TvTropes is amazing. Somehow my completely orignal hero who i aspired to make without any tropes had a tv trope page which describes him to a extent.

[someonesomeguy]

I did not expect this at all but somehow even with me trying to be as orignal as possible the protagnist still fell under a archetype.

The Byronic hero.
He is basically this but with less and occasional brooding and with a sense of humor.

well he is not completely byronic hero cause he seems the arbitariness of his ideals and doesn't hold them superior over any other ideals.

Ok this gave me a amazing idea. Cause of one of major conflicts in the story is nature of reality and if what is happening to him is real or is he inside a lotus eater machine/novel.

20 chapters in when he has opened up and got over some of his problems and is just watching anime with his girlfriend. He opens TVtropes page for

Byronic Hero​

and has a short crisis about reality.

well he is not even that determined or unfettered for realism sake. so it falls somewhat here.


the reactions of his girlfriend are humorous.

 

[TheTrinary]

There's a finite number of ways to write characters and stories. Given enough time, tvtropes will have it all.

 

[EternalSunset0]

Love that website. I can no longer track how many hours I threw on the site. I think that thinking of your characters as TV Tropes entries can also help you in writing them or deciding how they should act.

 

[EternalSunset0]

I also found the "So You Want to Write X" entries very useful. Here is an index.

 

[someonesomeguy]

well my character is definitely orignal just because of realism being one of main focus of the story. I am not going to use any part which you will never see in a real person so it won't be a copy paste. Pretty complex match of lot of different types of protagonist.

 

[AdLeto]

The ones who manage TvTropes are all godlike entities, being able to catalogue that much stuff is something to be told in legends

 

[Jemini]

Love that website. I can no longer track how many hours I threw on the site. I think that thinking of your characters as TV Tropes entries can also help you in writing them or deciding how they should act.

I disagree with this. You should write your character based entirely upon what makes sense for that character rather than picking tropes off the shelf and tossing them together.

That said, even if you come up with everything completely on your own with no guide and without trying to fit them to some character archetype you are aware of, I am still 100% certain they will be easily categorized by a site like TV tropes. I am seriously interested in how it would categorize Asaren from my Key to the Void series. She's the protagonist. I have a very solid idea of what tropes the supporting cast are beginning to fill, but I am not so certain which ones Asaren fits into yet.

That said, she might be difficult to categorize right now. She may be the 1st person perspective narrator of everything from her POV, but I just revealed in the latest chapters up on my Patreon that she's not exactly a reliable narrator. She has been hinting that she has left a few things completely unsaid to the audience and has been outright lying to the supporting cast. So, she is intentionally unreliable.

(There is something of a Ninja theme to the series, and I wanted to go closer to the real Ninjustu rather than hollywood and Naruto stuff. As such, the ninja character MC hiding it from everyone, including the audience, and tossing out red herrings made perfect sense.)

 

[EternalSunset0]

I disagree with this. You should write your character based entirely upon what makes sense for that character rather than picking tropes off the shelf and tossing them together.

Fair enough. Some tropes do work well together more than others.

 

[WasatchWind]

I did not expect this at all but somehow even with me trying to be as orignal as possible the protagnist still fell under a archetype.

The Byronic hero.
He is basically this but with less and occasional brooding and with a sense of humor.

well he is not completely byronic hero cause he seems the arbitariness of his ideals and doesn't hold them superior over any other ideals.

Ok this gave me a amazing idea. Cause of one of major conflicts in the story is nature of reality and if what is happening to him is real or is he inside a lotus eater machine/novel.

20 chapters in when he has opened up and got over some of his problems and is just watching anime with his girlfriend. He opens TVtropes page for

Byronic Hero​

and has a short crisis about reality.

well he is not even that determined or unfettered for realism sake. so it falls somewhat here.


the reactions of his girlfriend are humorous.

It's kind of impossible to write a character without a trope. You know, because human beings have similar personality traits.

 

[Sabruness]

TVTropes. man, i sometimes go to look up one thing (usually a series) on there and then.... 6 hours and 50 or more pages later, i'm still there reading. It's even provided me with a few good fanfic options that are worth the read. It's like a one-stop shop.

