WHERE ARE ALL THE WIZARD ARMIES?
Wizards are powerful, it’s well known. Gandalf, Voldemort, and even Darth Vader. They are a common staple of fantasy. They usually have an abundance of knowledge to go along with their power. Yet, there are never any wizard armies in fantasy? (Unless you consider Dumbledore’s Army-which I don’t really do
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That's useful.
>> This is what I've learned--tropes can be helpful, but they can also be harmful. <<
Yep. Tropes are most useful in creating a common language between writer and reader, so we can enjoy short stories without having to build a whole new world in three pages. They're also good when they identify things that work well -- for example, evil bringing about its own demise through bad decisions.
They are most harmful when they repeat destructive ideas like Bury Your Gays. These are sometimes called stop-tropes. Writers should think first before using them again: is it essential to the story, and does the quality of the story outweigh the harm done by using the trope? I don't give my queerfolk a get-out-death-free card, but I do try to make sure there are other live happy queers in the story to carry on. Tropes can also diminish entertainment simply by encouraging people to stay in the ruts rather than creating fresher content.
>>What I mean by that is, they can provide structure for creators and provide readers with what they want to read. That's the helpful part.<<
*laugh* I confess that I mine fanfic to learn what other people want to read so badly they'll write it themselves. One of my goals is to write well enough that my readers do not feel compelled to run along behind me fixing all the things I did wrong. And it's working; the fanfic is adding to canon instead of rewriting it. \o/ I have also used original writing to do better things that are often done badly in mainstream work. Years of Clark/Lex and Charles/Erik, and wanting to drag the boys behind a barn to give them a copy of The Joy of Gay Sex, led to Antimatter and Stalwart Stan -- which is why Lawrence has a copy of that book on his shelf. It took them two years to figure out they're falling in love and do something about it, because they're twitterpated highschool kids, not because they're homophobes.
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