Recognize Your Tropes!

Current Project: Shadows? Ghosts? Both?
Status: A few words, here and there, but mostly distracted by the upcoming final disposition of the day job (just days away!)

Hi there. I would've written an actual blog entry if my brain hadn't been eaten by TV Tropes. I stumbled upon this wiki site a couple of weeks ago and thought, hmmm, this might make an interesting blog topic. I started reading and reading and read--you get the picture. Just this morning I returned to the site intending to simply cull a few trope links for examples of what you'll find there and, well, I got sucked in again.

If you haven't already clicked on the link, I imagine you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about. Their home page provides the answer, as well as setting the tone for the rest of the site (i.e. very informal): "This wiki is a catalog of the tricks of the trade for writing fiction. We dip into the cauldron of story, whistle up a hearty spoonful and splosh it in front of you to devour to your heart's content." And it isn't just about TV. There are examples from Literature (by that, they mean *all* genres), Film, Anime, Comic Books, and more. It's a veritable cornucopia of story devices.



How could I possibly get sucked into this site? I mean, come on, there aren't that many original plots out there, so how many tropes could there possibly be? I can't answer that as I've only scratched the surface of this site and if it wasn't so damn entertaining, I might have a chance to escape. To see how this can happen, let's take a sample tour, shall we?

We'll start with the link on the left side of the home page, titled Narrative. Clicking it brings us to a page called Narrative Tropes, the elements of storytelling. There are a lot of links on this page, but I'm choosing the one that looks the most interesting (partly because it sounds cool): Applied Phlebotinum.

What's Phlebotinum? According to the wiki: "Phlebotinum is the magical substance that may be rubbed on almost anything to cause an effect needed by a plot. Some examples: nanotechnology, magic crystal emanations, pixie dust, a sonic screwdriver. Oh, and Green Rocks. In essence, it is the stuff that makes the plot go. Without it, the story would grind to an abrupt halt. It's science, it's magic, it's strange things unknown to science - the reader does not know how Phlebotinum would work and the creators hope he doesn't care. ... (AKA Handwavium)"

There's a long list of trope links on this page, all presumably different types of Applied Phlebotinum. There's Aesoptinum, Amulet of Concentrated Awesome, Clingy MacGuffin, Electric Instant Gratification, Love Potion, Made of Indestructium, Magic From Technology, and Medieval Stasis, just to name a very, very few. I followed the link for Deus Ex Nukina: "This is a situation when nukes and only nukes will do. Something Very Bad has happened, and only an uncontrolled release of nuclear energy can fix it."

There are examples you can read under Deus Ex Nukina, but I chose to follow the link to Canis Latinicus: ..."But what happens when you run out of Latin? Your spell or radioactive element has some attribute that you don't know how to name? Well, just make up some new Latin!"..."This use of Latin, as the trope name should indicate, is called 'dog Latin.'" Scroll down the page to read Literature examples (Harry Potter, The Dresden Files, etc.).

Out of curiousity, I clicked on the link for Harry Potter. This is the flip side of the coin on TV Tropes -- check out a specific work and see what tropes are listed as having been used in it. Following any of those links will lead you further and further into the brain-sucking maze of the TV Trope wiki. (Note: I've never read any of the Harry Potter books, so I can't comment on the accuracy of this list.)

So now you know what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks while I wait to hear the final word on my day job. I claim I'm researching potential plot ideas -- at least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! I hope you enjoy the site, but if you find yourself wondering where the time went when you intended to just check out a couple of pages, remember -- it's okay to close your browser and step away from the internet! Your current WIP will thank you.

PS: the picture in this post is apropos of nothing -- just me playing around with photoshop...