Brandon Sanderson Reveals the Most Boring Tropes Sci-Fi Authors Will Never Use Anymore

Brandon Sanderson spoke with several authors to discuss the overused science fiction tropes they want to get rid of.

Follow Login to Follow ×

SUMMARY

ELI5 Read Next

Brandon Sanderson recently spoke with some of the most promising modern authors to discuss the future of fantasy and science fiction, and among their topics were writing tropes that they want to banish forever, as well as the ones they want to see elevated in literature.

Pierce Brown, Tomi Adeyemi, and Matt Dinniman appeared on Sanderson’s YouTube channel, and some of their responses include:

Brown: Member of the lower class infiltrating a military academy.

Adeyemi: Female protagonist who doesn’t know she’s pretty because she’s never looked in a mirror, never seen a reflection in the lake, but then she finds out she has powers.

Dinniman: I want to get rid of this annoying trope where the guy walks around with a pet and then the pet becomes this whole character.

Indeed, these tropes have found their way into several science fiction novels and have become overused throughout the decades. On the other hand, Dinniman said he wants to amplify the trend where “there’s nothing special about the main character.” Stories where normal people rise to the occasion should happen more in fiction stories.

Brown echoed his fellow author’s answer and agreed that he wants to see a bit more of the common man’s strength, being his own commonness.

Brandon Sanderson Reveals Tropes That Horrify Him as a Reader

During one of Sanderson’s writing lectures, he shared with the audience what appalls him as a reader. The current trend in modern literature prioritizes reviews and includes specific descriptions of a novel’s content. The author explained (via YouTube):

I get horrified by the way that certain genres approach tropes… You can go to the Amazon page, and it’ll say, ‘This is a happily ever after with no cheating,’ and it’ll list the things that don’t occur in it and what do, and that’s before the summary, so that the reader knows that they can throw away this book if it doesn’t match…

This practice has become prevalent, especially with romance novels, particularly those with sensitive content, as these could work as a dealbreaker for some readers. Sanderson expressed aversion towards this trend, although he acknowledged that it works for some fans.

It’s easy to understand why he dislikes this approach, as his main focus is epic fantasy and science fiction, and it’s quite rare to see tags where specific content is explicitly written in the book’s description.

The Familiar Trope That Sanderson Wants to See More in Fiction

Brandon Sanderson / Credits: @BrandSanderson on YouTube Brandon Sanderson / Credits: The Tim Ferriss Show on YouTube Brandon Sanderson / Credits: Barnes & Noble Podcast on YouTube Brandon Sanderson / Credits: @BrandSanderson on YouTube Brandon Sanderson / Credits: The Tim Ferriss Show on YouTube Brandon Sanderson / Credits: Barnes & Noble Podcast on YouTube

Like many of us, Sanderson has a reading guilty pleasure that he never gets tired of. He said he’s “a sucker for a thief with a heart of gold” and “a quirky jester character” (via TikTok). He also admitted that the things he writes and is very careful enough not to do in every book are the kinds of stories he likes to read from others.

Tropes in literature help readers identify the type of novels they want to read, but Sanderson believes writers shouldn’t be too reliant on the very common ones and those that have been used over and over.

He says that science fiction and fantasy should be the genres where authors are free to tackle things that have not been explored before.

What literature tropes do you want to get rid of? Share them in the comments!

🎮 Take a short break — play a quick game