Tropes I adore: Competitions/games with high stakes. Seaside settings. A "training arc" (i.e. the protagonist has to learn a skill to advance in some kind of way). Secret societies. Small town secrets. An unseen/unknown antagonist. The past coming back to haunt characters. Also Gothic shit. (love Southern Gothics in particular). Toxic family dynamics (see Southern Gothics). Folklore/urban legends come to life. (think The Wicked Deep). A race against time. Wow that's a long list. Kudos to anyone who reads this far. Have a great day lol.
These are all good and I feel like several of them can be combined, like family secrets, small town secrets, and like secret societies. And maybe an awakening of an ancient evil. Ooooh I might have to write a book.
idk why but I don’t love small town secrets. maybe it’s bc I grew up in a big city or something but they just don’t do it for me... the rest I enjoy reading though
Started playing D&D back when I was ten... and thirty years later, I'm still prepping up games or building Characters to go off half-cocked on some crazy misadventuring series with the other misfits... chasing down monsters like it's a great idea to go toe-to-toe with something SOOOooo much more powerful than me, faster than me, better magical tech' than me... and probably an appetite for just my kind of people. Still worldbuilding for GURPS, but it's probably going to be chock full of fantasy tropes, too... You're definitely not alone. ;o)
A flip on the rich jerks, I love the rich generous secondary character. Like a friend from an affluent family or the rich aunt, that when they are in the scene you know it's going to be really extravagent. Similiar to this I just love really minor characters that really have their shit together, obviously main characters there needs to be conflict, but charactes that aren't overly developed but have really cool lives and everything together is amazing. Especially if they are from a marginalized background.
I’m a big fan of enemies to lovers! And everything gothic and creepy woods (being from GA I have a soft spot for southern gothic). I adore witches and am thrilled to see that trope cycling back into fashion. Books about books/bookshops/libraries are my heart!
Characters with niche interests, YES. This adds so much to a story! And it’s so refreshing after reading hundreds of books where characters all have the same stereotypical range of hobbies or jobs 😅
What I love to see in books is the MC is actually really powerful/a legendary figure but they hide it. And they do so because they're so tired of dealing with the whole 'with great power, comes great responsibility' and they just want to live a normal life. But, of course, plot happens and they get dragged into an adventure or stuff by other characters.
I just loveeeeeeeee found family. Just random people coming together and becoming this family while persuing their own goals makes a story so much better!
Mine aren't nearly so sophisticated. Time travel, Parallel Earths, Tough guys with a squishy center. Talking Animals, Wolf characters who might have a dog complex, and maybe a little bit of Mind Control. Can't wait to write a story that folds all these into one.
One thing I miss is cheesy over the top teen spy books. I grew up on them and its sad to see that the market has pivoted away from that. I guess I'll just reread the Gallagher Girls series.
You and me are NOT the same. my favourite tropes 1) mind control 2) it was all a dream/hallucination (i like it when your able to make me care about what isn't even happening and make me sad or relieved that it wasn't real) oh its hard to think of tropes
I agree the "pov switch" thing has to be done REALLY well for me to enjoy it, otherwise I just feel tricked. A book that did this amazingly well in my opinion was I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh. If you haven't read it you definitely should, it's a great thriller with a bunch of twists you'll never expect.
Any tips? I'm currently writing a duo POV story, and one of my characters is turning out to be kinda flat. I'm trying to build the plot around this, and he's generally uninteresting. 😅
@@GarnetsWeb I just switch every chapter. I think its easier if they're in two different places or they contradict each other. One POV is a serial killer and the other is the lead investigator looking for her.
Me: *checking out my new earplugs because my old ones were in their grave* Alexa: *uploads a new video* Me: I think I just found the perfect video to test my earplugs *falls on bed and ignores the world*
I love historical (romance )books! What makes them so interesting is the fashion. I just love detailed descriptions of their clothes and hairstyles. And just the settings in general idc maybe I just want to wear those clothes myself haha
Ooo! Some of my fav tropes: 1) The Gauntlet/task: I love when there is a series of tasks that have to be completed, especially in a competition. Like Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire. Especially if it's a puzzle or clues that need to be solved! 2) YA Thriller: Not exactly a trope, but I really love YA thrillers where the investigator is young. It gives a whole new direction to stories because younger people move with less caution in their world. They're very accessible narrators and their outlandish choices are understandable. When teens are in the middle of the murder heist I just find the tension mounts differently than adult thrillers (but I still love adult thrillers. I just gravitate to YA more). 3) Best Friends to lovers: I don't actually like or read contemporary romances, but I like a good romantic subplot. I really can't stand instant love or dark brooding love interest. The opposite of this I crave. I want to see two people that get along on multiple levels, that know eachother fall in love :) I have a hard time rooting for people that barely know eachother.
