Tropes: Old Patterns, New Stories

Tropes are the comfort food of fiction. They’re the patterns we recognize instantly, the ones we love because they’re familiar. Tropes grow out of reader expectations and the emotional promises each genre makes. Every genre has its own set of tropes—Romance, fantasy, mystery, horror, sci‑fi, thrillers, even literary fiction—each one is trying to deliver a different kind of experience.

We all have our go‑tos, the ones we keep coming back to for different reasons. Tropes offer writers a framework and sense of direction while still allowing for plenty of creative license.

Think of it like this: if you love pepperoni pizza, you’ll probably order pepperoni when you try a new pizza place. Not because you want the exact same slice you’ve had before, but because you know there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy it. Tropes work the same way—familiar flavor, new recipe.

Some of the common romance tropes include enemies-to-lovers, forbidden love, fake dating, opposites attract, and forced proximity, just to name a few. Tropes don’t necessarily have to be cliché. In fact, it’s their predictability that makes them so repeatedly enjoyable. They offer the security of a well‑traveled literary path, but when seasoned a little differently, they suddenly feel brand new while simultaneously offering a sense of comfort and reliability.

We all have tropes we naturally gravitate toward, but it’s worth keeping an open mind and occasionally trying something you wouldn’t usually pick up. As I tell my kids at dinner, how do you know you won’t like it if you don’t try it?