Your Favourite Tropes and Plot Points

[BellaLestrange87]

We all have those tropes and plot points that we just love in writing, whether it's fake dating, academia AUs, or slow burn romances. They're the plots that we go to when we want something comforting that we can lose ourselves in.

 

What are your favourite tropes and plot points?

[lebensmude]

OH MY GOD I LOVE TROPES I LIVE FOR TROPES. I think probably my favourite tropes are the fake-dating trope and the hate to love trope. I don't know what it is about them that makes the story so attractive to me but I love reading them. They always have me screaming and staying up until early in the morning reading them when I should really be sleeping. I also really love modern AUs, especially when there's witty banter, it's so really interesting how people create the modern equivalent of something that was written to take place in the past or in a magical setting.

[Alwynse]

Slow burn, definitely. I love gender swaps. Not like full gender bender, but when like the souls swap bodies. It always ends up being hilarious. 

And I like the nerdy, quiet, but stubborn girl stumping the cool, arrogant guy, which ends up with him falling for her. 

[Lady Ausra]

Hanahaki Disease, definitely. I adore it, and hate that it's so rare outside of anime and mange.

Re-incarnation, because it's always hilarious. (I literally found this Sherlock/Hobbit crossover that involve five-year-old Sherlock being a pyromaniac and complaining about puberty and I legit cried from laughter)

Time travel, when someone's soul is transported back in time to save someone or something, because it's always epic and funny.

And misunderstandings. Any kind. I don't care if it's fake character death, fake dating, or fake preferences for coffe. It's always either adorable, funny, angsty, or all three.

...The funny thing is, I've written half of these. Yay me!

[TidalDragon]

Hmm. 

Friends-to-Lovers is definitely one (1) of mine. I enjoy writing that evolution (which pretty much always involves another of my great loves - Slow Burn) and I also enjoy the pay off from that beautiful realization that "Hey. There's something more to this." Generally I enjoy it most when one (1) character makes the realization first, but in a similar time-frame. I'm cool if that party's confession is the trigger for the other too. #dramaticmomentsinfic I can also enjoy this unrequited if it's: (1) not creepy and (2) written first-person from the unaware character's POV. So...safe to say I like that one (1) right?

AUs: Usually I'm all about the dark!AUs, particularly where Voldemort wins (whenever in time he wins, whether Harry lives or not) - that's probably why I'm planning a whole series around that, right? But modern!AUs and College!AUs are also growing on me thanks in large part to challenges by @MadiMalfoy and @dirigibleplums respectively.

Rare Pairs: Love writing them, love reading them. Probably fitting because Harry/Katie is (has?) taken over for Harry/Ginny as my OTP. I will not stop trying to make #seekerbell happen and one (1) of these days I'm finally going to go back and expand some of those other rare pairs I've written. 

[Ineke]

I saw this topic and I had to respond especially because Twitter has been talking about this a lot lately.

 

SOOO. I have to admit that I really love quite a lot of tropes. Soulmate, Modern AU's, Friends-to-Lovers, Enemies-to-friends-to-Lovers, Coffeeshop AU, Fake Dating, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining... I really could go on.

 

The point is for me that, no matter how often those tropes are done - there is always some kind of originality to it, and some of them make it so much more real than I read in half the books, that it's so much easier for me to get lost in, or so much more easier for me to relate to all of it, that it's easier for me to enjoy too. Plus, so many fics have pairs that I love to read about that it's easier for me to just pick up a fic like that rather than starting a book and hoping I don't get disappointed in one way or another.

[dirigibleplums]

i LOVE LOVE LOVE so many tropes and i'm not even ashamed of it  i have to say my favourites are: fake!dating*, mutual pining, slow burn, college!au, soulmates, enemies to friends to lovers, childhood friends to lovers - basically everything tbh. i also went through this huge time travel phase so there's another one. ooh and reincarnation! i've tried to write most of these at some point or the other, haven't succeeded with most of them though

*this is why i actually screamed when i realised what the plot to to all the boys i've loved before was 

On 8/14/2018 at 5:25 AM, Lady Ausra said:

Hanahaki Disease, definitely. I adore it, and hate that it's so rare outside of anime and mange.

i've actually heard of this! i was on tumblr months ago and someone reblogged an imagine with a kpop singer (it seems to be quite popular in kpop too, i think???) that included hanahaki and i was rlly intrigued ngl but i don't think i've ever seen a hp fic done with it. i did try to write my own angsty one bc i think it's actually a pretty cool idea (choking on flowers bc your love is not returned WHAT A SLAP IN THE FACE ANGST GALORE) but, like many things i try, it didn't work out

[sunshine_locks]

there are many many tropes that I love, but my top two favorites are when the main couple (if there is one) in the story are best friends. I also really love when like there are people who as individuals don't have families (literally or figuratively) but then come together to create this weird little hodgepodge of a family. I'm a sucker for that last trope. Especially if they live together and get into silly shenanigans. It's, like, one of the top reasons why I love love love Kagerou Project (aka Kagerou Daze) and Noragami.

[crowsb4bros]

Does anyone remember that trope challenge back in the day? It was so good/terrible. I loved it. I'm also obsessed with tropes, but mine are getting pretty specific thanks to a pin board I have devoted to them.  

