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Riolugirl (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded)
2025-10-01 08:31:58

Have you read the TLP Guidelines?

"Hark! For your greatest fears manifest in yours truly!" (She/Her) (Current focus: Image Pickin')
ilovewildkratts1 (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded)
2025-10-01 08:57:43

Yes, it's ideal to read the TLP Guidelines. In addition, you might want to take a look at some other tropes' descriptions to get a feel of how they should be written.

Wuewuewuewuewueing my way to the bank.
HoloMew151 Since: Jun, 2021
2025-10-01 09:45:52

I see you've discarded your last trope. I don't think it was that much of a lost cause personally, and people have provided important advice in your comments. It's just a matter of using that to expand your description and narrow down your focus.

WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
2025-10-01 09:51:45

Above all, just breathe and try not to stress too much. Mastering TLP creation is a skill you don't get right away and for descriptions especially, they can be very difficult to get write (I'll often do full rewrites of my drafts every few days just to try and capture the idea better, and I've been doing this for years). The criticisms can be tough, but people are just legitimately trying to help you improve your idea or work out something they find confusing.

Edited by WarJay77 Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
Amonimus (Sergeant)
2025-10-01 10:04:01

If you mean this comment, I speculate it's because "this trope is about" may be too brief?

This trope happens when jazz music is used as the main theme of a mystery/detective movies, the main theme of a detective or private eye, or simply played in the background of a mystery/detective movie.
I personally don't have an issue with it, but trope pages are normally a bit more verbose and try to include an analysis of some kind. "X happens when Y" happens is not a trope, it's a coincidence, there has to be some kind of implication or historical connection.

You are also very quick to react negatively to comments. Drafts may be sitting in TLP for months, just take your time to get clarifications regarding what you need.

Edited by Amonimus TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
2025-10-01 10:18:02

Yeah, that one was rude, ngl. People need to learn to chill out with TLP stuff.

But as said, if you need help fleshing your descriptions out, why not poke around on some other drafts to get a feel for the general format and style?

Personally, my mental template is, by paragraph:

  1. "Witty" intro that builds to introduce the main topic.
  2. The general subject, with the key info.
  3. One or two or more explanatory paragraphs to get into the nitty-gritty regarding usage, purpose, themes, etc. Depends on how many points there are to cover.
  4. Anything extra, like if I have extra variants to explain or a requirement that needs to exist for examples to be fully contextualized.
  5. The "see also" trope list.
  6. Any final notes, like NRLEP or spoiler warnings.

Edited by WarJay77 Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
Willbyr MOD (Y2K)
2025-10-01 10:35:26

^ That's generally a good format to follow. I do basically the same thing, although with me #1 tends to be optional and usually replaced with some kind of setup for the logic of the trope.

Riolugirl (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded)
2025-10-01 11:20:27

Our Trope Entry Template can help if you'd like a more tangible framework.

"Hark! For your greatest fears manifest in yours truly!" (She/Her) (Current focus: Image Pickin')
AlexThePrettyGood Since: Jul, 2009
2025-10-01 13:49:44

Bombs happen. Some people can be eternal nay-sayers. Don't let it get to you. If most of the comments are providing samples or constructive criticism, that means your proposal triggered recognition in the community and your draft can lead somewhere. Sometimes it won't be exactly what you originally thought of, but that's the nature of troping. And sometimes, after due consideration it turns out that a proposal isn't viable, or overlaps too much with an already existing trope. Even that can be viable experience that will help you with your next draft.

Now I think you're referring to your "No Aage limit for weapons" proposal. To be honest, I thought it had potential when taking into account several of the constructive comments that were raised. I wanted to add some of my ideas when I noticed you nuked it. Learning how to incorporate suggestions, and sometimes how to narrow the scope of a proposal is an important aspect of TLP. I'm sure that if you had spent some time to refine your proposal, you could have made something better of it.

Less than a day in TLP does not reach enough people yet to give a definite feedback on the viability of an idea. You don't need to race your proposal to the finish in three days. Allow it to mature, which in the long run will usually result in a more robust trope.

And finally, don't hesitate to visit the Trope Sounding Board which is a forum where TLP regulars can give you early feedback on an idea, and already help you formulate the description.

Everything can be found on the Internet... except common sense.
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