Tropes

 

Class Blurb:

Trope-tastic with Damon Suede

Tropes are the rocket fuel of romance. Classic story patterns signal the ride ahead so that everyone can find the perfect book to take them where they want to go. Learn to tap the language that attracts the right audience, streamlines your stories, and leaves them needing more. In this advanced workshop, we'll untangle the evolution of tropes and their timeless power to sell a project, shape a story, and grab imaginations. Whether you like to wing it or bring it, you’ll leave this workshop with a new handle on harnessing reader expectations for pleasure and profit.

Class Description:

Trope-tastic is a practical workshop about the history and practice of trope-ical writing in genre fiction. In a session suitable for writers of every experience level and stylistic approach, we’ll explore:

• techniques for successful trope implementation.
• the use of conventions and codes maximize emotional impact
• trope-specific language for drafting and promo.
• the ancient sources of fictional tropes
• Methods of hybridization and adaptation to keep tropes fresh
• obligatory scenes that guarantee reader enjoyment and word of mouth.

Tropes offer genre authors instant fan-candy and story anchors, but only if you keep them fresh and fascinating. Join screenwriter and novelist Damon Suede for an in-depth exploration of the story patterns that readers and editors crave.

Takeaways:

• History and theory of tropes as genre actions, how they've evolved from mythic elements to reflect the issues of the moment.
• Trope signals: vocabulary that attracts the right fanbase and anchors your work with appealing, dynamic specificity during drafting and revision.
• Clear grasp of trope language for characterization, dramatization and marketing of the project.
• Pattern hunting: how to research & harvest trope details as they mutate to stay fresh/current

Presentations:

• "Trope-a-holic" workshop for the Crazy Scribes in Nashville, TN (March 2023)
• "Trope-tastic" master class for PNWA Conference  in Seattle, WA (September 2022)
• "Trope-tastic" master class for COFW-RWA (November 2019)
• "Trope-tastic" master class for Orange County RWA in Fullerton, CA (October 2019)
• "Trope-tastic" master class for RWA National Conference in New York, NY (July 2019)

 

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If you'd like to book Damon to come present a workshop for your group or chapter, just give a holler.