I really enjoy when pretty much every character is flawed. Like majorly flawed and the writer doesn't even try to make them seem pure. I can't explain, lol, but the First Law series is an example of this trope
Things I love: 1) Strange small towns: the ones that just seem 'off' somehow. 2)Gothic shit is almost always fun. How about 'that old abandoned church you just know something awful happened in a century ago' ? Goosebumps, right? 3) The bad boy or bad girl who actually isn't. 4) The villain who is weirdly relatable. I mean the one that when you're reading, you kind of 'get' even though you know they're way off base. An example I can come up with is in the TV show Orphan Black season 1 where one of the Antagonists was basically tortured her entire life and becomes an assassin that is at one point described as an angry angel. I'm sure there's more, but I need sleep now.
My favourite trope is the rich and selfish guy develops into the caring and courageous guy. It is hard to pull off but is a good trope. A good example is The switch by Anthony Horowitz
Just ordered Brighly Burning, and I’m so excited!!! I’ve been binging your videos, and they’ve helped me so much with my writing! Thank you for all that you do for us little guys!
Alexa so many perks of love for book choices... Indeed I enjoyed learning some of yours. 😌😳😁Count me in, I'm such a lover for abnormal psychological twists with sociopathic privileges, true thrillers I say. But I'm a naturalist when it comes to poetic truths and beautiful poetic moments of romance. 😍
Your epigraphs one just gave me a good idea. I hadn't quite considered it like this, but I think with chapters from one of my certain character's POV I'll include quotations from his favorite books because he's really into reading fantasy tales. It can be another thing that distinguishes his chapters from other character's chapters, besides having idealized and more flowery language, black / white views of bad VS good, etc.
Have you watched Netflix's 'The Crown', Alexa? I think you'd love it! It has all the stuff you like about royalty and politics and how they intersect with personal drama.
I've been in need of a way to improve my world-building without making it look like my characters don't stop explaining things to each other, but the use of fun epigraphs never crossed my mind. You've literary just improved my amateur books right here. Thanks! 😄
For number 11: Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant does this really well!! I googled if the book was based off a true story when I first started it lol
One that I see people complain about but I like, is when a forst person story feels like it was written by the main character. They go in tangents. Eventsay not be described in order. Characters say "I did this" and then go "well no, I actually did this". I just love how well it helps me to get immersed in the mind of the main character. Perhaps it's not the nearest form of writing. For example, Handmaid's Tale gets a lot of criticism for the story feeling disjointed, but I take it as the thoughts of the character
The epigraphs thing sounds like The Rithmatist by Sanderson, where Brando Sando gives us a brief piece of explanation of Rithmatics at the start of every chapter.
Have you read anything by Sanderson? Because a lot of what you mentioned show up in his books. I love a lot of his work, and he nails the epigraph stuff in The Final Empire series Stormlight Archives (though in The Final Empire, it's at the end of each chapter instead of the beginning). It was a lot of fun for me to figure out what these little experts were from in-world.
This video got me really excited. So many tropes I like. Can I recommend a book by Vivienne Saint Louis that has two things you like, Royal Court drama and fake relationship/stolen identity?
Things I love it books! • I adore fae/fairies (but only the dark tricky kind like in The Cruel Prince and The Enchantment of Ravens) a lot of people seem not to like it but I jive with it. • narratives that focus on villains/morally grey characters (or characters who become villains) • enemies to lovers (but only true enimies not dislike to lovers) • large casts that explore a community of people from multiple viewpoints (think Jade City, Little Fires Everywhere, Crazy Rich Asians, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet) • I love that art deco /1920s vibe (also 1980s vibe or classic Hollywood vibes). (The Diviners, Amberlough, Evelyn Hugo).
Honestly this video and thinking of all this makes me excited to implement all this and more into books I write in the future. I really want to write a monster girl and including a talking animal companion into one of my stories someday. (Though I dont think I'll write a fae book, as much as I love them).
Rebecca is also on the list of books with perfect first lines, which is something that will absolutely make me read a book. Douglas Adams was a genius at first lines. Another thing I will always sign up for is exploring the line between the book and the reader or writer, so I was hoping your example of epigraphy would be Thursday Next! Other examples are Inkheart by Cornelia Funke and Here, There Be Dragons by James A. Owen.
Thank you for defining "epigraph." I never knew the word for it. Unlike you, I don't like epigraphs and always skip reading them. I also don't like poems or songs in novels. I can't wait to see what things you don't love in books. (I'm predicting "sports" as the exception to hobbies you don't like. Okay, maybe that's just me.)
I actually don't like songs in novels either! Especially made up ones I have zero context for. Poems are hit or miss for me--long ones or if the author is bad at original poetry? I'm gonna skip haha.
Fascinating. None of those things would make me even mildly interested in a book. Not judging, just showing my amazement (again) with the fact that tastes are different.
If it's set at camp or like a boarding school, I'm almost always in. I don't even know why. But sign me up! Natural disasters, family secrets, and creepy history also make it higher up my TBR pile.
