When you ask someone which book you should read, the first question that comes to their mind is regarding the genre. Reading books is mainly about the theme of the book. You are only going to read a book if it suits your taste. This is where the concept of tropes comes from. Tropes are an important part of the book from which a reader decides whether to read that book or not.
In this blog, we will be talking about book tropes, and we will also go through a list of tropes commonly used in books.
It is a part of the storytelling upon which the story is based, such as a plot device, an incident, a character, theme, storyline, or motif. The plot is built upon tropes. It is more like a supporting character in a movie; here, the main character is the genre, and the trope is the supporting character that supports the theme or genre.
Several opinions exist about using tropes in books. This has to be taken very carefully. Tropes are the one thing in a story that defines its genre. They play an important role in a story. They help the reader to understand the genre of the story. This also means that you need to be careful when using them in your book.
A writer’s job is to provide a unique story to read. However, it should not be so unique that it becomes impossible to categorise it into a genre.
Like themes, tropes, too, can change with time. But only when a writer uniquely uses a common trope, apart from how it is usually used in books. Whether using tropes is a good thing or a bad thing depends on how they are used. Using them intelligently can enhance a book’s taste, while overusing them can ruin it.
This article lists some of the book tropes commonly used. Let’s take a look at them.
When you want to read a new novel, the first thing you look for in the story is its trope. It is the element that you look at to decide whether to read it. If your book has interesting tropes in it, the chances of your book sales increase.
How do you know if readers will like your book? You can search for common tropes in the Amazon search bar. Examples of these are “love triangle”, “fantastic creatures’, or “a quest”.
When starting to write a book, do good research on which tropes are people’s favourites and what most people are interested in reading. This makes your book appear at the top of the book search results and increases the chance of being seen more. Use the search feature of Amazon to appear at the top.
Also, conduct audience research for your book’s trope to see whether there is an audience that is interested in it. After finding your trope’s audience, look for the relevant keywords that they use so that you can rank your book.
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How Much Do Romance Tropes Earn on Amazon?
Below is a list of common tropes that sell the most. We are going to look at how much earnings per month the books receive based on the tropes.
One fun thing about the tropes is that a specific trope can fit in various genres, but it has to effectively engage readers. If you use a trope in a genre where it doesn't suit well, it will cause disinterest in the readers. One very effective way to keep readers interested in your story is to combine multiple tropes in your story.
Readers look for a trope in a story, so make sure to do your research before writing a story. For example, happily ever after in a romantic genre.
Below, we are going to explore a few book tropes list.
Adventure and action trope combinations can be found in several genres, such as science fiction, mystery, thriller, and fantasy.
A region of a country that has not been frequented by its locals, and it carries treasure that no one but the protagonist knows about.
A team of skillful individuals, all of whom have different skills, combine to form a team to accomplish a mission.
A wise teacher who trains the mentor for specific skills and is also portrayed as a parent figure.
The protagonist discovers that he/she has a past or discovers some kind of unusual ability they didn’t know of before.
While looking for the treasures, the team or the protagonist uncovers a treasure they didn’t know about.
Putting the missing pieces of the puzzle together to get to a specific place in the plot.
A thrilling scene where either the protagonist is chasing the antagonist or is being chased by the forces in the storyline.
An object of the story that is important for the story to move forward. The protagonist must find it to accomplish the mission.
Horror stories are of different types. Some have creatures in them, and some have humans as monsters in them.
Following are the tropes related to horror books.
A doll or a trunket that curses the one who touches it.
Beings that have taken over the city or have attacked the city
Next door neighbours who act strange and in inhumane ways.
A giant house that no one in the neighbourhood ever cared to look at or ask about until the protagonist's children of the same locality decide to give it a try.
Environments that are horror, such as graveyards, creepy dark forests, etc.
An old man who comes alive at the end of the story.
A dark part of the house that no one explored with full attention after shifting; something lurking in there.
This is the most common genre where you can find the most tropes. Romance has several subgenres. Following are some of the tropes found in the romance genre.
This is the most popular trope most liked by the readers.
One love but three characters.
Two characters are forced to stay in one place where they develop an interest in each other.
Two characters fall in love with each other, but their love is disapproved by the societal standards or other external factors.
A common trope in the romantic genre is two characters who hate each other, but fate takes the opposite turn. This can also include the forced proximity trope.
A character forces another character to pose as their partner to get rid of a relative. But their fake love turns into a real one.
