The Trope Thesaurus

by Jennifer Hilt

Even a quick glance at popular books, movies, and streaming series says it all-- a skillful application of tropes sells stories. That’s because tropes create a foundation between the audience and the action.

I’m not suggesting we slap a few tropes together and call it done.

I’m talking about twisting tropes to create characters that fans can’t stop thinking about to increase story conflict.

How do we do that?

By digging down into the functions of tropes.

But isn’t a trope just a trope? What do secret baby, road trip, and revenge have in common?

Conflict. Conflict. Conflict.

The Trope Thesaurus explores tropes common in romance, mystery, suspense, thriller, science fiction, and fantasy. It also features a listing of tropes with their definitions, along with some ideas about how to use them more effectively to craft stronger stories.

New and established writers will appreciate this different take on a craft topic in the quest to become a fan favorite.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference, Crafts

207 pages, Paperback

Published December 31, 2021

Reviews

[Cara Bristol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book ought to be on every genre fiction author's bookshelf! What a gem!

The Trope Thesaurus doesn't just list the various fiction tropes, it shows writers how to use and combine them to plot romance, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery, suspense & thrillers and write a more compelling story.

I bought the Kindle edition, but now I want to get the paperback, because I want to keep this handy reference book right by my computer.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably my longest discussion video for authors (but readers can watch as well to learn a few things about writing life). I go into great detail and depth regarding tropes, marketing, writing, goals, etc. on my YouTube channel (linked below).

There are many points I'm going to make in regards to indie publishing overall, but I was inspired by fellow writers having to grapple with the self publishing world, what to do/not to do with your books as an artist, and AI/Chat GPT on the rise.

I want everyone to have fun making their art and be successful in whatever way YOU think is success. Because it is wholly up to you and how you want to go about creating and publishing books.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auKU3...

[Robin Hatcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This could be a helpful addition to a novelist's library. It isn't extensive, but a flip through it at the right time might help stimulate ideas.

Robin’s Ratings
5🌟 = Out of this world. Amazing. Unforgettable. A personal favorite.
4🌟 = Excellent read. Couldn’t put it down. Will recommend to others.
3🌟 = Liked it. Glad I read it. Engaging/entertaining/interesting.
2🌟 = The book was okay, but I’ve enjoyed other books so much more.
1🌟 = For whatever reason, I didn’t like it and can’t recommend it.

[Greg Hickey · Rating 3 out of 5]

By far, the most valuable part of The Trope Thesaurus is the list of tropes and their definitions at the end of the book. But the book’s structure doesn’t make sense to me. The definitions of tropes should precede examples of how to use those tropes, instead of the reverse order Hilt uses. In addition, Hilt writes books, and The Trope Thesaurus appears to be designed for authors. But most of the examples Hilt employs to illustrate the use of tropes come from television and film rather than literature. Why use the 2018 film adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express —which Hilt admits she didn’t enjoy—instead of Agatha Christie’s classic novel? Surely a dissection of the latter would be more helpful to cozy mystery authors. There are also far more typographical errors in here than I’d like to see in a book on writing craft. Read this book for the trope list, but be prepared to read out of order.

[Diane Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very helpful and interesting resource for writers of many genres. Hilt makes the case for tropes in our fiction novels in a convincing way. She presents solid examples of trope usage in such genres as romance, mystery, and fantasy. I really enjoyed the analysis of some well-known books, movies or television shows. Tropes make our fictional world go round.

[Peggy Jaeger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the best example of multiple tropes for writers I've ever read. I yellow markered it up and will read it again for sure.
Excellent job.

[Mimi Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful Trope Index

This was a helpful reference book. I love a trope and I am a big fan of using them. This book has some great trope examples and the trope index is very valuable. I also liked the goal, motivation, conflict (GMC), section. I plan on using that and the checklist in the back of the book. Because I am strictly a romance writer, I did skip over the sections for other genres. Definitely worth a read.

[Amy Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really helpful look at tropes!

[Rae Lake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good resource

as an Author, I'm always trying to better my craft. this Book breaks down different Ways for me to use tropes.Along with a great list of tropes I can use for other books I plan to write.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book on using tropes and combining them, along with GMC. I just wish she'd listed more tropes!

[Rogue Blackwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.75★
I think that this is a great companion to 7 figure fiction by T. Taylor. I think layering tropes and having those tropes match Universal Fantasies, which most do, is a very strong plan. I love that she goes through multiple genres, not just romance here. I'm a little sad that she didn't include a Horror breakdown but the tropes are usable for that genre too. I'd still have loved to see differences there.
I also think this is a good starting place to start building a longer list of tropes and Universal fantasies for yourself. Because I think this is a good starting place but not the be all end all. Especially with specific subgenres and adding in those reader expectations as you get into mashups etc.
But this is a great tool and really gets you thinking. I also like that she included her personal questionnaire for when she is building her outline!

