Let's Talk About Tropes and Using Them in Your Writing

I've been a published author since 2012 and have been a reader all my life. I have an amazing critique group who stays up-to-date with trends in books and reads a ton. And yet, when we were at the writing conference 20Books to 50K, we were introduced to the importance of tropes. At one point in the past month, I said, "Tropes! Where have you been all my life?" Heck--I was even an English major.

Maybe you read a lot about writing or have been to a workshop on tropes. But if you're like me and the other members of the Lit Ladies, then these are elements of your fiction that you have probably been including already, but you didn't realize how much readers expected them and how you can use them to help you sell more books.

What is a Trope?
A trope is a common storyline for a genre, such as romance or urban fantasy, that readers expect when they pick up a book in your genre. It does not mean it's a formula or a boring read! It's a story that is similar to others in the genre, like a contract with the reader. Readers expect certain things to happen in this book based on the trope. If you don't deliver, they will not be happy with you!

Here are a couple of examples:

When Harry Met Sally: In this popular movie, Harry and Sally are friends who eventually turn into lovers. That's a trope. It happens in a lot of romance books and movies--even in my first young adult romance, Caught Between Two Curses! When I wrote it and received a contract for it, I didn't even realize I was writing a romance. (Oh, I wish I could go back and talk to that Margo!) I certainly didn't realize that I had a popular trope in there--friends to lovers (although my two teen characters are simply boyfriend and girlfriend by the end). But my book and When Harry Met Sally are nothing alike except for that trope. Some readers and movie watchers only want to read books about friends becoming lovers--and so they will specifically search for all the different stories to find the ways that this trope comes to life.

There are over a hundred romance tropes--it's unbelievable! Here are a few more common ones that you're probably familiar with: enemies become lovers, first love, second chance at love, secret romance, and a love triangle. Knowing your trope can help you read other books with a similar trope (market research) and write marketing materials that catch the attention of readers who are searching for that type of book!

Harry Potter: In this fantasy book, Harry is the chosen one, which is a very popular trope in this genre. Harry is the only one who can defeat Voldemort. Frodo from Lord of the Rings is another protagonist who is the chosen one. Neither Harry nor Frodo have a choice to go on their journeys--they have to go on it. If they don't do it, the evil will not be defeated. But look at the difference between these two fantasies--they have the same trope, but they are extremely different.

Some other common fantasy tropes are the secret heir, the reluctant hero, the lucky novice, and the quest.

So how do you make your trope fresh?
This is a question that successful authors answer time and again--and the answer is really simple. You tell your story in the best possible way you can--with your voice, your research, your unique characters, your humor, and so on. If you know that the chosen one is a common trope, and some very famous authors have done it well, then how can you still use the chosen one in your fantasy but put your own spin on it?

Practice picking out tropes while you're reading--they won't only be in genre fiction. But look at the storylines of the books you enjoy and see if you can notice a common one that you have seen in several other movies or books. You can also do Internet searches like "young adult romance tropes" or "space opera tropes" and read some of the articles that pop up.

As always, write the story that is in your heart. However, if you want to sell it, then also figure out where it fits in the marketplace and part of this is also discovering the tropes you cover in the story.

Margo L. Dill is a children's and YA author who also teaches online courses for WOW! In January, she is offering two courses for novel writers. On January 3, "Writing a Novel With a Writing Coach" begins. Then her brand new class, "Writing Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction: A Study and Workshop" starts on January 21. For more information, click the links or contact Margo at margo (at) wow-womenonwriting.com .

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4 comments 20Books to 50K, fantasy, genre fiction, Margo L. Dill, marketing advice, novel writing, plotting, romance, tropes

Learning From High-Powered Authors

This is part two of my series on what I learned at the 20Books To 50K conference in Las Vegas. You can find part one here. 

Welcome to a great panel discussion with Rebecca Moesta, Malorie Cooper, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Alex Liddell, and Lindsay Buroker titled High-Powered Authors. These five authors are killing it in the indie publishing world, and they shared what works and doesn't work for them. This panel was chock full of inspiration and knowledge, and I can only write so much and have your attention on this blog post for so long. So I encourage you to check out the You Tube video of this panel if anything I say here catches your interest!




(When you click play above, it should take you to the high-powered author panel, but if you are interested in the two guys behind the conference, go back to the beginning of the video and watch their introduction!)

Here are a few tidbits that the high-powered authors said and was also echoed throughout the conference:

1. Market research is important. If you're writing romance, then make sure you're giving your readers what they expect--respect the tropes and your readers. Look at the top 10 on Amazon in your genre. What do their covers look like? What are their blurbs? What are the current trends? How will your book fit with these? You have to standout without being too different, of course. (Sidenote from me: stand out with your good writing and ability to tell a story, not by trying to trick your reader!)

2. Self-published authors are advertising on Amazon and Facebook, and it's working. Trust me when I say that if the sentence above gave you the heebie jeebies, you'll have to find a way to get over it IF you want to make money as an author and sell copies of your books. Traditional publishers have put advertising dollars behind their top names for decades. To compete with this, and you can, you have to be willing to spend some money on advertising that makes sense. Currently, that seems to be on social media, with email services like Bookbub, and on Amazon or other booksellers. (Although everyone was honestly talking about Amazon ads!)

