Ran into the site “TV Tropes” via a Wired article about how to procrastinate on the internet. Both are relevant for writers, but the Tropes site is interesting for its huge catalog of tropes – devices or turns of plot which are commonly found in fiction (example: a character suddenly reveals he is the one the protagonist has been looking for all along).
Sometimes use of these devices can become cliche – especially if the writer is essentially plugging the tropes in to fill time. But it struck me as I was looking through this site it could be a fun writing-prompt device. Go ahead, grab a trope and try to write a scene around it and then – this is the key – make it not cliche. But be careful – there’s a reason this site was linked from an article about procrastination. Serious time-waste potential there. It’s tons of fun for writerly types to think about your favorite books or TV shows or films and to recognize tropes and cliches that are commonly used.
Below: a pirate statue on St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Pretty much any story involving Pirates is going to be a barrel of tropes.
