Challenge (of a sort): Overused tropes meme!

[lowkey]

So, I was having a chat with my good friend danchekker (who is now on DreamWidth, guys! You should all go friend her up!), and we started to talk about how we each always write "the same story."

So, I thought it be awesome if people turned a critical eye to their own writing, and in as humorous a way as possible, described their most overused tropes. Here are mine!



One person listens to another person tell a two-fold story about the past: a happy opening, with a shocking turn that hints at the innate unfairness and violence of the world. The speaker always delivers this speech while talking in a faraway voice and while not making eye contact. At a later point, this story is either literally or metaphorically important to events that transpire.

APPARENTLY THIS IS WHAT I THINK MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS ARE

BASICALLY, I WRITE LIKE LIGHTNING SPEAKS

ALL OF MY CONVERSATIONS ARE BETWEEN LIGHTNING AND HOPE, AND LIGHTNING IS SAYING "Lightning can't protect, it can only destroy."

FFFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGSSSSSSSSS


Furthermore, all of my characters are constantly struggling with self-destructive tendencies ("aren't we all?", I justify to myself), and ALSO my most dramatic deaths have the dying cough up blood.

Lastly, I'm finding it a little difficult to find FF characters' voices in longer dialogues. Cause, uh, in the game they really don't talk in more than a few sentences at a time, nor do they have meaningful discussions about feelings that don't descend into platitudes. THIS IS WEIRD



And how that I've said all this, I can't unsee it. aaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Comments

[mako_lies]

Ahaha. That's pretty awesome. :D I think I could probably find a common skein through my stories... I'll have to do that later. :D :D :D

[lowkey]

It's like I'm in They Live; I'm now mortified of what I am.

I point out Hope and Lightning's conversation because, actually, that's some of the best character development/advancement in any of the FF games. Basically, we get to see a headstrong and lonely character 1) explain why she behaves the way she does, 2) not too long after the game has started, and 3) she ends up tacitly acknowledging that she has deep character flaws: trust issues and a natural inclination to destroy rather than protect, but 4) she -- and here's the kicker -- she admits she's trying to change.

Problem is, I like this conversation a little too much, methinks.

[nal_rene]

Haha I see what you mean. Lets see... My theme. Abandonment/Leaving. Bittersweet endings. OMG!!!

You know what my trope is?

open-ended endings... at the end of stories. I like to write things that make people go. "Huh, she had a point." OR "Huh, I wonder how everything will eventually turn out."

That is my big thing.

[lowkey]

There's nothing wrong with open-ended endings! It isn't the same thing, but I'm particularly fond of stories that are well enough written that they can end in medias res, because writing more is superfluous.

[lowkey]

Also: the older I get, the more I like bittersweet endings. "Goodness wins, but always at a price. The end."

[mako_lies]

:D The Lightning/Hope convo is a really poignant one for me. Having a character question their own motivations and find it wanting has always been a big thing for me, and Lightning just pinged every single button ever. And then the way Hope got pissed about her questioning her motivation? Yes. So much.

[lowkey]

Hope is all "BUT THAT'S WHAT I NEED, LIKE, RIGHT NOW. THERE'S A SURFER DUDE THAT NEEDS MURDERING."

Also: I cannot find that scene on YouTube -- have you been able to?

[lowkey]

Also: "skein" is a great word.

Alsoalso: I really like Vaan's interactions with most everyone, but particularly Ashe. Because Vaan basically says all the right things about Rasler and his death.

[mako_lies]

YESSS that's always been one of the best parts about Vaan's character for me. For all that he's not perfect, or smart, or any of those things, he always keeps trying to be better than he is, and never stops expecting the same from everyone else.

[lowkey]

Also worth mentioning is his acceptance/forgiveness of Basch. Vaan isn't many things, but he's a good person, and he has a potential that he never lets go to waste.

[mako_lies]

I just realized what all of my one-shots are about:

One character is all like D: and another character realizes it and then they have a moment of bonding and then they move on with their lives.

[lowkey]

Except that in your Agrias drabble, "they move one with their lives" is more like "and then Judgement Blade is evoked, and people died."

But, yeah, same difference.

[mako_lies]

Yeah, I have a few outliers.

I have too much variation, I guess. I tried to be vague enough to capture everything.

Maybe... people live lives and stuff happens and they're unhappy but they try and sometimes give up and there are other people around them who notice these things and sometimes they allow these people in. Sometimes they don't. And it goes on. Because life is just a thing and sometimes it rocks and sometimes it sucks, and sometimes you rage and sometimes you cry and sometimes you enjoy and it's all part of everything.

I think at this point, I may as well say: stuff happens and life occurs.

[lowkey]

YOU ARE MURDERING THE POINT OF THIS CHALLENGE

I have a guess for the murderer, its MAKO_LIES, WITH A BLUDGEON, ON DREAMWIDTH

[lowkey]

I totally meant this facetiously, because that Agrias story is all about "they move one with their lives".

[mako_lies]

Heh, yeah. :D

(But I'm still trying to find that scene I write all the time. Because I'm still struggling to come up with anything. XD)

[nal_rene]

Hey! I have more fic to trope about... Umm... Lets see... Vossler is emo... Sazh is emo, but Vanille makes him feel better... Snow has girl problems... umm... none of them are outright depressing but umm... OH AND HOPE IS A CREEPER, but is totally cute at it... um...

Happy in the midst of unhappy?

[lowkey]

hahah, that's awesome. I'm writing Hope as a bumbling idiot (though some of that is definitely Obfuscating Stupidity, and Lightning as a bitch. So, you know, completely in character, amirite?

[nal_rene]

Ha! That's awesome. I'm almost done with the Meme though. Raven/Terra is messing me up though. The Hope/Light one came pretty easily.

[lowkey]

TEEN TITANS FTW

[danchekker]

Hi all! Late to the party, but as I said before, my overused trope is: Jaded, embittered character that I find cool (who is often underappreciated in canon or fandom) finds a reason to go on/do the right thing through interaction with/understanding of happy-go-lucky character that I find cool (who is often underappreciated in canon or fandom) - you can fit Hope and Light's conversation in here

OR

People say stuff. What do they MEAN by it?

Fortunately, I do this hopping around fandoms, so maybe no one but me will notice?

[lowkey]

You should write a cross-over fic, using under-appreciated characters from all over. THEN YOU WOULD BE UNSTOPPABLE

[danchekker]

Lowkey, it's okay that you write the same scene over and over in this story, because the same thing happens in each world. It's SYMBOLISM. It's DEEP

[lowkey]

ROCKS FALL; EVERYONE DIES

[danchekker]

Did you see my icon? IT IS APPROPRIATE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRq_SAuQDec

...I am feeling the Red Dwarf love. Perhaps I will write a story where Jaded, embittered Kochanski finds a reason to go on/do the right thing through interaction with/understanding of the cat