The Difference Between Archetypes, Tropes, and Clichés

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Understanding archetypes, tropes, and clichés makes writing original stories a lot easier.

Before we dive in today, just a little heads up that I’m also guest posting on The Insecure Writer’s Support Group, with 4 Things Every Novel Should Strive For. Come on by and say hello!

A lot of elements in writing are either interconnected or used interchangeably, and archetypes, tropes, and clichés are three of them. What one writer views as an archetype, another might consider a cliché, and how they use them in their writing can differ. Some writers can wield a trope like a master, others can sneak cliches in so they feel germane to the scene, and some write such nuanced archetypes readers don’t even realize they are archetypes.

As a writer—especially as a genre writer—it’s vital to understand the differences between these terms and how they work in fiction.

Fix Your Reader’s Pet Peeves: Relying on Old Tropes

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

My husband and I recently watched a movie that was doing everything right, but still fell flat, because it didn’t offer anything we hadn’t seen dozens of times before. We could pretty much describe how the entire movie was going to unfold based on the first few scenes, and it indeed unfolded exactly as we expected. That made it hard to care about what was going on.

In this week’s installment of the “Fix Your Reader’s Pet Peeves” series, let’s tackle relying on old tropes.