Tropes—or the plot-situational cliches found in stories—are unavoidable and don’t equate to “bad writing.” It’s more accurate to recognize that tropes exist because every story has already been written. Tropes are a product of the human condition, or our own journey to understand it, so as readers we cling to these familiar and comfortable constructs. The chosen one trope allows us to explore our own journey, grappling with our own self worth and importance to our own narrative; the authoritarian government who steals freedom trope offers readers a place to wrestle with the constraints in their own lives; the love-triangle trope creates the opportunity to understand our own needs for our own various relationships. The trick for writers is to recognize the trope, discover a way to retell it to make it new again, all while remaining truthful.
In the Echo of this Ghost Town and When the Echo Answers (both available for preorder) are full of familiar tropes. I thought I’d take this blog to explore four of the tropes you’ll find in these two stories, and explore how I tried to twist the device to make it fresh.
The Misfit
As a trope, the misfit (the “I’m not like other girls” or the “I’m so misunderstood”) has been overdone. Is it a surprise that it comes up over and over with YA fiction? Seriously. Didn’t we all feel like we didn’t quite belong as teenagers and were working overtime to try and find our tribe. It isn’t a shock to me to see this one come up over and over. All people, especially teens, are working through their sense of identity in relationship to others. But this trope has worn reader patience thin (I have some theories about this) but guess what, it's in both In the Echo of this Ghost Town and When the Echo Answers.
The good news is that you won’t see the phrases “I’m not like other guys/girls”, or “I’m so misunderstood” in either novel. Rather, the trope is in the circumstances and the emotional baggage of it that both Griffin and Maxwell carry. Griffin’s friends have abandoned him—at least that’s how he sees it—so he’s alone. Not only that, his friends have broken the bro code which makes Griffin see his perspective as the “right one.” On the other hand, Maxwell, by necessity, hasn’t ever had the opportunity to find her tribe. Instead, she’s moved so much with her single dad, that her misfit status has been an act of geography and situation instead of carting around the perceived social stigma. Her understanding of herself has been developed in her relationship with her father and a myriad of temporary relationships she’s had a long way.
2. Friends to Lovers
Friends to lovers is rather obvious. As a trope it hits the mark of realizing that through friendship, stronger and deeper feelings have the potential to develop. A great classic example of this trope is Emma by Jane Austen. I love to write the friends-to-lovers trope, and I suppose it is because it adheres to the nature of relationships in my brain. So in both Ghost Town and the Echo Answers, this trope takes center stage. It is situational to Griffin and Max’s experience. They begin as strangers (more on that later), become proximity acquaintances, develop a tentative camaraderie, until that deepens into friendship and then crosses into love. The journey to that happening in opposition (or reinforcement) to both character’s wants is what is at stake.
3. The Dysfunctional Family & the Absent Parent
A common (and legitimate) complaint about YA books is the “missing family”, the “orphan”, and the “dysfunctional family” tropes that are common in the category. My theory about the pervasiveness of this trope is because there is a need for the protagonist to develop a sense of self. An easy way to put them into a vacuum is to make them an orphan, remove the family, or create a family that is nonexistent in their lives. This choice, however, isn’t consistent with real life. Adults exist in teens’ lives, and they are formative in the development of a teen’s identity. This has created a need in the book category to characterize families (of all kinds). Thankfully, I’ve seen a lot more of this in recent years.
In both Griffin’s and Max’s stories, families are important. While In the Echo of this Ghost Town does explore the idea of a “dysfunctional” family, rather than keeping them removed from Griffin’s life, the story explores how one might rebuild relationships rather than keeping them distant. In Max’s case in When the Echo Answers, her dad, Cal, is integral to her life. He hasn’t been absent and instead has been a wonderful mentor, but Max will have to face the emotional consequences of her mother leaving them when she was a child. My hope, then, wasn’t to keep the family removed, but rather explore the ways these relationships impacted the characters, and then how the characters face these relationships as they form their identities.
4. A Meet-Cute
The Meet-Cute is a common romance trope in which the couple will meet for the first time by being thrown into a “cute” or interesting situation. An example is in the Adam Sandler movie 50 First Dates with Drew Barrymore. The entire movie is based on the idea of a meet-cute over a stack of pancakes. This trope is often a favorite. It’s the idea of being forced into a situation that raises the stakes often with obstacles and allows the protagonist(s) of the story to showcase their personalities.
I wouldn’t call the face-to-face meeting of Griffin and Max so much a meet-cute as I would a meet-weird. Griffin is sulking and Max calls him out on it by calling him a serial killer. They never exchange their names thinking they will never see one another again, but of course another meet-cute occurs, though meet-cute might be too sweet. Maybe a meet-surprise!
So there they are, four tropes you’ll find in my upcoming releases In the Echo of this Ghost Town and the companion novel When the Echo Answers. Are there more? Yes. (One of my favorites: the “there’s only one bed” situation. Hahahaha).