Trope Bingo

[shivver]

After seeing lost_spook's post about it, I signed up for trope_bingo on Dreamwidth (no, I have no idea how to link to Dreamwidth accounts) and got a card!


I decided to do this to challenge myself, to be given story prompts that I normally wouldn't even consider. Thus, I allowed the card to include AUs, which is something I've never cared to write. Here's the card. Sorry, my journal's theme doesn't allow for borders on tables and I'm too lazy to go figure out how to do this otherwise, so this is a just a messy list.

• Row 1: "24 hours to live", "accidental hero", "time travel", "fork in the road", "sharing a bed"
  
• Row 2: "epistolary", "death fic", "dark fic", "AU: romance novel", "poor communication skills"
  
• Row 3: "crossover", "cannon fodder", (free space), "AU: alternate professions", "AU: historical"
  
• Row 4: "meet the parents/family", "altered states of the mind", "AU: high school/college", "AU: mundane", "wing fic"
  
• Row 5: "AU: royalty/aristocracy/feudal", "fluff", "extortion/blackmail", "locked in", "rivals to lovers"
  

A very interesting card. I should have opted out more of the possible tropes, as I will never write a romance novel and that square has killed the possibility of doing row 2, column 4, and diagonal 2. I think the rest I could write if really pressed.

I've always wanted to try an epistolary story, so I will probably do column 1. I've done crossovers before (I think they've all been DT doppleganger crossovers; let's try something not quite so fangirl-obsessive, shall I?), so that shouldn't bad. The difficult one is "AU: royalty/aristocracy/feudal". However, I've come up with a general idea that might be very cool, so now I'm working on the research and the actual plot for it.

If I wanted to go really easy, it'd be either row 1 or column 2. Of course, if I'm being honest with myself, I'll probably make it through one story and then forget about it. However, the point is to write and have fun, not to obsess about completion, so I'm not going to worry about it.

Comments

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Whoot!! At least thou art giving it 'the go'!

*HUGS*

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, I'm mostly using it as inspiration. I haven't had much motivation to complete any of my current stories, so I thought injecting something new and different might make the difference.

[bas_math_girl]

Oooh, this is very intriguing.

You could always treat the AU: romance novel category really sarcastically and/or do something like "my dog has fallen for your dog. Whatever shall we do?" sort of thing...

I forgot to wish you good luck!!

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

You know, I *never* think of writing humor. Of course humor pops up in normal situations in my stories, but I don't think I've ever written something with the intention of it being funny or absurd. I had an idea once for a DW/Hitchhiker's Guide crossover, but at its core, it was still serious, and I decided not to even try because I have no capacity for writing the type of absurdity that HHG requires. :P

On the other hand, maybe I'll revisit the idea for the "crossover" square.

[thisbluespirit]

Good luck! And, hey, you can subvert tropes all you like - maybe even the romance novel square is possible with the Unconventional Courtship Generator! (I'd never write a romance novel myself, but I've subverted the summaries and played with the generator a lot since Unconventional Courtship started up as a fest and, frankly, it's the only thing most of those summaries deserve!!)

But, yeah, you only need one row, and there are lots of ways to go about it. Have fun!

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

That generator is hilarious, thank you! The very first summary generated involved a romance between the Master and Dalek Sec...

[thisbluespirit]

It's brilliant! I have far too much fun with it when bored. :-)

[arcanetrivia]

(no, I have no idea how to link to Dreamwidth accounts)

Unfortunately LJ doesn't have the same easy <user name="blahblah" site="blahblah.com"> thing with a list of possible valid sites going on to easily convert them to the appropriate site "userhead" and links. Simplest is probably a straight "a href" link - <a href="http://whoever.dreamwidth.org">whoever</a> - but it doesn't look like the result of an lj user= link.

You can go over to DW, highlight someone's userhead+journal name, view and then copy and paste the source code, but you have to make sure you get all the relevant bits:

<a href="http://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/profile"><img class="ContextualPopup-trigger" src="http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png" alt="[personal profile] " style="vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;" height="17" width="17"></a><a href="http://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/"><b>purplecat</b></a>

(the "ContextualPopup-trigger", i.e. the popup you get if you hover over a userhead, is named differently on LJ so it doesn't actually work the way it does on DW, but it seems harmless to leave it in)

to get: purplecat

...but that's kind of a pain to do every time. (Though it's simplest for actual DW user links, which are easy to find, versus converted Tumblr, DeviantArt, etc. links which I typically have to manufacture when I want one, by typing it into a new post and then previewing that post so I can copy code from it.)

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Yay! I tried it too but since my muse is dead it probably won't happen, hahaha =P

Good luck!