Trending Now
Readers read – a lot. What that means is that it’s pretty hard to surprise them, whether it’s with plot or characters, and there are some tropes in each that they’d be happy to never see again.
If you’re curious what readers would kill quickly if it was up to them, these 15 aren’t shy about telling you!
15. Don’t speak ill of the dead.
As a woman who married a widower, I really dislike romances where one of them was married before, and even if he or she thought it was a happy relationship, they have to find out how secretly evil and twisted their first love was before they can fall in love with the new love interest.
Like… it’s possible to be in love more than once in your life. It doesn’t undervalue your present relationship to say your last one was also good.
Especially when the person is dead.
14. They’ve had enough.
When a character is a runner, because they want to be free/get away from where they are.
When a character likes maths or science, because it’s binary right and wrong.
Just two very tired characterisation tropes.
13. Some people love this one.
Fake dating. Is my life just boring because I have never met anyone who has ever participated in fake dating.
Seems so stupid and unrealistic to me.
12. You can’t all be Harry Potter.
People getting „sorted“ in a specific group. After the success of HP every fantasy book I read as a teen had some sort of „you are part of this group thing“ going and dang it was annoying.
You can‘t all copy the Hogwarts houses. Get some new ideas.
My Sister: I’ve started reading the Divergent series!
Me: Cool. Hey, what was all that sorting stuff about in the story?
My Sister: Oh, cuz people only have one personality trait. Except the main character. She has more.
Me: ……yuh dun saaayyyy
11. No means no.
Basically, anything where “No” from a female character means “you haven’t earned my trust yet and I act ~uppity~ due to modern feminism; you must prove yourself by protecting me from the danger I walked into due to my childish refusal to listen to men; only then will my inner woman be unlocked”. *gag*
I hate hate everything about that trope and it needed to have died in the 80’s.
Bonus: she’s got an endearing reason to be super insecure, like a small birthmark, or being held prisoner her whole life. Here, “no” means “I can’t believe anyone will find me beautiful and it’s going to take some persistence to persuade me you do”
Eff everything about these “women don’t really mean it when they refuse you” tropes.
10. Write better girls.
Making a girl obnoxious and extremely confrontational means they’re strong and independent. This is also done purely because the character is a girl.
There are so many better ways to portray this but some authors get really weird when writing women.
She’s also very stubborn and will do it “her way” regardless of how stupid that way is and in spite of all the evidence that “her way” is wrong. Bonus points if she has some weakness (a severe strawberry allergy, inability to drive a car, a burning hatred for squirrels, etc.) that she won’t let hold her back.
9. Just gross.
Related: Women in refrigerators
Injuring or killing women side characters to advance the main character’s story. Absolutely pointless.
Also the “dead wife” trope, where the male action hero protagonist is motivated mainly to avenge his perfect, beautiful dead wife, who we see only in occasional flashbacks, dressed in white or flowy sundresses, smiling, being romantic, and basically existing only as a symbolic memory rather than a character.
8. Agree with all of these.
My biggest pet peeve in books is the chosen one trope. It’s okay when you’re a kid but when you’re an adult you just see lazy writing
Another trope I hate is the rough exterior “bitchy” woman with a heart of gold who predictably falls for the hero, like we get it fellas, it’s your fantasy to win over women who aren’t interested in you one bit
Lastly the “weird” girl who doesn’t know shes conventionally attractive trope, she doesn’t care about dresses or boys or “girly” things so she never got attention despite being beautiful and approachable for the main character to romance, like please
7. Seems fake.
The families opposition in a relationship and particularly the excessively rich family who do there best to destroy this relationship…
Come on guys be original. I hate this trope more than my school’s years.
And the fifty shades of Gray’s trope with the rich man and the desperately uninteresting women and their even more uninteresting life in bed. Please no.
6. It has to matter.
Tragic backstories that are never brought up again after they’re introduced or effect the character. Only ever used for cheap sympathy.
Trying to make a villain sympathetic by giving them a tragic backstory… News flash if you live long enough something fucked up is going to happen you. Notice how most people don’t use that to justify becoming a mass murder.
5. Librarians are cool.
After reading many comments I have to say I’ve rethought mine or added to it. I definitely dislike ‘enemies to lovers’ but more so as a librarian myself I cannot stand the ‘mousy, no personality, meek librarian who solves the day’ storyline.
Librarians definitely kick butt but we are not all mousy, bland women!
4. To each their own.
For some reason I’ve never liked the plot of someone unjustly accused who has to solve the crime & clear their name.
It’s usually because in order to do it the criminal justice system has be inept and always a step behind.
But they always have to be competent enough to pose a real danger on “the hunt” or the story would be boring.
It’s a balancing act, and it is a hard one to pull off because it’s usually down to subjective perception on whether an author over- or under-shoots.
3. You can’t beat it, so don’t try.
The amnesiac spy. Bourne was good. Everyone else sucks.
2. Only if it doesn’t come to pass.
Prophecy. It’s mostly another word for plot armor. As soon as it’s introduced, there isn’t much tension to the conflict anymore.
Now it does work when the prophecy was fake or misinterpreted since that creates a discussion on blind faith or the characters are suddenly in real danger because the higher powers aren’t looking out for them.
1. Someone knows what they (don’t) like.
“She’s really hot, but doesn’t know it.” (It’s always a she.)
Any explicit sexual scenes (if I wanted po*n, I’d read po*n. Never need to hear about any character’s “swollen manhood” or “erect ni**les.” Doubly so if fluids are detailed. No thanks!
Slavery apologia masquerading as Fantasy.
Characters refusing/forgetting to share critical information with each other when they have the opportunity.
Hm… what else?
Author self-inserts. IE writers who really want to talk about how important writing is and how brave writers are. I mean, yeah, I agree to an extent, but it just comes across as embarrassing and kinda masturbatory. The reason why Kilgore Trout worked was because he was a deeply unpretentious writer who wasn’t terribly good at it.
As an author, I find this thread very interesting.
What trope is your favorite? Tell us in the comments!