All of these were a hard agree but especially the last one. Epigraphs, whether fictional or real, to me are not only glimpses of the world/authors taste in literature, small enough to tease you, they're like well-chosen appetisers that prep the palate for what's to come, and suffuse the rest of the book/chapter with their thematic flavour. Or like poetry--little snippets that, again, if well written/chosen, can evoke so much because of how brief they are. Heck, if an epigraph intrigued me enough, it might motivate me to read whatever it was that so captivated the writer they had to put it in their book (sadly this is impossible with made-up ones).
I love a Hades and Persephone or Beauty and the Beast retelling. Also, love a marriage of convenience /arranged marriage and a grumpy/sunshine in my romances. Love a found family element. In mystery, I love a closed circle or locked room element.
We have such similar taste in books. Have you seen the TV miniseries Harper's Island? It's sooo well done, and mixes a lot of the thriller tropes you love! I would highly recommend it. It's like 13 hour-long episodes, I think.
I'm guaranteed to be interested in a book when it has alternate-history-with-fantasy/paranormal elements, whether it's set in that alternate past, or a present-day influenced by that alternate past. Something in the tone of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, or The Series of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel books, or The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. Anything that's a bit surrealist and "campy" with its magic is guaranteed to get me to at least pick it up.
My absolute Favorite trope is Age Gap Romance. Dad's best friend, Best Friend's dad, older teacher, etc. It can be done creepily and it can be done awesome! I've read both. lol
Love your videos! One of my favorite books, that I first read when I was 13 (over 20 years ago...), The Tribes of Palos Verdes by Joy Nicholson, has one of your favorite tropes in and I really recommend it. In fact, it may just be my favorite book for all time :)
Melody Daniel Luna It’s funny you say that about this video, because I had the exact same thing happen with the author Jenna Moreci. Her most loved tropes were all in my book...😟🤪😅
Uuh I also love epigraphs. Imo, the witcher series from Andrzej Sapkowski uses them in a great way, because they often show things like inherent racism (A scholar that did "extensive research on the non-feeling witcher race" and others), common beliefs, etc.
I always thought a great book series would be a kind of royal/political drama where it was 50/50, politics but the other half was Illuminati shit. Secret Kings. It'd explore how the secret group was bullying, controlling the rulers.
Might suggest working out how this "secret rulership caste" acts more as "powers behind the throan(s)"... from a variety of "advisory" or "semi-advisory" capacities to the nobles, then... the nobles get to keep their family "birthrights" and titles. They are still the "faces" of governance, BUT the advisors (whatever capacity or position/title) are the ones working the shady deals "behind closed doors" and in the relative background, deciding when and who to go to war... who wins/fails in which campaigns... and how empires can be risen and crushed... Might even decide who's royal lineage gets cut short (assassinated) while their position still assures them a future, regardless of who is "King" or "Emperor"... and whatnot. Just my take... and you're welcome to it. ;o)
If you haven't read it already, you should read The Collector by John Fowles. I'm sure you'd like it. I'm not that into thrillers but I ate this one up.
Not sure if this is a good suggestion, but could you do a video about when and how to kill characters? How to know when you really need to, or when you're just being trigger happy? Thanks!
I love magical realism when it's done well. I love historical fiction that can really bring a character to life, esp if it gives a new perspective on that character or their motives- Hillary Mantel, I'm looking at you! I love when you have a supporting character who could so easily be a bitch- bossy, rich, extra pretty, etc. - but she is actually using her powers for good and is warm and supportive and wonderful. Not a book, but Keeley in Ted Lasso is my favorite recent example of this and I love her portrayal in that show so much its giving me character ideas.
Oh yeahhh, I love me some rich assholes too haha. I think that's why I really enjoy royalty books too. FAKE DATING/ FAKE/FORCED MARRIAGE. Now we're getting into fanfic territory and I'M HERE FOR IT!!! I miss those days *sigh*
I love ghost stories mixed with personal human stories. I don't believe in ghosts but if you combine them with a compelling drama than I'll believe in them for your book or movie.
Fun video 😃 I love time travell books, person a pining for person b(a bit like in you belong with me by taylor swift) books about books so stories that take place in a bookstore/library. Fandom focused stories aka geekerella /queens of geek/fangirl. Books taking place somewhere fun aka in italy, france, japan, scotland++
There are many people doing these types of videos on UA-cam, and many are very good, but you have become my favourite over the last few weeks. I think the only point here where you didn't give a real example in fiction was the one of most interest to me, the intrigue and politics of a royal court. Could you give some good examples of this to be inspired by? Could you also do a video on how you approach researching for your fiction work? Thanks.
If you're looking for a book with great epigraphs id recommend the Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal. They really flesh out the world and especially in the second book add much-needed world context.
Epigraphs? I didn't know it was called that. So, in the Dark Elf Saga by Salvatore, many chapters (all? can't remember) start with the MC writing a diary sort of. Or it reads like a diary. Is that it?