[Mamareads · Rating 5 out of 5]

trope thesaurus. this is such a wonderful book filled with ideas and clearly written tips!

I am not the most patient person when it comes to writing . I start off with ideas and enthusiasm but then hit the low point of bogging down as I don't know how to move forward. this book is the road map that any writer will find so useful. the clear writing with very valuable examples gives me real clues on my internal struggles thank you Jen Hilt .

[Holly Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this book but felt it lacked a lot of major tropes that I would've liked to learn more about to include in my novels. I thought of so many that we're listed as I was reading the list. I did enjoy the chapters on how to use and mix tropes and even about the GMC, though I was mainly here for the tropes as this is supposed to be a thesaurus!

[Michelle Cornish]

Super helpful and packed with ideas!

I've read about tropes before, but never in so much detail. Jennifer goes over each trope and explains how they're used in the major commercial genres. She even builds a story in each genre using several tropes. The handy index makes it easy to refer back to the tropes when looking for inspiration.

[T.M. Dawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!!!

This was a great book on tropes! As a writer I needed it. I recommend this book for any beginner!

[Lucy Appadoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book about tropes, which provided the definitions of a range of tropes, as well as examples of tropes used in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, romance, cosy mystery, procedural, and thrillers. The author also gave examples of how to mix genres with the use of tropes. An educational book to help aspiring and established authors. A recommended resource.

[Phyllis Kerr · Rating 5 out of 5]

In her new book, The Trope Thesaurus, Jennifer Hilt debunks the idea that a trope is a simple way to retell the same old story and demonstrates how using the convention creatively adds more excitement, heightened conflict and creative plot twists to a work. Hilt offers valuable information from a successful professional, an excellent resource for the aspiring writer.

[Karin · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a lover of various romance tropes, I couldn't wait to read this when I found out about it. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was excited!

The Trope Thesaurus encourages writers to embrace tropes by demonstrating how they appear in all fiction--movies, TV, literature; romance, mystery, fantasy. The emphasis really is on embracing tropes and learning how to use them (because audiences love them!) instead of trying to avoid them.

Overall, it's a fun book, though it's much more for beginners than intermediate or advanced writers. If you've been writing for any length of time, you might not learn a lot of new information from this book, but it's a good refresher, and I appreciated the list of tropes at the end of the book.

[Lane Delane Red · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not What I Hoped

I’m disappointed that this is less of a thesaurus than advertised. 3/4 of the book has essays on how to use tropes with examples of their uses. The actual information on tropes in the last quarter of the book isn’t exactly useful for many “tropes” listed. Careers and other obvious things that aren’t what I’d consider “tropes” or that don’t need defining make up a notable portion of the information… thus reducing the amount of actual tropes involved. The information on how to utilize tropes is relatively useful, though, so I’m giving this book three stars.
Oh, there are also a handful of spelling/grammatical errors that make me question whether this went through a proper editing process…

[Les Simpson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Basic Primer On Tropes And How To Use Them

If a reader is new to the concept of story tropes and how they can be used across genres, this book is a fairly good place to start. However, if that is the case, I would suggest reading the chapter containing the list of tropes first, because they are referenced heavily through the first two-thirds of the book.

Also, I am not sure why this book has “thesaurus” in its title. A thesaurus is usually a list of words and their synonyms. The tropes listed in this book are defined and explained, making it more like a dictionary or encyclopedia.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know how "useful" this book will be regarding writing. Sure, having a generic list of tropes (look in the appendix section) and seeing them in action is nice. To me, a trope tends to lean too closely with cliches. You're told to avoid cliches at all costs, but this book actively pushes you to use tropes. Maybe I don't understand the difference clearly. The author gives several examples in actual published works and then creates mini-stories filling them with various tropes. What isn't clear is how to avoid turning a trope into a cliche.

[Shannon O'Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was good. I didn’t feel particularly informed or learned anything new. It helped a little but I would’ve liked more. The author talked about the examples of each trope but it would’ve been nice to know how we could apply each trope in our own writing. Reminded me of a not so great version of the “writers helping writers” series.

[Eneida · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book provided understandable examples of commonly used tropes in familiar contexts. This would be a good supplemental resource for a new writer or someone learning the narrative structure. I would not recommend this to an experienced writer. There were also several typos in my copy, which was very distracting.

