It’s only natural that we notice discrepancies in other author’s work. Very few contemporary books escape without at least one or more slips. On a larger scale, we also react negatively to tropes that are so predominant in fiction they’ve become irritants. A specific phrase or word can be one person’s pet peeve, while another person would ignore it. In the same fashion, particular tropes can be accepted––or exasperate the reader.

One trope I can do without is the rapid disposal of parents or siblings (of a main character) by fatal automobile, plane, or boat accident. Usually the character has been orphaned at some point in their early life, and either consigned to agency care, or was raised by a grandparent or aunt, also now deceased. This is apparently in order to show the character (often a victim) is alone in the world, and therefore without a family concerned for their welfare. Since these relatives are usually disposed of in one or two lines of dialogue, it shows little effort on the author’s part: “Killed when their car went off a bridge.” Case closed. I’d love to see other, more original and ambitious solutions to their solo existence, or at least a reference to the character’s association with the tragedy; for example, an unnatural fear of bridges that influences their choices in the story.

Second to eliminating family members by fatal accident, the disease of the day syndrome. Disease is real; disease is frightening; disease takes family and friends from our lives. We know this, and in some stories it is relevant, but often not. It seems gratuitous to knock off a character for no good reason other than hoping to strike a nerve in the reader. I still think about a novel I read where the main character, owner of a yarn shop, overcomes challenging difficulties in her life, seems to be finally on an even keel, then, on practically the last page, is given a terminal illness diagnosis. I still cannot fathom why. 

I’d love to read your comments on the tropes that annoy you the most and impede the smooth flow of an otherwise good story or novel.