-competitive love interests to build up romantic tension "I won't go easy on you" / "is that all you've got"

-characters that are into world domination but like in a fun way

-fake dating but particularly like oh i'm in a public place and my ex just walked by/this creep won't leave me alone pretend to be my SO and then falling in love

-over the top and increasingly ridiculous group chats

-characters that are like vicious razors of death but then have a huge soft spot for something cute and squishy (Ronan from the raven boys or like most slytherin/hufflepuff relations)

-spiteful siblings that unite to conquer something (literally anything from like saving the day to making cookies for mom)

[down-in-flames]

i'm 100% here for this thread because i  looooooove me a good trope - i think my favorites are enemies to friends to lovers and friends-with-benefits-that-are-never-just-friends (so, uh, you can see exactly where the plot for complicated came from). also really into just good ol' friends to lovers / fake dating /  mutual pining of any sort. i've also really gotten into jily modern AUs lately (my fave story at the moment is basically a bachelor au and it's soooo flippin good) 

[Margaret]

I love stories which explore the emotional and psychological effects of events - characters recovering from the wizarding war in Harry Potter for example.

I also love dysfunctional families and people dealing with the psychological effects of that or even just the practical aspects, like Dumbledore having to drop his academic career to care for his younger brother and sister.

I love murder mysteries with a selection of suspects who all had the ability and motive to kill the victim.

I also like characters becoming ill and especially the whole "working through the cold" when a character is ill but has something important to do that cannot wait. Or is afraid that taking a day off will damage them in some way (they've just started a new job and are still in the probationary period when they might not be kept on if they don't make a good impression or they are a politician in the middle of a campaign and is afraid the opposition will start rumours if they disappear from the campaign trail...)

I also like the "promoted to parent" idea, which is probably linked to the dysfunctional families, where a teenager is thrown into a situation they are not really old enough for due to some problem - parents died and a character in their late teens or early twenties is anxious to get custody of younger siblings, parents are alcoholics or otherwise unable to care for their children so the children pretty much have to raise themselves, there is a war or other crisis and young people simply have to act as adults, perhaps because many of the adults have died or the children are separated from their parents.

[Ineke]

17 hours ago, ShadowRose said:

i'm 100% here for this thread because i  looooooove me a good trope - i think my favorites are enemies to friends to lovers and friends-with-benefits-that-are-never-just-friends (so, uh, you can see exactly where the plot for complicated came from). also really into just good ol' friends to lovers / fake dating /  mutual pining of any sort. i've also really gotten into jily modern AUs lately (my fave story at the moment is basically a bachelor au and it's soooo flippin good) 

I need to ask did you ever read Jily British Bake Off AU?

[Stella Blue]

55 minutes ago, Ineke said:

I need to ask did you ever read Jily British Bake Off AU?

Omg omg does this exist????????? I need it

[down-in-flames]

1 hour ago, Ineke said:

I need to ask did you ever read Jily British Bake Off AU?

omG NO i have not but now i need to

[sunshine_locks]

@ShadowRose @Stella Blue @Ineke ooh is it this? the bakes of wrath (T)

[dirigibleplums]

^ I LOVE THAT AU IT IS THE BEST AND ALSO THAT ONE JILY THAT'S BASED OFF ANGUS, THONGS AND PERFECT SNOGGING wow why is jily just so good all the time

[Ineke]

THAT IS IT

[something wicked]

7 hours ago, dirigibleplums said:

ALSO THAT ONE JILY THAT'S BASED OFF ANGUS, THONGS AND PERFECT SNOGGING

Never mind the bake off one (but oh my god, yes, it's incredible) - THIS EXISTS??!! 

[dirigibleplums]

3 hours ago, Sleepingbagonthesofa said:

Never mind the bake off one (but oh my god, yes, it's incredible) - THIS EXISTS??!! 

yes!! honestly @Ineke always finds such great fics all the time. it's called Everybody Needs A Nervy B Now And Then (not rated but probs a T or an M) and it's hilarious i nearly cried reading it

[something wicked]

@dirigibleplums I've only read the summary but already I love it. 

[Oregonian]

As to the topic of favorite tropes, I like to cast a wide net to reel in minor or very minor characters who can be developed as I wish, since little is known about them.  I feature them in Missing Moments to expand/develop bits of the canon story that were necessarily rushed through.  They don't generally have a major focus on romance, so it's not a matter of 'hate to love', 'slow burn', 'fake dates to real sweethearts' or 'romantic angst'.  Any romance is of the 'friends to lovers' type.  Mainly I try to write a story that is different from other stories that I have read, so I think that I don't fall into trope categories.

[Simplicius]

I don't know if this qualifies as a trope, but a station of the canon that I cannot live without is Lupin on the Hogwarts Express. A character reading out his name, speculating about him ... it's just great. It gets me in the way pantomime gets kids. The dramatic irony, the wonderful tease of things to come. It's really disappointing to me when a story hits all the other stations of the canon but skips this one.

[Darling_take_off_the_mask]

I will always, always, always love a good meet-cute.

 

[GotNoJamsss]

I don't know if it's really a 'trope', but I'm a big fan of unreliable narrators these days. The misunderstood bad boy/girl who's actually got a heart of gold is an oldy, but a goody. And honestly, I don't know where my OTPs would be without the slow-burn. Oh! And those moments when you start a chapter and everyone's so happy and so positive, but you're only half way through the story and suddenly realize it's all about to be set on fire.