3. Being consistent over time is the best way to build your career. Stop comparing yourself to the high-powered authors on the panel, as they all had to start somewhere. But they're currently writing on a regular basis and putting out books regularly. They treat their writing as a career, and they show up for work every day. Analyze your best time of day and write then. You will get much more done than if you are trying to work when you are tired. (Sidenote: Since I came back from this conference, I have written every morning when I get up until I get to at least 1000 words. My streak so far is 19 days, and I have written 24,324 new words. I finished one non-fiction book project I had been messing around with for far too long, and started on another one. I plan to self-publish both of these.)

4. Different income streams are important. This was also something that was talked about a lot, not just on this panel. There's a huge debate right now about being exculsive (to Amazon) or going wide (selling on many different platforms). If Amazon went away today, and all your eggs are in Amazon's basket, where does that leave you? This doesn't mean you can't take advantage of some of the exclusivity perks on Amazon for a certain number of days, but you also have to think of how else you can get money. What do your books lend themselves to? Where else would they sell?

In conclusion: What I loved about this panel is that a couple of these authors were also tradtionally published at one time or still are--so they are known as hybrid authors. They are on a panel at an indie conference talking about the perks of being independent in this day and age. This advice seems more spot on than most because they have experience in both worlds, and they are telling us that currently in many genres, authors who treat their books and career like a business as well as a creative endeavor can have success with self-publishing. It's an amazing time to be a writer!

Margo L. Dill is a writer of children's and YA books in St. Louis, MO. She is also WOW!'s managing editor and teaches a few classes for WOW! on novel writing, school visits, and YA/MG writing. Check out her classes at https://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/WOWclasses.html. The novel writing class starts on December 6, and she can work with you to have deadlines not through the holidays if needed. To find out more about her and her books, join her newsletter here.

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5 comments 20Books to 50K, Amazon advertising, income streams for writers, Margo L. Dill, productivity, self-publishing, social media ads

So Authors Are Actually Making Money Self-Publishing...

I just got back from 20Books to 50K, an indie publishing conference held in Las Vegas with 1000 authors interested in learning about indie publishing. Some were beginners like me (in the self-publishing world), and some are making between six and seven figures a year on their books. Yes, you read that right. There are self-published authors who are making hundreds of thousands of dollars on their books each year. Mark Dawson, the keynote speaker and co-host of The Self-Publishing Show podcast, is now a millionaire and just signed a traditional print deal and will soon have his once only self-published books as hardbacks in bookstores in the UK.

Over the next month (at least), I plan to share with you, WOW! readers, some of the most inspirational and motivational things I learned at this conference. But let me tell you another secret, most of the workshops and talks I went to were recorded and are loaded on YOU TUBE for YOU TO WATCH FOR FREE! (Go to YouTube.com and Google 20Books to 50K) Start with Mark Dawson's keynote here. It gave me chills, and I had tears in my eyes. When I came home from this conference, I felt empowered. I set a new word count goal of at least 1000 words a day on a NEW WORK. And this does not include revising, editing, or marketing. So far, I have a streak of four days and have written over 1000 words each day. I'm so excited writing this blog post for you that I know I'm all over the place and rambling. I can't help it. I am that excited.

Here are some of the takeaways from Dawson's talk:

• He has made so much more money as an indie author than he did with a traditional publishing contract. He does the math for you in the You Tube video. It's amazing.
• Don't compare yourself to other writers and their success. Be motivated by them. Study them and then do the same things in your career.
• Don't take bad reviews personally (FYI: some of the funniest moments here in the video). 
• Respect your readers' time. Answer all emails, Facebook comments, and tweets.
• Advertising on Facebook and Amazon (or Bookbub or countless other places) is no longer a luxury. If you want to be found and read, you need to spend some dollars advertising. 

Mark Dawson is a hard worker. He has built his business from the ground up. But he still loves writing. He still writes. And he is generous with his information and wants to help other writers. He is living the life so many of us dream of, and he is willing to show you how to achieve it if you want to work hard and pay attention to how the business is changing.

What I realized the most during this conference is that the publishing business is changing. At 20Books to 50K (the story of this name and founder will come next time), I sat there thinking about my three traditionally published books and all the mistakes I've made. And then I told myself: Stop it. You did what you did because that's how things were done then. And you have good books you can be proud of.

But now the climate is changing, and like all companies (BIG COMPANIES: Pepsi, Amazon, Target, Walmart, etc) that now have social media departments and spend money on content advertising, we, as writers and businesswomen, have to change with the publishing times. I urge you to at least get educated. You can still long for an agent. You can still turn your nose up at self-published authors, but you also need to understand that these hard-working and successful authors will be your biggest competition and just may be laughing all the way to the bank while they are enjoying being a writer as their full-time jobs. 

My writing group, the Lit Ladies, at 20Books. I'm in the glasses!

Margo L. Dill is a children's and YA author in St. Louis, MO. She is WOW!'s managing editor and teaches novel writing and middle-grade and young adult writing for WOW! You can find her upcoming classes (novel writing starts on December 6) here. 

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6 comments 20Books to 50K, benefits of a writing conference, indie author, Margo L. Dill, Mark Dawson, self-publishing