Jutta Swietlinski's Blog - Posts Tagged "tropes"
Tropes – Reliability or a bore?
Hi everyone, here comes a question for the native English speakers.
I’m German, maybe that’s the reason why using tropes as subheadings for romance novels is news to me. For me as a reader and a writer, it only used to be important to know to which genres my books belonged. As long as I was aware that I was reading, or writing, a lesbian romance novel, I was satisfied.
That’s why I promoted my first English book Returning Home to Her as a sapphic romance novel, no more, no less.
But then I realized that in the English-speaking parts of the world, there’s much more information than that by now. If you’re looking for a romantic novel these days, you can read “second chance”, “age gap”, “ice queen”, “grumpy/sunshine”, “friends to lovers”, “enemies to lovers”, “fake dating”, “fake wedding”, “bodyguard romance”, “celebrity romance”, “paranormal romance”, and so on.
Why is that? Do the writers simply use all these tropes because of the sheer number of publications, to make their books stand out in the crowd?
Or is it that the readers really want to have all this information before, so that they’re able to choose their favorite tropes immediately?
Well, that’s useful, of course, because then the ice queen lovers can pick out their favorite icy MCs and the western romance fans can easily distinguish the Stetsons from the stethoscopes in the medical romance section. It’s a clear case of what you see is what you get. And perhaps it’s nice and reassuring to know for certain what you’re going to get into if you buy/download a book.
BUT: Isn’t that a bit boring?? If you’re aware of all these sub-categories and tags beforehand, all these stories are doomed to hold few or no surprises at all, aren’t they? Even before you flip the book open, you know already how the storyline is going to turn out. Which actually means that you wouldn’t really “need” to read it any more …
For my part, I enjoy being surprised as a reader, and I like to surprise others as a writer. I love twists and turns in a story – the more, the better. I love books that are travellers between different genres, books that break literary rules.
How about you? Do you like reading according to certain aspects? And why?
Or do you prefer to wait and see what happens in the stories you read? What do you think?
I can’t wait to read your answers.
For now, will you please excuse me? I’ll continue writing my fifth chance age correspondence fire queen lovers to enemies fake indifference contemporary romance.
I’m German, maybe that’s the reason why using tropes as subheadings for romance novels is news to me. For me as a reader and a writer, it only used to be important to know to which genres my books belonged. As long as I was aware that I was reading, or writing, a lesbian romance novel, I was satisfied.
That’s why I promoted my first English book Returning Home to Her as a sapphic romance novel, no more, no less.
But then I realized that in the English-speaking parts of the world, there’s much more information than that by now. If you’re looking for a romantic novel these days, you can read “second chance”, “age gap”, “ice queen”, “grumpy/sunshine”, “friends to lovers”, “enemies to lovers”, “fake dating”, “fake wedding”, “bodyguard romance”, “celebrity romance”, “paranormal romance”, and so on.
Why is that? Do the writers simply use all these tropes because of the sheer number of publications, to make their books stand out in the crowd?
Or is it that the readers really want to have all this information before, so that they’re able to choose their favorite tropes immediately?
Well, that’s useful, of course, because then the ice queen lovers can pick out their favorite icy MCs and the western romance fans can easily distinguish the Stetsons from the stethoscopes in the medical romance section. It’s a clear case of what you see is what you get. And perhaps it’s nice and reassuring to know for certain what you’re going to get into if you buy/download a book.
BUT: Isn’t that a bit boring?? If you’re aware of all these sub-categories and tags beforehand, all these stories are doomed to hold few or no surprises at all, aren’t they? Even before you flip the book open, you know already how the storyline is going to turn out. Which actually means that you wouldn’t really “need” to read it any more …
For my part, I enjoy being surprised as a reader, and I like to surprise others as a writer. I love twists and turns in a story – the more, the better. I love books that are travellers between different genres, books that break literary rules.
How about you? Do you like reading according to certain aspects? And why?
Or do you prefer to wait and see what happens in the stories you read? What do you think?
I can’t wait to read your answers.
For now, will you please excuse me? I’ll continue writing my fifth chance age correspondence fire queen lovers to enemies fake indifference contemporary romance.
