List of Favorite Tropes

[calliatra]

Hey there, Fic or Art Exchange Person! :D

I see you’re interested in my favorite tropes. That’s cool, I like talking about my favorite things! (To such a degree, in fact, that this got way too long to include in my regular exchange letters…)

The tropes are in alphabetical order, except for the AUs, which are at the top. I’ve written a few lines for each trope, to explain what exactly it is I like about it. I hope that’s helpful, and that you find what you’re looking for.

If you’re an artist: I’ve underlined the tropes that I think are the most visually evocative or best suited as art prompts, but of course you’re welcome to use any of the others as well!  

Some Favorite Tropes (‘n’ Things)

• Actor AU: I like behind the scenes looks at the real emotions of people who fake intense ones together. It’s intriguing both in terms of character bonding and of reality versus fiction.


• Hogwarts AU: I’m a Harry Potter fan, I like the atmosphere of a boarding school environment, and I’ve always been enchanted by Hogwarts in particular, both narratively and visually. (Because oh man, it’s got such a great atmosphere, and it’s also soooo pretty!)


• Take-Your-Characters-to-Work AU: What I care about most are relationships between characters. So if you feel like dropping them in a more mundane world that removes all those plotty distractions from them, that’s generally A-Okay with me. ;) But also, I love getting a look at all the behind-the-scenes details in jobs and fields I know nothing about, and seeing a fic manage to transfer the canon relationships, conflicts, and power structure to a totally different setting is always a delight! (And it totally doesn't have to be your, or anyone's, literal workplace; if you happen to be an expert on something like 17th century Norwegian nobility, that's welcome as a setting, too!) 


• Bodyswap: Whether it’s a real bodyswap, or the characters are just pretending, it holds the possibility for infinite hilarious hijinks! But also for a good bit of character exploration! And in ship fic, a whole new weird kind of intimacy and UST! Yay!


• Handcuffed Together: Always such a fun way to force people to interact, and to let another person into their lives – physically! I love all the things this can result in, from wild shenanigans to emotional confrontations.


• Huddling for Warmth: Yeah, okay, I admit it, I love it when my OTPs cuddle. But I also love the pre-getting-together ever-increasing tension. So how to combine them? By making cuddling a totally logical necessity! ^^


• Magical Artifacts/Creatures/Plants: I have nothing particular in mind here, I just think they are a fun and pleasingly random element to add to the mix, and to make characters react to! Especially in canons that don't usually contain magic.


• Mind Reading: It’s a cool power! And, wonderfully, a game-changer in pretty much any kind of character interaction. This could go lots of places, from funny to dark and anywhere in between, and I’m intrigued by all of them.


• Murder Mystery: I adore this genre! I love mysteries in general, and I have a huge weakness for the Agatha-Christie-style murder mystery, with all its plotting and intrigue and gorgeous atmosphere and character insight…


• Outsider POV: I love this way this shakes things up and makes you consider the characters and the world you’re so familiar with from a new perspective. But also the absolute hilarity that can ensue from outsiders misinterpreting (or, hey, correctly interpreting) situations they have no context for!


• Power Outage: Power outages are cool. (Erm, in fiction, I mean.) They always gives me shivers in a such a delightful way! Because, well, they strip away so much of the world that everyone relies on without thinking, force people to be creative and innovative, and can do so much to change competency dynamics. And it makes for such a great atmosphere! I just love seeing characters thrust into that. Also, darkness. Darkness is creepy, or cozy, or many things in between, but it’s almost always more emotional than (day)light, and makes people drop their guard, or just plain strips them of it. I can’t get enough of it! (And visually, flashlights or candles in the dark and the likes are just utterly gorgeous!)


• Road Trip: I very much enjoy typical road trip shenanigans, such as: Where Are We Going? Did You Even Bring a Map OMG? How Do You Have a Perfectly Packed Suitcase We Had Like Five Minutes’ Warning? Let’s Sing Along with the Radio! Oh No, Unexpected Car Trouble! And so, so much more! (But honestly, mainly it’s probably just another way for me to trap characters together and force them to interact.)


• Sharing a Bed: A favorite trope of mine for all my OTPs, and even some select gen pairs. I love how much it says about each character and their relationship how they react to the Oh No There’s Only One Bed situation. And I adore cuddling, and people feeling comfortable around each other.


• Snowed In: It doesn’t need to involve literal snow (though that’s always cozy), I just want the characters to be trapped together for a while. Preferably in a place they can more or less comfortably live in for that time without being in actual danger. (Think ‘trapped by terrible weather in a comfortably equipped cabin’, not ‘help we’re freezing to death in this mountain cave in a snowstorm.’)


• Undercover as a Couple: I love, love, love this as a romcom-y setup for get-together fic! Especially in the form of Undercover in a Gay Bar. (Oh, the romantic confusion! The sexual identity crisis! The “totally-necessary-for-our-cover” kisses!) But I think having two people with a genuinely platonic relationship shoved into this situation can be a lot of fun, too. (Especially if they’re a bit grouchy together!)


• Unreliable Narrator: This related to my love of surprises, mysteries, and subtlety. I like the intrigue and tension of not knowing what to trust, the challenge of having to figure out what is or was really going on, and the surprise endings or revelations that usually accompany that.


• UST: I mean, I want it to be resolved in the end, but until then, I love seeing all that tension building between my OTPs. Yay for people being desperately, breathlessly attracted to each other! ^^


• Worldbuilding: I love the little quirks and details and rules of fictional worlds, all the things that make a world what it is, and I’d love to see more of them. Any look behind the scenes, at the small (or big) stuff that the heroes take for granted, but that add flavor and character to the world would be fantastic! That could be anything, from a report someone filed or items someone keeps close at hand, over a closer look at scientific instruments or principles, to a place we haven’t seen before or a person we haven’t heard from. And anything else your imagination can come up with!