: Re: Subverting the emotional woman and stoic man trope In my post-apocalyptic story, the split of male and female main/supporting characters is 50/50. The girls and women in the story, Eris, Marina,

@Mendez196

Vote Up Vote Down

Why do you think you have to stick to a trope? In my understanding, tropes are only the most common usages (or over use) of a theme, not an exhaustive list of paths an author has to follow.

As a reader, I like when a writer does something different, unless it doesn't make any sense. What you describe does make sense, as your characters express human characteristics seen in actual society, so you should be good, as long as it's not over exaggerated to the point of not being believable.

One of my favorite authors is Isaac Asimov. He wrote human built robots that sometimes had near human emotions during a time when robots were generally considered only death machines that wanted to kill everyone, take over the world, or were from alien planets. IMO, this is a major part of why he got so famous. He did something that was completely logical, yet completely contrary to the "tropes" of the time. He was a visionary besides, but not following along with peoples commonly (and often wrongly) held beliefs are why science has come to try following in his footsteps. Asimov's Laws of Robotics have greatly influenced today's robots, even if we still haven't built an AI powerful enough to actually following those rules. (I think we're close, but not quite yet.) There are many other instances where scientists and engineers have followed his lead, but I can't think of anything ATM.

Many great stories have come from challenging convention. Sometimes those stories tell and actual truth that's been buried under common misconception. Doing something like this doesn't guarantee your story will become one of "the greats", but you also shouldn't fear that it's going to be buried due to not following some formula.

Tell your story as you want to tell it. If people don't like it, fine. Hopefully you'll already be writing another story and the new one will sell. Most (if not all) of the Grand Masters of writing couldn't get published early in their careers. Some of them got 1-2 really good stories published and then publishers couldn't accept even their previously unpublished works fast enough.

Also, readers (and publishers) are fickle. If they don't know you, they aren't likely to read you, unless "everyone" is talking about you. Once they do know you, they might pick up a new story of yours just because it's you. Write what you want and you'll likely get followers. If you change and write something because it's mainstream, you'll lose followers due to becoming a "sellout".

(0)

Login to post a comment!