This week: Purpose of Tropes Edited by: Legerdemain  
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A Purpose for Tropes
Have you ever started a story and your character manages to worm himself into a sticky situation? How to extract him? Or have you thought of a great character but really can't think of a great storyline to use her in? I Google the title of the newsletter "action adventure" and found this fun tropes website. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ActionAdventureTropes The definition of trope in this case: a common or overused theme or device.
While I agree some of the scenarios are cliche or unusable...some could be pretty funny in a story.
Like these:
Futile Hand Reach --- When something bad happens to a character, the protagonist will reach out towards the the character in question.
Almost Out Of Oxygen --- Imminent death by suffocation is always a good way to ratchet up the tension.
Delivery Guy Infiltration --- If you want to get into the enemy base, just pose as a delivery guy.
No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup --- Any dangerous device or technology owned by a villain is one-of-a-kind; there are no design notes, no prototypes, and no backup copies.
Drool Hello --- The first inkling that a monster is above you? That yucky liquid splashing over your shoulders...
Paper-Thin Disguise --- An extremely transparent disguise that anybody in their right mind could see through, yet the on-screen characters can't.
Removing The Earpiece --- When an agent or operative removes their communication earpiece, they're going to disobey an order, go rogue, or say something "off the record."
Shoot The Fuel Tank --- In fiction, shooting a fuel tank makes it explode.
So next time you take on a super-villian, remove your earpiece and blow him to smithereens.
This week's question: Which trope was your favorite? Have you used these?
How did you use that in your writing?
Answer below  Editors love feedback! 
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Excerpt: “I see you met Pinky. How are you feeling, dear?”
A woman limped into the living room with a tray in her hand. The teacups rattled and slid as she placed it on the cluttered coffee table. A piece of long grey hair hung in her eyes as she blinked and stared at her guest. She sat in a large lazy-boy chair, swiping her hand across her forehead to move the loose hair.
“What do you mean . . . how do I feel? I’m tied up.”
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Excerpt: --I had no job and nowhere to go. My appearance was that of an ordinary human, and despite my many utterances that I was human because of all I did, in reality, words never changed me from robot to human.
Excerpt: Kath and Amy heard many ghost stories of the Bell Witch Cave growing up in Brentwood, Tennessee. Now old enough to go there themselves, they packed up Kath's Volkswagen Jetta and took off for a weekend of fun.
Excerpt: Pierre LeBeau, le Capitaine, Duc de Montblanc, loved the way he looked in his military uniform. The gold braid on his epaulets twinkled in the candlelight as it shimmied when he turned his shoulders to-and-fro. The fine cut of his jaw and his face’s delicate bone structure contrasted with his narrow waist and broad shoulders. There was no doubt in his mind that he would be the best dressed and most handsome man at the royal ball. Why even the king couldn’t compete with his looks. That was part of the reason he was going tonight. That and he had been ordered to attend.
Excerpt: Rigid as the mountains rising just beyond her view, Isa stood upon the layers of snow covering the north field, turned the thin band of gold in her mouth, and watched the new fall cascade down at a sharp angle, blown by the same wind that tried to bend her. Like this endless winter tried to bend her, scrape her down. She wouldn’t let it, would ignore that shadow, would keep her gaze focused outward, toward the boundary as she had for hours—or days. Her husband was here, in the snow, the unearthly mist, the clouds and wind. In the ring that kept her mouth moist.
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Excerpt: Nostrils of a prisoner flared from the intake of thick dust. A hellish flare contained within a hearth gave more heat than visibility to the dank chamber. Time was an essence that was lost to him, for he knew not how long he was detained in the steel cage.
What little memories he could scrape from his fractured mind were but snapshots of a past of a life that led to a tragic accident, where he (the driver) lost control of his truck on an icebound road, and fishtailed toward a yellow hazard sign proclaiming “Warning Icy Road Conditions” propped before the edge of a cliff.
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Excerpt: A light clinking of silverware against glass plates only helped the ambiance of light conversation floating about the restaurant.
Theodore "Teddy" Wilkins sat before Alfonzo Mitchell, head CEO of Central Dynamix Industries, a head technological company dealing in communications software for a huge range of businesses that stretched from universities and small businesses to Fortune 500 companies and even the military. The man who sat before Teddy had a net worth that would take most of the American middle class population to work three lifetimes and still not make it. And Ted was in his company. It was like seeing a god face-to-face.
Excerpt: Each day around 12pm NOON WDC time, one of our dedicated volunteer judges will judge the previous day's entries and post a writing prompt.
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This week's question: Which trope was your favorite? Have you used these?
Answer below Editors love feedback!
Last month's question: What tricks do you use to trim the fat?
GeminiGem survived GoT  replied: Thank you for covering the subject of how much description to include. When I am reviewing short stories, I usually end up asking the author to expand their descriptions in key areas a bit. Imagination is all well and good, but just saying there is a cabin in the woods when it is the focal point of the action isn't quite enough. In my own writing, I struggle with describing how a character looks because I find the narrative of, "he was six feet tall, had sandy hair, and blue eyes" to be really distracting. I'd rather hear that he was able to reach such and such from his six-foot advantage, or something like that, worked into the story.
Quick-Quill  answered: I'm always deleting the words like: the, that, was, were and went. My editors seem to want to put the first two back into my sentences. I ask, read it both ways. Is there any difference? If not cut it.
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Action/Adventure: February 12, 2020 Issue [#10020]
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