This is a small thought for a busy day.
I don’t think every book has to break the tropes and bend all of the clichés.
Let me explain. Sometimes, it is good that a book takes a common trope and turns it on its head. I do like some of the books where the damsel in distress saves themselves. Some clichés were harmful, and they needed to change and disappear from storytelling. It is good that they did, or are in the process of doing so.
However, the mundane tropes of fiction do not always have to be broken. For the simple reason that we like them. The amount of people I have heard who like the ‘one bed’ trope is staggering. I don’t think it is going away any time soon. Nor should it, because readers are looking for it and enjoying it in their books. Some tropes exist because people like reading about that particular situation over and over again. Which isn’t a bad thing. The hero’s journey has been told and retold a thousand times, and we aren’t too tired of it yet.
Also, the definition of some genres are tropes which always show up in a story. A mystery novel always has a detective, a romance novel always has a couple, a fantasy novel always has some sort of crazy creature in it. This genres exist and are defined by tropes and cliches. Which doesn’t make them wrong, or less than. It just means that we like some types of stories so well we are like small children, saying ‘Again, again’.
There are times when I want a mystery novel with no unexpected surprises, just a good story with a detective and a puzzle to solve. It doesn’t make me any less of a reader, or that writer any less brilliant. It simply means they told a good story enwrapped in a familiar genre with familiar tropes. What I want to read is good stories, however they appear.
Have a lovely day.
Shaina Merrick
The Beauty of a Story 