Backwards Writing Tropes

Hate triangles, unchosen ones, too many beds, and more backwards book and fanfiction tropes! How would you reverse your favorite tropes?

Message me on Twitter @joey_tonka if you have something fun you want to share with me or just say hi!

[marlymarly]

I laughed out loud at “1D can’t pay their bills so Harry Styles is sold to you”

[starjones]

"A murderer raises out of a very loving and non traumatic household"
Soooo Light Yagami

[monkewithinternetaccess]

Think of the opposite of iroh and yoda. Instead of wise mentors that disguise themselves as bumbling fools, the main characters mentor is really just an insane old hermit.

[Multifandomgirl]

Reverse Yandere. A girl hates this guy much she kills anyone trying to kill him just so she can keep him alive to torture him.

[derekmann]

“Horrible character meets good character and drags them down” is basically just Always Sunny lmao.

[lelegus]

Lovers to friends.
They begin as a couple but thorough the narrative they realize that they work better as friends and their romance doesn't return in the end.

[juliefarrell]

Instead of alcoholic, nasty step dad, a fun loving, kind, hilarious step dad who is loved by his step children, who does drink but does so responsibly and isn't harmful to his step kids and wife.

[aspiring.creative.person]

WAIT actually a retirement home AU sounds so funny. Old people notoriously don’t have filters. Imagine your favorite characters all living together as old people and bantering and having no filters. Imagine old enemies having to see each other every day, recounting their encounters and always trying to one-up each other with their stories. That would genuinely be amazing.

[nekulnahuel]

"Fake enemies. You're in a relationship, but you have to pretend to hate each other." Not 100%, but Good Omens be like

[princetoontema]

"Horrible dude finds nice lady and drags her down to his level" Did you mean Joker and Harley Quinn?

[confused]

reverse hanahaki: eating flowers cause you love them so much, it works similarly to a laxative
reverse soulmate: our birthmarks are the same, now we're enemies lol
reverse school au: basically the same, but from the teacher's perspective
reverse isekai: you get killed in the fantasy world, welcome to taxes
reverse humour: too many forced memes and characters trying way too hard to make you laugh

[dededeletethis]

The Un-Chosen One: someone who is specifically forbidden from participating in the plot. Any time they try to get involved, either some outside force keeps them back or the people actually carrying out the plot move somewhere else. Just imagine a thrilling battle between the hero and the dark lord, the un-chosen one shows up ready to help, and the hero and the dark lord both just stop what they’re doing and agree to postpone the battle to next week

[stafey]

“You’re the Un-Chosen one” is a great quote. My character absolutely refuses to fulfill his destiny of saving a ton of people and has been playing in his enemies hands a while, so this would be a great quote for a villain. “While you have refused to play your role in the world and chaos has run rampant under my watchful eye, you haven’t realized that less trust you. Their blind faith in you will become unbridled hatred in good time, you foolish Un-Chosen one.”

Edit: well guys, first chapter of the intro to my world building and spin off of my real work just went up, went terribly.

[umbrellahat]

Actually the found enemies thing where they all gradually grow to hate each other sounds like a great dynamic for a really depressing dystopia or apocalypse story.

[stegydraws]

I once read a fic where there was only one bed, but the characters fought about who should sleep on the bed and who should sleep on the floor. They ended up sleeping next to each other on the floor.
Edit: To everyone asking for the link, I don't have it. I read this fic a long time ago and don't have it saved. If I can find it again I will give you all the link. Sorry.

[havenlepire]

I love the concept of the anti-Sue (opposite of Mary Sue) where the person just has tremendously dull and mundane day to day problems but just outside of their knowledge, everyone around them is experiencing absolute chaotic soap-opera plotlines. They then meet up with said friend or family and the chaos just “non-exists” for the moment and said family or friend relies on anti-Sue for some sense of normalcy in their lives and for some reason never brings up the chaotic dramatic plot stuff around said anti-Sue who just casually “logics” their way towards explaining away the weird stuff.

[proudvballmom]

i would unironically read some of these with my favorite ships 💀. also i feel like this could be a really good writing exercise to do or a good way to brainstorm new stories.

[Kingdom_Of_Dreams]

The "pretending to hate each other and then actually hate each other" thing is freaking hilarious

[pumpkinsmush]

Reverse one bed troupe, both parties are secretly really into each other so they decide to book a one bed hotel room behind each others backs to see if they truly have a connection.

Unfortunately, due to hilarious shenanigans and miscommunication they BOTH book a one bedroom room. The hotel accidentally overbooked them so both characters end up with a room with two beds.

They give one of the rooms to someone who came in last minute and go to their room, both bummed out because their master plans failed.

Then there are two routes this could go:

A: The characters mope around all night in their separate beds like the angsty fools they are.

Or

B: Late at night neither character can sleep so they stay up and talk for a while and one of them accidentally confesses.

They then push their beds together and live their dorky one bed troupe dreams

[gremlin_ghost]

Since a love 'triangle' (its actually just a love angle, but I won't get into that) usually partakes in 2 people liking the protagonist and hating eachother because of it, would that mean a hate triangle would be 2 people falling in love over thier mutual seething hate for the main character?