 

[someonesomeguy]

apparently you can't insert images into status. So i am inserting it here and link would be copied to status

 

[MadmanRB]

Well the sad truth is... there's really no such thing as originality anymore.

The well has dried up, the seas are empty and all the fish are dead.

However instead of that letting you down turn that into an advantage.

Put all your favorite tropes together and have fun with them!

Write what you want, write what you feel fits.

To hell with worrying about being "unoriginal", tropes are your friends!

I disagree with this. You should write your character based entirely upon what makes sense for that character rather than picking tropes off the shelf and tossing them together.

I dunno I have thrown random tropes together on occasion and had some rather fun results.

 

[TunTun]

Well the sad truth is... there's really no such thing as originality anymore.

The well has dried up, the seas are empty and all the fish are dead.

However instead of that letting you down turn that into an advantage.

Put all your favorite tropes together and have fun with them!

Write what you want, write what you feel fits.

To hell with worrying about being "unoriginal", tropes are your friends!


I dunno I have thrown random tropes together on occasion and had some rather fun results.

I disagree. Originality is still a thing. However, to a degree some works will always have similarities to pre-existing works, as one can't hide their inspirations.

 

[MadmanRB]

I disagree. Originality is still a thing. However, to a degree some works will always have similarities to pre-existing works, as one can't hide their inspirations.

I mean in terms of tropes.

Thing is for some Tropes = Clichés and writers who don't want to be accused of being Cliché try their best not to be labeled as such but still fall into a trope somewhere.
Yes tropes can be clichés but if your writing is good enough one can use your tropes to your advantage.
People can fear tropes but instead of avoiding them I embrace them.
I know what they are, and I use them to my greatest advantage.
The OP just seemed to worry about using too many tropes as that may be considered "clichéd" but even things that are a cliche storm can be totally fine and well written products.
Avatar the last airbender comes to mind as on the surface it's a cliché storm, but it does such a good job with its tropes no one gives a crap.

 

[TunTun]

I mean in terms of tropes.

Thing is for some Tropes = Clichés and writers who don't want to be accused of being Cliché try their best not to be labeled as such but still fall into a trope somewhere.
Yes tropes can be clichés but if your writing is good enough one can use your tropes to your advantage.
People can fear tropes but instead of avoiding them I embrace them.
I know what they are, and I use them to my greatest advantage.
The OP just seemed to worry about using too many tropes as that may be considered "clichéd" but even things that are a cliche storm can be totally fine and well written products.
Avatar the last airbender comes to mind as on the surface it's a cliché storm, but it does such a good job with its tropes no one gives a crap.

Tropes are a social construct. Readers and writers hardly know most exist. What you are essentially saying is the equivalent of saying:

"English is cliche, we all use the same 26 letters from the alphabet, thus nothing is original."

 

[MadmanRB]

Tropes are a social construct. Readers and writers hardly know most exist. What you are essentially saying is the equivalent of saying:

"English is cliche, we all use the same 26 letters from the alphabet, thus nothing is original."

Not really, though I do think people would be familiar with a cliché than a trope though tropes can be clichés if not done right.

 

[witch_sorrowful]

Tropes themselves are not bad. For example, every distressed hero who can't make a decision has something to do with Hamlet. Lion King is basically Hamlet retold through animals.

As far as originality is concerned, such works are few and far between. All vampires these days derive from Dracula, but Dracula itself derives from folklore, but that folklore has come from history. And readers like it.

It's about what you do with the trope that is important. For example, horror fiction can only be so much. Girl with scary powers is a very common trope that came about in 19th century horror fiction, but Stephen King turned it up a notch, putting the setting in modern USA in Carrie. The same trope is taken in Stranger Things but they changed it up, and it feels like a completely different story - even though it really is not.

Another famous derivative book is Harry Potter. Literally everything is derivative in it - from Dragons to Nicholas Flamel. The wise old man with a long beard who somehow is a wizard is a central character - doesn't he remind you of Gandalf? But it's how the book is simultaneously a fantasy story set inside a boarding school that it becomes interesting to us.

Therefore, worry not for the tropes and worry about the execution.