A romantic story that includes cheating on a partner.
A character who has been hurt in their past and believes that they are incapable of love. But later, they discover someone who loves them despite their flaws.
A storyline where two characters fall in love at the glimpse. They don’t even need to talk to each other to get to know each other. One just knows that the other is the perfect one for them from the first glance.
The trope revolves around a marriage where the couple is not truly content. However, they find they complement each other as they spend time together and get to know one another.
This is considered one of the suspense-creating genre. And its tropes are more interesting than any other taste in books.
An oppressive government has people stuck in a system. The protagonist fights the oppressive system.
This has been and still is a trope that has most people interested in it.
The protagonist is one of the survivors of the apocalypse and wanders through the land looking for food and other survivors.
A character goes into controlled sleep, also called controlled coma, at low temperatures to preserve themselves and stay alive and sleep for several years.
The main character and his/her team face tragedies in space travel.
The protagonist can team up with the natives of another universe, aliens, and explore their universe for some virus or hidden technology that is more advanced than the technology invented on the Earth.
Nanobots are invented for some advanced level of abilities, but things take a dark turn.
AI that does more harm than good to humans on Earth.
A new, advanced level of technology is invented that the government or a group of billionaires want to use to gain power and rule negatively. The protagonist fights the rising powers.
Spaceships that set out years ago to travel to a planet that is so far away that when the spaceship reaches the planet, its travelers would be no more.
This is a common trope young readers look for in stories. This genre consists of some of the most thrilling and interesting tropes.
Young adult faces the challenge of fighting the evil doers in order to prevent them from spreading throughout society and damaging it. In a society full of evildoers who care less about doing anything good, the protagonist is alone in their good character and has to pave the way for good character all alone.
This is one of the most common tropes in the young adult world, where the protagonist discovers that they have been bestowed with the responsibility of saving the world alone. This makes them leave their childish behavior and habits and grow up to fulfill their responsibility.
The protagonist never knew their family or relatives had something to hide. Upon discovering, he/she has to live with the secret, trying to act normal.
This is a common young adult book tropes. Parents of the protagonist are evil and do not approve of him/her. The main character has to struggle throughout their young age. This storyline focuses on how the main character goes through life, experiencing everything without any supervision, trying to figure everything out by themself.
The main character discovers they possess some kind of special powers.
Discovering that the main character has a twin sibling that one of the parents took at the time of separation
The protagonist is a misfit, never following the ways of society and always going about their own way.
The main character discovers their first love and lives through it, experiencing every moment in a different way that they never did before.
Thriller tropes can be used in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, or crime.
The car of the main character breaks down on a dark road where there is no human being to be seen, and it is near a forest.
The protagonist is either troubled by their past or by the mission they are working on. They are always agitated and always active on the case or the mission.
The clock is ticking, and a certain demand is to be met before the bomb explodes or the world ends.
The protagonist has to go to different locations around the world to stop the antagonist.
A thriller where the main character is isolated in a place where there are little to no people and has to deal with the antagonist, such as in a house in the forest.
The neighbour seems normal at first for the new shifted protagonist. But as the main character lives their life in the new neighbourhood, they discover something sinister about their mysterious neighbour who acts a little out of the ordinary.
A thriller where the ex is the main threat to the protagonist. They started out as happy, but things took a too serious turn.
A thriller that has a few characters, but the majority of them are the suspects in the story. So, it's basically a circle of suspects.
The ptorganosit is blackmailed into committing a crime by threatening to reveal the dark secret about their past to their spouse and children.
A good mystery attracts the reader and invites them into solving the mystery before the protagonist finds the solution.
In a close setting such as a restaurant, a ship, or an airplane, the detective on board must solve the mysterious death of a crew member.
Just when the protagonist thought they had the suspect, the real antagonist plays another game of showing up after misleading the main character into catching the wrong suspect.
The main character can’t get another character to reveal the information that could be the key to the mystery until the character reveals the truth dramatically.
What’s with the detective getting agitated and not being there on the scene on time? This could be their haunting past that gets the best of them every time.
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Tropes can't be categorised as good or bad. It is the use of them that decides whether they are good or bad.
There are some tropes that readers don't prefer in a genre, while they look for others. So, it is crucial to do research in the genre you are writing. Read the books in that genre and look for popular book tropes before you start writing. This is a good way of making your audience interested in your work by giving them good twists in the storyline.
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