Elliot Kessler

Ah, yes. BookTok. The popular trend for readers and where originality goes to die.

I’ve seen many articles and posts circling the internet about a trend on TikTok called BookTok, where teens and young adults share their favorite books, what they like about them, and why others should read the book too. It’s also where young authors can promote their work and market it to a young audience. This fantastic concept would have worked great if it weren’t for one annoying but popular word among this group of readers: tropes.

Tropes have existed since the dawn of storytelling, yes. But what makes stories fun is how they play off different tropes, using them to their advantage and giving them unique twists.

For those that don’t know, a trope is almost like a cliche. It’s something that happens in a specific genre or is in most general fiction that audiences come to know and expect. For instance, the strong, beautiful, fearless, leader-like woman in space operas (Princess Leia, Gamora, Ripley, and even my character, Tromita) and the wise, old wizard in fantasies.

These tropes are generally harmless, but the BookTok community has found a way to weaponize these tropes against originality unknowingly. Many of the books recommended on BookTok are recommended based solely on the tropes the story has. People often look for stories with specific tropes instead of something new.

This can significantly damage authors. I, for one, am trying to write fresh, original, and unique stories and not create a book filled with trending tropes or popular character stereotypes. A computer could be programmed to do that.

What a computer can’t do is write a story filled with soul and passion. It can’t create any new ideas. It can only use ideas already created (which describes most of recent Hollywood, now that I think about it). When I’m looking for a new read, I don’t go to Google and search for “Books with a chosen one” or “Books with friends to lovers.” I look through articles and lists of books that are praised for being unique and original, such as “Jurassic Park,” “And Then There Were None,” and “The Martian Chronicles.” I don’t want to find tropes that I can find in a million other different stories. It was something that I’d never seen before. Because of this, I typically end up resorting to classic books by authors who are long gone.

This brings me to my next point. At this point, I don’t even read modern authors. I’ve read some like Ted Chiang, Timothy Zahn, and James Patterson. But most of the books I read are older. They’re classics. They’ve proven their worth and have survived the test of time, so I expect most of them to be good, and generally, they are. They aren’t formulaic because there was no formula. They aren’t color-by-number because there were no numbers to color. They aren’t filled with popular tropes because tropes weren’t really defined until later. They’re simply pure, original stories that are told well.

So, dear readers, please don’t search for books based on tropes. You’re only asking for more generic, formulaic, soulless stories that computers will write within the next decade. Take a leap of faith. Try something new. Go to a bookstore and grab a book that sounds entertaining. Find a book that sounds new and exciting. If you stick to your comfy little bubble of stories, you already know the ending. You might never find the stories you love.

Now, dear authors, don’t stress about filling your next novel with a million tropes people enjoy. Don’t worry about writing the next bestseller. Write what you want to write. Write whatever story brings passion to your soul, whatever story that’s begging to be let out. If you have a story in your mind that you must write or fear you might burst, put it on the page. It doesn’t matter how weird or stupid the story sounds. It will find its audience if you are passionate about it (typically through a lot of marketing, but you get what I mean).

Stories are about entertaining, yes. But they’re also about our unique voices and how we perceive the world. It’s about seeing things through a new lens and experiencing life as someone else sees it. Stories aren’t beautiful only because they’re fun but also because they are art.

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.