I love Epigraphs! It is something I am trying to include in my WIP but it's been quite hit and miss in the current draft zero stage, so I am hoping to revisit it later in the the editing stage, and make a decision on what to do with the epighraphs if I do chose to leave it out in the end. Either way, hearing Alexa mention it as something she likes and also the examples are really going to help me work on it. :)
That making fun of the silliness of rich people has a name Alexa: Comedy of Manners! Technically, that is what Pride and Prejudice is. What I like BEST about them is that you don't have to have a villain. As an author, you get to like all your characters. You can "run with the fox and hunt with the hounds!
One thing I miss in YA is cheesy over the top teen spy books. I grew up of them and its sad to see that the market has pivoted away from that. I guess I'll just reread the Gallagher Girls series.
Have you ever read gentlemen and players, by Johannes Harris (the author of chocolate)? It's kinda heavy handed sometimes, but it contains lots and lots of the things you seem to love in books.
Whenever authors create their own terms/tools/magic. For example in Harry Potter how J.K Rowling makes up her own odd words and spells that just add to the "weird" but lovable world she crated for the Harry Potted series. (This mainly applies to fantasy and stuff like that)
If you like royal politics and things like that, I read this book called "Beware Princess Elizabeth" talking about Elizabeth Tudor's life and her rise from the mistake princess to a queen, including her mistreatment, all the drama, etc. It's actually pretty good!
The number one book trope for me is a competition in a sport/game to the death. Like "Hunger Games", "Battle Royale", or "The Long Walk" by Stephen King. No, I hadn't tried to write a story with this, because I would probably ruin it.
Yay Thursday Next! That series is so much fun Though I have read that Ffforde has said that he is against fanfiction and I'm like "seriously dude, what do you think that you're writing?" Still very funny and the epigraphs are great
Characters using mistaken or fabricated identities, who together think they know who they are but aren't sure whether they have a relationship or not, and the relatively sane people who have to put up with them.
Re: POV trickery/secret identity I remember an old book called "Touch not the Cat". There's a secret lover the protagonist has a psychic/telepathic connection with, but she doesn't know who it is. I read it ages ago but I remember it being good? 🤷♀️
I have been listening to your book spoilers videos, I love them. But I was wondering, is there a difference between Crime Novels, mystery and Thriller Novel. Would you mind discussing that. They all have crime in it, but how do you differentiate them.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Tropes I adore:
Competitions/games with high stakes.
Seaside settings.
A "training arc" (i.e. the protagonist has to learn a skill to advance in some kind of way).
Secret societies.
Small town secrets.
An unseen/unknown antagonist.
The past coming back to haunt characters.
Also Gothic shit. (love Southern Gothics in particular).
Toxic family dynamics (see Southern Gothics).
Folklore/urban legends come to life. (think The Wicked Deep).
A race against time.
Wow that's a long list. Kudos to anyone who reads this far. Have a great day lol.
These are all good and I feel like several of them can be combined, like family secrets, small town secrets, and like secret societies. And maybe an awakening of an ancient evil. Ooooh I might have to write a book.
@@kayeherl9195 Well if you do, you know I'd read it!
I had an idea to write a book about a Secret Society but Idk what Secret Societies do😅
idk why but I don’t love small town secrets. maybe it’s bc I grew up in a big city or something but they just don’t do it for me... the rest I enjoy reading though
I've decided to write because of you! Love from India!
Same here 🇮🇳
Thats awesome!! I Wish you a lot of productivity And no writers block
This is unrelated but your name is really pretty💞
Me to from india from kerala
Hopefully I'll be able to read your book one day
I like all of the old classic fantasy tropes. Epic battles, magic, powerful artifacts, the struggle between good and evil... I'm such a geek...
Started playing D&D back when I was ten... and thirty years later, I'm still prepping up games or building Characters to go off half-cocked on some crazy misadventuring series with the other misfits... chasing down monsters like it's a great idea to go toe-to-toe with something SOOOooo much more powerful than me, faster than me, better magical tech' than me... and probably an appetite for just my kind of people.
Still worldbuilding for GURPS, but it's probably going to be chock full of fantasy tropes, too...
You're definitely not alone. ;o)
I love it too! I'm fond of high fantasy, low fantasy, dark fantasy... As long as it looks like a medieval world, I love it!!
A flip on the rich jerks, I love the rich generous secondary character. Like a friend from an affluent family or the rich aunt, that when they are in the scene you know it's going to be really extravagent. Similiar to this I just love really minor characters that really have their shit together, obviously main characters there needs to be conflict, but charactes that aren't overly developed but have really cool lives and everything together is amazing. Especially if they are from a marginalized background.
I like anything rich
Whether mc or side character
Or protagonist or antagonist
Or forbidden love due to wealth or social status
I’m a big fan of enemies to lovers! And everything gothic and creepy woods (being from GA I have a soft spot for southern gothic). I adore witches and am thrilled to see that trope cycling back into fashion. Books about books/bookshops/libraries are my heart!
