale is to have absolutely no content in it at all. But as the other tropes prove, even having the story be completely absent of even the most basic things a story needs, to the point where it has absolutely no words beyond the title, will spawn a myriad of tropes by itself.

-->...And that, folks, is the reason why we say Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad around here. Even the mere ''concept'' of a Tropeless Tale has {{trope}}s.

You're sick of all of those ClicheStorm, {{Troperrific}}, and TropeOverdosed stories. It's getting on your nerves. Why doesn't anybody do anything ''original?'' Something new enough not to get the label of "trope" stamped on them? [[BlatantLies It's just a term used to]] [[UnusualEuphemism avoid having to say]] [[TWordEuphemism the C-word]][[note]][[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant No, not]] ''[[CountryMatters that]]'' [[CountryMatters C-word]][[/note]], [[BlatantLies anyway!]]

But then it hits you: those two storytelling elements having been used by other stories means that they're [[DecoyProtagonist tropes of]] [[NoAntagonist their own]], so you can't ''not'' have a hero or villain. As you think about this, you continue gathering tropes and realize:

# You will not have a {{narrative|Tropes}} in your story. That means no {{Dialogue}}, no {{Conflict}}, no {{Characters}}, no {{Plot|s}}. Your story will be about the [[NoPlotNoProblem purely abstract]], maybe even nothingness. [[SceneryPorn Just a page or two describing the non-existent scenery]] that is [[{{Pun}} uTropia]]. [[PurpleProse Or maybe just describing nothingness]]. [[SeinfeldianConversation Aww, nuts, that]] [[MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness won't work either...]]
# You should avert all tropes, but you cannot use AvertedTrope, either. Sound like some sort of LogicBomb? [[MindScrew Well, you have to avert that now too]].[[note]][[OverlyLongGag And then you realize]] you have to avert MindScrew as well, [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment and]] OverlyLongGag, and [[ShapedLikeItself Department of Redundancy Department]] and...[[/note]]

It's at this point that [[YourHeadASplode your head explodes]] [[GoMadFromTheRevelation from the sheer number of paradoxes]] that have arisen from trying to create a Tropeless Tale. [[WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath Your spirit rises out of your body into]] [[FluffyCloudHeaven the clouds]], where JustForFun/TropeTan, goddess of tropes, is waiting for you. Incensed, you say to her, "Is this some kind of [[CosmicPlaything cosmic prank]] you're pulling? I'm sure there ''has'' to be a way to write a story without tropes!"

-->...And that, folks, is the reason why we say TropesAreNotBad around here. Even the mere ''concept'' of a Tropeless Tale has {{trope}}s.

Due to the ''impossibility'' of writing a story without tropes, it is generally not to be undertaken except as an artistic challenge, and attempting to not use tropes is not necessarily intelligent writing; instead, an easier end toward intelligent writing is to take old tropes and [[TropesAreTools use them in a new way]]. ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' is considered a masterpiece, even though nothing in it was new. It just used the old in a fascinating way. Creator/WilliamShakespeare lifted all of his plots from other works (except maybe [[Theatre/TheTempest one]] or [[Theatre/LovesLaboursLost two]]). ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' is one of the most critically acclaimed fantasy series in modern fiction, and was [[{{Troperiffic}} deliberately filled with every trope, convention and cliché that the writer could think of]]. Also, let's not forget that the three highest grossing movies of all time, ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', ''Film/Titanic1997'' and ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' are riddled with tried and true formulas, familiar story structure and arc characterisations.

Some works have come close to reaching this nebulous quality such as ''WesternAnimation/{{Allegretto}}'', ''Film/AfterLastSeason'', ''[[Film/Empire1964 Empire]]'', ''VideoGame/GrandPianoKeys'', ''Film/{{Koyaanisqatsi}}'', ''Film/MyDinnerWithAndre'', ''Film/ManWithAMovieCamera'', ''Music/NowThatsWhatICallMusic'', ''Film/RussianArk'', ''Film/{{Decasia}}'', ''Literature/AMillionRandomDigitsWithOneHundredThousandNormalDeviates'', ''WebVideo/WebdriverTorso'', and quite a few TrueArtIsIncomprehensible works, although all of these are arguable and subjective, and well... they tend to come up with tropes anyway. The closest example in video games is arguably ''VideoGame/PyongyangRacer'', and that still has some tropes. Also, ''Literature/FinnegansWake''. No, wait, that's a MindScrew... Arguably, the closest thing to it is the film ''Film/RoundhayGardenScene'' which is 2 seconds long and depicts no real action, but it's questionable whether it can even be considered a "work".

# No matter how popular your story is, you cannot adapt it into a [[TheMovie movie]], a [[TheShowOfTheBooks show]], a [[LicensedGame video game]], a [[TheBoardGame board game]], a [[ComicBookAdaptation comic book]], an [[AudioAdaptation audio play]], a [[LicensedPinballTable pinball machine]], a [[AllMusicalsAreAdaptations musical]], or [[TheMerch any merchandise at all]]. It looks like you have NoAdaptationsAllowed... wait, there's a trope for that too?

# No matter how popular your story is, you cannot adapt it into a [[TheMovie movie]], a [[TheShowOfTheBooks show]], a [[LicensedGame video game]], a [[TheBoardGame board game]], a [[ComicBookAdaptation comic book]], an [[AudioAdaptation audio play]], a [[LicensedPinballTable pinball machine]], a [[AllMusicalsAreAdaptations musical]], or [[TheMerch any merchandise at all]]. It looks like you have NoAdaptationsAllowed.