[Laney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn’t what I expected but till good

I was expecting the book to be about all the tropes and explanations. This did a good job and showing the different genres but wanted more in-depth. Still would recommend. It’s never bad to know too much!

[Jason Cady · Rating 2 out of 5]

Important topic, but this book is too concise. Also, nearly all the references are to TV shows and movies. Even when she mentions books, she'll talk more about their movie adaptations. It would have been more helpful if she had listed more examples for each trope.

[Tara Roí · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Trope Thesaurus is helpful resource. Although most of the information could be found online, I appreciate having the reference in one place and being able to cross-reference tropes from different genres.

[Cayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative.

This is good for new writers who are just starting out. I would love to see more lesser known/underused tropes for those dying to try something new.

[Joseph Hirsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve always been suspicious of narratology, even bedrock texts in the discipline. Mainly because they start from the premise that these concepts—tropes, archetypes, etc.—are engrained in our collective DNA, and have been since caveman days. Fine and well, but then why study them? If these things are innate and don’t need to be learned, in other words, why learn them?
The thinking at this point goes that by becoming conscious of what’s sub rosa, we can more successfully manipulate these things, use them as tools to work for us. We become the driver rather than the one being driven as we tell the story. It’s one area where Freud and Jung meet in some kind of consanguine accord. We use the “talking cure” (in the classroom or a workbook rather than on the couch) and Jungian study of light and shadow (protagonist and antagonist) to see better. Maybe, then, it’s a matter of thesis and antithesis to get us to Hegelian synthesis, then, and there’s no need to bring Freud or Jung into the argument? Or maybe I’ve just read too much Continental philosophy for my own damn good.
Sometimes books on the subject work for me and sometimes they don’t. The Trope Thesaurus didn’t. Jennifer Hilt is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable enough guide, but there’s nothing in here I haven’t seen or heard a million times. She even prefaces her work with an epigraph by Blake “Saves the Cat” Snyder, whose work I enjoyed, but also found far superior to this one. And even then, I had my reservations. Do I just want to do “paint-by-numbers” writing, hackwork, or do I want to follow my Muse to places where she wants to go? Places that might even lead me astray and leave me much less materially successful but ultimately happier with myself and my work when the smoke clears?
I wouldn’t exactly say I went into this one with “high hopes” but when I saw it would be using science fiction romp Farscape to make some of its points, I got excited. I had been a fan of the show and cared about its characters enough to not only follow them through four seasons, but on into the miniseries/addon The Peacekeeper Wars. What was it about those characters, their developments, arcs—the various and protean tropes—that made them so convincing? The fuel found in family drama and secrets and sexual tensions that powered Moya as surely as Pilot’s Starburst engine?
Hilt doesn’t provide much more than a thumbnail analysis of the characters, though, citing tropes rather than expanding on them to illuminate what made us care.
I suppose as a handy reference book—another small item in a rather large arsenal—The Trope Thesaurus might find a place on your shelf. I think it would work even better for TV writers than fictioneers and filmmakers, though. Check it out and see for yourself, if you’re curious.

[Marcy Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I've been spoiled by the Emotion Thesaurus line of books for writers because, when I heard "trope thesaurus," that's what I was expecting. This book is nothing like those books.

This book does do a good job of showing how you can take the same tropes and twist them to apply to any genre. The best part of the book, in my opinion, however, was the small section where she actually described different tropes.

The problem with this book is that most of it is spent taking a single example from each genre and listing the tropes used in each. So a big part of the book was of limited usefulness if you haven't read or watched her examples and aren't interested in writing in those genres.

There also seems to be a bit of confusion about what a trope is. For example, is violence a trope? I'd say no. How about time travel? Again, I'd say no. Time travel is a genre, and violence is an action. So not everything listed as a trope seems to fit the definition.

[J.R. Alcyone · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, deserving of being rounded up. I write literary-leaning historical fiction, and while the general tropes presented here can be adapted to be used in historical fiction, the author's focus is really on fantasy/sci-fi, romance, and mystery; she didn't cover any HF or LF specific tropes. (For example, HF tropes can include a woman ahead of her time; historical figures; dual timelines; etc.). So for an HF writer, the book was something of a letdown in that my genre wasn't really included. I also would have liked to have seen a lot more about how to actually apply specific tropes in my writing.

But those criticisms aside, this is a solid introduction to plot tropes, and I would recommend this book to authors in the genres covered or to anyone who is looking for a sort of "Tropes 101."