Characters with niche interests, YES. This adds so much to a story! And it’s so refreshing after reading hundreds of books where characters all have the same stereotypical range of hobbies or jobs 😅
Andrea Heckler - Writer I agree and I haven’t read any with interesting hobbies or interests. So I am glad I found out this is a trope.
What I love to see in books is the MC is actually really powerful/a legendary figure but they hide it. And they do so because they're so tired of dealing with the whole 'with great power, comes great responsibility' and they just want to live a normal life. But, of course, plot happens and they get dragged into an adventure or stuff by other characters.
I just loveeeeeeeee found family. Just random people coming together and becoming this family while persuing their own goals makes a story so much better!
Mine aren't nearly so sophisticated.
Time travel,
Parallel Earths,
Tough guys with a squishy center.
Talking Animals,
Wolf characters who might have a dog complex,
and maybe a little bit of Mind Control.
Can't wait to write a story that folds all these into one.
How about a grizzled detective that has a habit of calling home to leave messages on voicemail for his cat?
One thing I miss is cheesy over the top teen spy books. I grew up on them and its sad to see that the market has pivoted away from that. I guess I'll just reread the Gallagher Girls series.
I just reread that series earlier this year. It was a great decision you should definitely do it.
I reccomend mrs Smith's spy school series
You and me are NOT the same.
my favourite tropes
1) mind control
2) it was all a dream/hallucination (i like it when your able to make me care about what isn't even happening and make me sad or relieved that it wasn't real)
oh its hard to think of tropes
I agree the "pov switch" thing has to be done REALLY well for me to enjoy it, otherwise I just feel tricked. A book that did this amazingly well in my opinion was I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh. If you haven't read it you definitely should, it's a great thriller with a bunch of twists you'll never expect.
Any tips? I'm currently writing a duo POV story, and one of my characters is turning out to be kinda flat. I'm trying to build the plot around this, and he's generally uninteresting. 😅
@@springthyme1 beats me 😔 I have no idea how to switch POVs
@@GarnetsWeb I just switch every chapter. I think its easier if they're in two different places or they contradict each other. One POV is a serial killer and the other is the lead investigator looking for her.
Me: *checking out my new earplugs because my old ones were in their grave*
Alexa: *uploads a new video*
Me: I think I just found the perfect video to test my earplugs *falls on bed and ignores the world*
I love historical (romance )books! What makes them so interesting is the fashion. I just love detailed descriptions of their clothes and hairstyles. And just the settings in general idc maybe I just want to wear those clothes myself haha
YES
Same, is my fave genre
Girl! I feel you on isolated thrillers they are my fave, I wanna write one about a woman on a writing retreat in the woods.
Do it! That would be awesome! I'd totally read that!
sounds awesome!
Ooo! Some of my fav tropes:
1) The Gauntlet/task: I love when there is a series of tasks that have to be completed, especially in a competition. Like Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire. Especially if it's a puzzle or clues that need to be solved!
2) YA Thriller: Not exactly a trope, but I really love YA thrillers where the investigator is young. It gives a whole new direction to stories because younger people move with less caution in their world. They're very accessible narrators and their outlandish choices are understandable. When teens are in the middle of the murder heist I just find the tension mounts differently than adult thrillers (but I still love adult thrillers. I just gravitate to YA more).
3) Best Friends to lovers: I don't actually like or read contemporary romances, but I like a good romantic subplot. I really can't stand instant love or dark brooding love interest. The opposite of this I crave. I want to see two people that get along on multiple levels, that know eachother fall in love :) I have a hard time rooting for people that barely know eachother.
The classic for No. 9 "A book within a book" is "Neverending Story" by Michael Ende (original name: "Die Unendliche Geschichte").
I really enjoy when pretty much every character is flawed. Like majorly flawed and the writer doesn't even try to make them seem pure. I can't explain, lol, but the First Law series is an example of this trope
Things I love:
1) Strange small towns: the ones that just seem 'off' somehow.
2)Gothic shit is almost always fun. How about 'that old abandoned church you just know something awful happened in a century ago' ? Goosebumps, right?
3) The bad boy or bad girl who actually isn't.
4) The villain who is weirdly relatable. I mean the one that when you're reading, you kind of 'get' even though you know they're way off base. An example I can come up with is in the TV show Orphan Black season 1 where one of the Antagonists was basically tortured her entire life and becomes an assassin that is at one point described as an angry angel.
I'm sure there's more, but I need sleep now.
Currently reading Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth. She uses classified documents, news reels, etc. throughout the book. It does make it feel "bigger".
I recently found your channel and I have been binging your channel! Amazing videos and I love reading and writing about rich kids, so fun.
My favourite trope is the rich and selfish guy develops into the caring and courageous guy. It is hard to pull off but is a good trope. A good example is The switch by Anthony Horowitz
Epigraphs are amazing! I've loved it being done with the Young Elites.
