: Re: How can I convince my reader that I will not use a certain trope? Imagine a fantasy story in which there once was a very powerful evil divine being, but it was defeated long before the beginning

@Rivera824

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Readers establish a sense of the story they are reading in the opening pages. That's where you set the contract. If you open with the death of this evil being, the readers will expect that being to be important and assume that the evil being will return. But if you tuck it in after the contract, maybe combine it within local lore of the world along with a few other stories that are not tropey or remarkable in any way, it will be less likely to be seen as anything suspicious.

What do you want to promise your readers that the story is? Rather than what it is not? Put that into the contract.

Answer: Introduce the lack/death of the evil being as a sort of afterthought, after the main contract is established. Downplay it.

Bonus answer: Or, use humor and break the fourth wall, presumably through the narrator.

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