Elementalist
I ... don't think you quite understood what the very core of the notion that tropes are tools actually is.
Tropes are a "well, this happens to have happened in the story", an observation of a story (or other creative work) element that happens to have happened in the story and is used by creators often enough to be recognised. They are not, by any means, restrictions of any kind that limit what you can put in the story. It is not the tropes in your work that will make it recognised or not, it is the plot and structural elements you as the writer put in there, and if they happen to be tropes then so be it but for you, the writer, this is not a darn concern in any shape or form.
When I look for some work's trope page as a reader, it is not because I need that to know if the work is good or not, no, the very notion of that being in any way a necessity is outright ridiculous; when I do it, I do it because I've just gotten finished with the work and am now looking for a bit extra and getting through a page full of observations about the work can be just that extra. Likewise, when I look at trope pages as a writer, I am not doing it in order to find tropes that can be used as story elements or to find the boundaries of tropes, but instead I am looking at pages for tropes that my own observation told me probably are in my work so that I can find a list of other works using those elements and take lessons from their usage.
Tropes are tools, yes. But all that this means is that when you are using certain tools in order to build a story, the page can tell you "well, you are now using a screwdriver, a hammer, and a saw". When you approach it by first taking tropes and then trying to find a way to apply them, however, it is the same as taking that hammer or that saw and then looking for things you can use them on regardless of whether there are better tools for that or not. Frankly, and maybe a bit meanly though that is not intended, it's bloody pointless and bloody stupid and it is only going to hurt your work if you approach it that way.
So, we'll get to the trope list with my replies to individual points. Some of the replies might seem a bit rude, but that is not intended and I am noting this because quite some are going to be frank and at points maybe even curt replies. If they seem rude to you then I apologise right now; still, I do feel it would do you good to simply distance yourself from the thing itself and look at the answers with the lens of the stuff I wrote in the previous paragraphs.
- "London, England" Syndrome - I have no idea why you would have three cities with the same name, but one would presume that there is a reason in the story so for as long as they can be distinguished when it actually is important I don't think it matters that their names are the same.
- Spin-Off - No idea why it couldn't be. No idea what's the point of having it be that way, though. You're going to have to be more specific with the reason why you want this to be the way you do.
- Continuity Reboot - Yes, but if you are planning on not having issues with the continuity then planning to reboot it suggests to me that you have no idea what you are doing and are just pulling tropes into your work to have them. That is not good.
- Alternate Continuity - Not sure what's the problem there. Spin-offs are fine. Trying to go for some kind of "new and improved and better kind of spin-off" sounds ... I don't know, edgy? Why is a normal spin-off not fine for you? What is your reason for having to have some kind of different kind of spin-off?
- Corrupt Politician - I don't see what's the problem here.
- Punch-Clock Villain - I don't see why not. Then again, I don't see why would you write characters around the trope rather than just having characters. If the trope matches, so be it, if it doesn't, so be it, you don't need to score enough trope points to get published, that's not how it works.
- Anti-Villain - Again, write characters, don't take a cardboard cut-out that you wrap around a trope or two. The trope itself is just an observation of a specific kind of villain, you don't need to have it in your work and you certainly don't need to adhere to some strict guidelines of the trope when writing your characters. Doing so will just make your story crappier because the characters will end up being flat, take my word for it.
- No Antagonist - Not seeing a problem with this one. That said, writing a story with no antagonist can be very hard to even impossible if you are doing it just to have the trope in, so write what you have and don't concern yourself with it.
- Hate Sink - Anyone can. You could have the protagonist be a hate sink though that's probably going to be very challenging to write because of obvious reasons.
- Comic-Book Time - Not your concern. Write the story, make sure its timeline works the way you want it to, and that's it, there's absolutely no reason for you to aim for having or not having this trope. Though if your characters are all human then you probably don't want this trope to be here, so you will want to show the characters' ages as changing as years pass.
- Webcomic Time - It's a completely different trope, it's for a situation where the time in the story happens to pass slower than in real life to do whatever reason—most often it being a slow pace of adding panels, combined with the fact that panels are often only worth seconds of in-story time. You do not need to concern yourself with it as far as your work is concerned, though.
That's it from me. If you have any issues then feel free to reply, I promise to be well-mannered for as long as you don't approach me with a pitchfork in hand. And if you happen to want any more advice from me or to ask any questions, well, the same as above.
edited 26th Mar '17 4:14:29 PM by Kazeto
Cape Malleum Majorem
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Exactly. You don't prepare to write a story by saying: "I'm going to incorporate Tropes A, B, and C into my work." You write the story however you wish, irrespective of any tropes. Then, a person who has read your story can describe it to a third party by citing Tropes A, B, and C.
Your story should not be compiled from a list of tropes. Tropes are just a kind of shorthand used to describe certain elements found therein, without having to go into painstaking detail in the explanation. If I say, for example, Doting Parent or Lethal Chef, you immediately get the general idea of what I'm talking about.
edited 26th Mar '17 7:55:13 PM by pwiegle
This Space Intentionally Left Blank.
The only reason anyone should intentionally sit down and go "I'll use Tropes X, Y, and Z in my story" is if they're going to do a deconstruction, and you need to know those tropes REALLY well. Even after that, good authors don't say "I'll use X, Y, and Z in my story so Plots A and B can be deconstructed." Plots A and B could naturally happen as a result of the deconstructed tropes, OR you could end up going with Plot C because that's just how the story went.
Takotsubo only has three tropes where I sat down and decided to use them, and basically everything else grew from the characters on out.
I've been creating my work, and have been reading the Tropes Are Tools page.
I currently have these tropes in my work (I didn't plan on using them, except for the "London, England" Syndrome and continuity tropes) about my character Jenny Smith (not the real character name, just an equivalent of a Working Title for her name) and am trying to work out how to use them effectively since I have them anyway:
The only problem is how to ensure my setting is different enough for it to be a distinct, irreconcilable timeline and plot for my supporting character in the Spin-Off (otherwise, if it's supporting character in same universe, isn't that just a plain old Spin-Off?) and how to make sure that the continuities don't overlap (main continuity and Alternate Continuity for supporting character).
and the big two for now:
With the exception of the Webcomic Time mentioned above, on the Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic it's generally mundane (although the setting is slightly different, an enlarged United Kingdom with additional towns and cities, but that's Artistic License – Geography for Rule of Cool)
I would appreciate any help or suggestions on this.