Just ordered Brighly Burning, and I’m so excited!!! I’ve been binging your videos, and they’ve helped me so much with my writing! Thank you for all that you do for us little guys!
Alexa so many perks of love for book choices... Indeed I enjoyed learning some of yours. 😌😳😁Count me in, I'm such a lover for abnormal psychological twists with sociopathic privileges, true thrillers I say. But I'm a naturalist when it comes to poetic truths and beautiful poetic moments of romance. 😍
Your epigraphs one just gave me a good idea. I hadn't quite considered it like this, but I think with chapters from one of my certain character's POV I'll include quotations from his favorite books because he's really into reading fantasy tales. It can be another thing that distinguishes his chapters from other character's chapters, besides having idealized and more flowery language, black / white views of bad VS good, etc.
Like epigraphs, footnotes (if sparing and done well) can flesh out the experience and also assist in making any conlang(s) more accessible.
Have you watched Netflix's 'The Crown', Alexa? I think you'd love it! It has all the stuff you like about royalty and politics and how they intersect with personal drama.
I've been in need of a way to improve my world-building without making it look like my characters don't stop explaining things to each other, but the use of fun epigraphs never crossed my mind.
You've literary just improved my amateur books right here.
Thanks! 😄
Thank you for numbering this list/putting the numbered sections on the screen! It’s really helpful and I hope you continue to do it :) cheers!
For number 11: Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant does this really well!! I googled if the book was based off a true story when I first started it lol
One that I see people complain about but I like, is when a forst person story feels like it was written by the main character. They go in tangents. Eventsay not be described in order. Characters say "I did this" and then go "well no, I actually did this". I just love how well it helps me to get immersed in the mind of the main character. Perhaps it's not the nearest form of writing. For example, Handmaid's Tale gets a lot of criticism for the story feeling disjointed, but I take it as the thoughts of the character
Enemies to lovers, best friends to lovers. :") Found families too. There's just something about that kind of chaos that's funny and sweet.
FOUND FAMILY. I love found family so freaking much lol
The epigraphs thing sounds like The Rithmatist by Sanderson, where Brando Sando gives us a brief piece of explanation of Rithmatics at the start of every chapter.
Have you read anything by Sanderson? Because a lot of what you mentioned show up in his books. I love a lot of his work, and he nails the epigraph stuff in The Final Empire series Stormlight Archives (though in The Final Empire, it's at the end of each chapter instead of the beginning). It was a lot of fun for me to figure out what these little experts were from in-world.
This video got me really excited. So many tropes I like. Can I recommend a book by Vivienne Saint Louis that has two things you like, Royal Court drama and fake relationship/stolen identity?
Things I love it books!
• I adore fae/fairies (but only the dark tricky kind like in The Cruel Prince and The Enchantment of Ravens) a lot of people seem not to like it but I jive with it.
• narratives that focus on villains/morally grey characters (or characters who become villains)
• enemies to lovers (but only true enimies not dislike to lovers)
• large casts that explore a community of people from multiple viewpoints (think Jade City, Little Fires Everywhere, Crazy Rich Asians, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet)
• I love that art deco /1920s vibe (also 1980s vibe or classic Hollywood vibes). (The Diviners, Amberlough, Evelyn Hugo).
Honestly this video and thinking of all this makes me excited to implement all this and more into books I write in the future.
I really want to write a monster girl and including a talking animal companion into one of my stories someday.
(Though I dont think I'll write a fae book, as much as I love them).
Rebecca is also on the list of books with perfect first lines, which is something that will absolutely make me read a book. Douglas Adams was a genius at first lines. Another thing I will always sign up for is exploring the line between the book and the reader or writer, so I was hoping your example of epigraphy would be Thursday Next! Other examples are Inkheart by Cornelia Funke and Here, There Be Dragons by James A. Owen.
Thank you for defining "epigraph." I never knew the word for it. Unlike you, I don't like epigraphs and always skip reading them. I also don't like poems or songs in novels. I can't wait to see what things you don't love in books. (I'm predicting "sports" as the exception to hobbies you don't like. Okay, maybe that's just me.)
I actually don't like songs in novels either! Especially made up ones I have zero context for. Poems are hit or miss for me--long ones or if the author is bad at original poetry? I'm gonna skip haha.
Fascinating. None of those things would make me even mildly interested in a book. Not judging, just showing my amazement (again) with the fact that tastes are different.
MC meets people they never thought they would see again. I LOVE this trope
I like these so much that a lot of these are in my stories lol!
If it's set at camp or like a boarding school, I'm almost always in. I don't even know why. But sign me up! Natural disasters, family secrets, and creepy history also make it higher up my TBR pile.
There are several things you mentioned in the story I'm currently working on! Hooray!
