Short version: Tropes and patterns can become non-selling points and chase off readers if writers are not aware of it, or clear about what we do.

Long Version: At what point do tropes become trip-hazards? I was thinking about this as I skimmed the synopsis of a TV mystery series. Whoever had written the series summary found the main character’s sexuality to be the most important thing about him, rather than his other background or work with the police. I rolled my eyes, read on, and went back to what else I was doing. In this subgenre of mystery, the character’s sexuality is a trope, and part of the world building and story. Which is not what I read or watch for, so I kept going.

Tropes and certain stereotypes and patterns are important shorthand for authors and others. Opera has lots of tropes, at least classical opera (1800s-1920s or so). The tenor is the hero (except for Simon Bocanegra, who is an anti-hero of sorts), the soprano the heroine, altos are support roles, and basses and baritones are the bad guys or supporting roles. A second tenor is often the hero’s sidekick, servant, or buddy. There are operas that flip this a little, such as The Magic Flute, where a tenor is the hero, a bass leads the other good guys, and the colortura soprano is the villainess. Mozart had fun with that, flipping tropes before they were set into stone.

Genres have tropes, no matter which genre. They help readers sort out what is going on, and provide writers with a framework of “this is OK, this is not what readers expect, if you go past here, you need to explain why and how.” Hard sci-fi is about science, machines, and math, and emotional development is secondary to the technology or science. The plot depends on the science and tech. Soft sci-fi is about people, and the science shapes things but is not central or explained in detail. Urban fantasy vs epic fantasy vs cozy fantasy vs dark fantasy, each have tropes and patterns that readers have gotten used to and come to expect. Someone reading the latest in urban fantasy would probably get frustrated with early Charles de Lint, for example, because he wrote before the tropes got set. His stories are fantasy, in an urban setting, with a lot of other things tossed in. Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series is technically urban fantasy, except it’s not big-city urban, it uses a lot of folk motifs, and there’s nary a shirtless werewolf to be seen.

We’re talked here before about the problem of pattern lock and trope overload, when (usually TV) someone can spot the villain, victim, hero, and guess the reason for the crime within the first minute of the show, or first few pages of the story. The businessman or clergy (Protestant) is the baddie who abuses a woman, or other minority, for personal gain/filthy lucre/racism/sexism/this-week’s-ism. Boring, at least to those who prefer a bit more variety in their crime or mystery menu. The tropes have become a tripping hazard, and the writers come across as lazy (or rushed, or both).

Readers expect tropes and patterns, and writers use them all the time. Romance’s tropes and structure are the best known because romance readers are so demanding and read so much. They know what they want, and writers had best meet those expectations. The various flavors of mystery are also clear – something happens (or does it?) to someone or some thing, and the investigators have to find out who, or why, or how, or all-of-the-above. Fans of Sherlock Holmes, or of Kay Scarpetta, or of Tony Hillerman’s novels, have a very different taste in mysteries, but will agree on the rock-bottom basics. Hillerman uses landscape to tell the story in most of his books. Conan Doyle used it for atmosphere, but not as a character. In both series, a detective is trying to solve a crime.

One reason I don’t write romances is that I bounce off some of the current tropes, especially for Paranormal Romance and Dark Fantasy Romance. Spicy is not my thing, especially four pepper Thai-hot spicy. I’ve bounced off hard sci-fi for a while because “humans are bad, mmmkay?” seems to have become a common trope in a lot of the genre. Which may explain why hard sci-fi doesn’t appear on the shelves at the regional chain bookstore all that often. That, and publishers don’t want to waste resources on a niche readership, or what has become niche. We can argue (and have) over the problem of shelf categories driving patterns and publishers declaring certain genres dead, done and dusted (westerns, amateur sleuths), despite readers still wanting those books. Unless people have the patience to plow through the internet, or hear about things via word of mouth, finding human-positive hard sci fi might seem impossible, ditto new westerns that are not “adult westerns” or romances in a cowboy hat. In both cases, the old tropes have been overwritten, and readers looking for those elements will be disappointed.

If there is a TL;DR version of my ramble, it is to respect tropes, make clear to your reader what you are doing and why if you have to bend/break an important genre trope, but don’t be a slave to the trope-of-the-week. And be careful with categories and tags, because what publishers push and what readers want don’t always coincide.