Tropedia

  • Before making a single edit, Tropedia EXPECTS our site policy and manual of style to be followed. Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. Our policies can be reviewed here.
  • All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation.
  • All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO SelfCloak. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP.

READ MORE

Tropedia
Don't have an account?
Register
Register
Tropedia
Tropedia
176,964
pages
in: Shortcut box first parameter needs fixing, Wiki Policy

Tropedia:Be Creative

View source
Policy shortcuts:
  • Tropedia:CREATE
  • Tropedia:ENT

It's always important to Be Creative when editing the wiki; readers should be entertained by what's going on here as much as in their original works.

The wiki is a good place for literary criticism, but it's also a good place to try out new things. We study creative works, and we should bring that same creativity to writing new trope pages. We should be expanding our own writing skills, both on and off-wiki.

Everything doesn't have to be about "just the facts, ma'am" -- Troping is Fun! Have fun with your edits. When you edit the wiki, try to be entertaining -- compelling writing is always welcome. Subpages like WMG are great for generating story ideas.

The flip side of creation is destruction. Cutting is one of the more difficult aspects of writing, but sometimes we have to " murder our darlings" -- get rid of those beloved ideas to allow the site to grow. It may be better to say something in one paragraph instead of four. The goal isn't just compelling writing -- it's clear, concise, and compelling writing.

The Wiki is for Storytellers

Besides fans, Tropedia is a resource for storytellers. Tropes are common patterns used in creative writing, and by documenting them, we enable writers to use them more effectively. A major goal of all of our Literary Criticism is to share this back with the community of writers, so that they can learn from it and produce better stories.

It's worth noting here that tropes are not "building blocks" of stories; a story consisting only of tropes is not much of a story at all. Rather tropes are useful devices to achieve a dramatic end, and communicate that to your audience efficiently. They are ways to increase characterization, expand the setting, and drive the plot forward, and work towards a theme. But the heart of the story has to come from the writer. Tropes added to a bad story make it trite and formulaic, but tropes added to a good story, when used properly, make it shine.

Many of our writing-centric resources are located at the Mechanics of Writing page, which is also linked to on the site sidebar and the Main Page.

The Troper's Code
Educate, Entertain, Have fun, and Play nice!
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.