All of these were a hard agree but especially the last one. Epigraphs, whether fictional or real, to me are not only glimpses of the world/authors taste in literature, small enough to tease you, they're like well-chosen appetisers that prep the palate for what's to come, and suffuse the rest of the book/chapter with their thematic flavour. Or like poetry--little snippets that, again, if well written/chosen, can evoke so much because of how brief they are. Heck, if an epigraph intrigued me enough, it might motivate me to read whatever it was that so captivated the writer they had to put it in their book (sadly this is impossible with made-up ones).
I love a Hades and Persephone or Beauty and the Beast retelling. Also, love a marriage of convenience /arranged marriage and a grumpy/sunshine in my romances. Love a found family element. In mystery, I love a closed circle or locked room element.
The latest American Girl "Girl of the Year" (2022) is a Chinese-American girl from Colorado who trains rescue dogs, if you're into that.
Thanks for sharing your list ma'am. You bookshelf looks amazing.
We have such similar taste in books. Have you seen the TV miniseries Harper's Island? It's sooo well done, and mixes a lot of the thriller tropes you love! I would highly recommend it. It's like 13 hour-long episodes, I think.
I'm guaranteed to be interested in a book when it has alternate-history-with-fantasy/paranormal elements, whether it's set in that alternate past, or a present-day influenced by that alternate past. Something in the tone of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, or The Series of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel books, or The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. Anything that's a bit surrealist and "campy" with its magic is guaranteed to get me to at least pick it up.
My absolute Favorite trope is Age Gap Romance. Dad's best friend, Best Friend's dad, older teacher, etc. It can be done creepily and it can be done awesome! I've read both. lol
Love your videos! One of my favorite books, that I first read when I was 13 (over 20 years ago...), The Tribes of Palos Verdes by Joy Nicholson, has one of your favorite tropes in and I really recommend it. In fact, it may just be my favorite book for all time :)
I just love this channel to death. Alexa is so on point.
Most of my favourite tropes are the same! I just bought The Turn of the Key and can't wait to read it!!!
Oof! You're literally describing my manuscript in all of these.
Melody Daniel Luna It’s funny you say that about this video, because I had the exact same thing happen with the author Jenna Moreci. Her most loved tropes were all in my book...😟🤪😅
@@woodnoteflute Not a bad at all! I hope she reads your book :D
Melody Daniel Luna Thank you! :D
I love your videos. Thank you for sharing your ideas and love of reading/writing! It's contagious.
Uuh I also love epigraphs. Imo, the witcher series from Andrzej Sapkowski uses them in a great way, because they often show things like inherent racism (A scholar that did "extensive research on the non-feeling witcher race" and others), common beliefs, etc.
I always thought a great book series would be a kind of royal/political drama where it was 50/50, politics but the other half was Illuminati shit. Secret Kings. It'd explore how the secret group was bullying, controlling the rulers.
Might suggest working out how this "secret rulership caste" acts more as "powers behind the throan(s)"... from a variety of "advisory" or "semi-advisory" capacities to the nobles, then... the nobles get to keep their family "birthrights" and titles. They are still the "faces" of governance, BUT the advisors (whatever capacity or position/title) are the ones working the shady deals "behind closed doors" and in the relative background, deciding when and who to go to war... who wins/fails in which campaigns... and how empires can be risen and crushed...
Might even decide who's royal lineage gets cut short (assassinated) while their position still assures them a future, regardless of who is "King" or "Emperor"... and whatnot.
Just my take... and you're welcome to it. ;o)
Can you please make a video on picking a title for your book! How did you chose yours etc. Love from Sweden
Dune does the last trope so well!
I also LOVE court intrigue. Can you share your favorites among these? My current favorites are The Goblin Emperor, and The Queen's Thief series.
If you haven't read it already, you should read The Collector by John Fowles. I'm sure you'd like it. I'm not that into thrillers but I ate this one up.
I’m reading that one at the moment, I really love it!
Thank you for giving a book📙 recommendation after every point ❤️👍
Not sure if this is a good suggestion, but could you do a video about when and how to kill characters? How to know when you really need to, or when you're just being trigger happy? Thanks!
Idk if you have done this before but I would love if you would make a video discussing your favorite and least favorite YA TROPES. ♥️
I like adventures in places I've never been, real or imagined. Dark or sarcastic humor but not if it's just bickering.
I love magical realism when it's done well. I love historical fiction that can really bring a character to life, esp if it gives a new perspective on that character or their motives- Hillary Mantel, I'm looking at you! I love when you have a supporting character who could so easily be a bitch- bossy, rich, extra pretty, etc. - but she is actually using her powers for good and is warm and supportive and wonderful. Not a book, but Keeley in Ted Lasso is my favorite recent example of this and I love her portrayal in that show so much its giving me character ideas.
I'm so focused on the Cruel Prince series over your shoulder...I just finished it on Audible.
You had me at sociopaths & abnormal psychology!
Oh yeees on the royalty intrigue!!!
Oh yeahhh, I love me some rich assholes too haha. I think that's why I really enjoy royalty books too.
FAKE DATING/ FAKE/FORCED MARRIAGE. Now we're getting into fanfic territory and I'M HERE FOR IT!!! I miss those days *sigh*
I love ghost stories mixed with personal human stories. I don't believe in ghosts but if you combine them with a compelling drama than I'll believe in them for your book or movie.
OK I got really excited during the first one because that’s what I’m writing my book about🤣🤣
Fun video 😃 I love time travell books, person a pining for person b(a bit like in you belong with me by taylor swift) books about books so stories that take place in a bookstore/library. Fandom focused stories aka geekerella /queens of geek/fangirl. Books taking place somewhere fun aka in italy, france, japan, scotland++
Another good POV trickery that I’ve read recently is The Wife Between Us
I love the spy in a royal family trope. It's awesome
Great video!!! I love it when I see you've uploaded! 💙
There are many people doing these types of videos on UA-cam, and many are very good, but you have become my favourite over the last few weeks. I think the only point here where you didn't give a real example in fiction was the one of most interest to me, the intrigue and politics of a royal court. Could you give some good examples of this to be inspired by? Could you also do a video on how you approach researching for your fiction work? Thanks.
Yes!! I clicked on this so fast. I love taking about what I'm trash for. 😋
From a lot of things you mentioned, I think you would like the Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead.
If you're looking for a book with great epigraphs id recommend the Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal. They really flesh out the world and especially in the second book add much-needed world context.
Alexa, have you checked out an awesome Reylo Fan Fic called Landscape with A Blur a Conquerors. Sounds like it would be your cup of tea.
Epigraphs? I didn't know it was called that. So, in the Dark Elf Saga by Salvatore, many chapters (all? can't remember) start with the MC writing a diary sort of. Or it reads like a diary. Is that it?
I love Epigraphs! It is something I am trying to include in my WIP but it's been quite hit and miss in the current draft zero stage, so I am hoping to revisit it later in the the editing stage, and make a decision on what to do with the epighraphs if I do chose to leave it out in the end. Either way, hearing Alexa mention it as something she likes and also the examples are really going to help me work on it. :)
That making fun of the silliness of rich people has a name Alexa: Comedy of Manners! Technically, that is what Pride and Prejudice is. What I like BEST about them is that you don't have to have a villain. As an author, you get to like all your characters. You can "run with the fox and hunt with the hounds!
One thing I miss in YA is cheesy over the top teen spy books. I grew up of them and its sad to see that the market has pivoted away from that. I guess I'll just reread the Gallagher Girls series.
Have you ever read gentlemen and players, by Johannes Harris (the author of chocolate)? It's kinda heavy handed sometimes, but it contains lots and lots of the things you seem to love in books.
Have you read Dark Places by Gillian Flynn??? It’s her first book so her writing is still being fleshed out but the story is still SO good.
That's my favorite Flynn book and it doesn't get as much love as the other 2 :(
Yes, totally read it... not my fave Flynn, but solid (and better than the movie, which itself wasn't awful or anything).
Whenever authors create their own terms/tools/magic. For example in Harry Potter how J.K Rowling makes up her own odd words and spells that just add to the "weird" but lovable world she crated for the Harry Potted series. (This mainly applies to fantasy and stuff like that)
If like gothic, have you read Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea? I LOVED that book
If you like royal politics and things like that, I read this book called "Beware Princess Elizabeth" talking about Elizabeth Tudor's life and her rise from the mistake princess to a queen, including her mistreatment, all the drama, etc. It's actually pretty good!
The number one book trope for me is a competition in a sport/game to the death. Like "Hunger Games", "Battle Royale", or "The Long Walk" by Stephen King. No, I hadn't tried to write a story with this, because I would probably ruin it.
Yay Thursday Next! That series is so much fun
Though I have read that Ffforde has said that he is against fanfiction and I'm like "seriously dude, what do you think that you're writing?"
Still very funny and the epigraphs are great
Characters using mistaken or fabricated identities, who together think they know who they are but aren't sure whether they have a relationship or not, and the relatively sane people who have to put up with them.
townies vs rich kids in a coastal town made me think of Veronica Mars lmaooo
Re: POV trickery/secret identity I remember an old book called "Touch not the Cat". There's a secret lover the protagonist has a psychic/telepathic connection with, but she doesn't know who it is. I read it ages ago but I remember it being good? 🤷♀️
By Mary Stewart. It's one of those books that's stayed with me for years.
@@val_nightlily Thank you, Barb!
The best usage of epigraphs I've seen were in the "Bioshock" and "Dishonored" games.
Into any mentoring? Sorry, newbie to the writing industry.....your the best!!!!
Have you read Shutter Island? It’s great!
I have been listening to your book spoilers videos, I love them. But I was wondering, is there a difference between Crime Novels, mystery and Thriller Novel. Would you mind discussing that. They all have crime in it, but how do you differentiate them.