We all like to think that we write original stories that no one has ever written before. In a sense that’s true. On the other hand, it’s also highly likely that your story falls into a trope.
According to Wikipedia, a trop is “a writer’s usage of commonly recurring or overused literary techniques and rhetorical devices (characters and situations), motifs, and clichés in a work of creative literature.”
In other words, it’s a common plot device that’s used in many different stories.
Some think that it’s not a good thing to use tropes, on the other hand, if you look at most popular fiction you could probably slot every book you come across into a known trope. By using a trope, it doesn’t mean that your story is going to be exactly like every other book that uses that same trope. They are general enough that the stories you can create from a single trope could be endless.
Using a trope can be a great way to start plotting or thinking about the story you want to write. Just saying to your fantasy writing self “The One” makes you think of all the stories you’ve read where the protagonist, unbeknownst to themselves, is the one and only person who can _____ (fill in the blank: save the world, kill the big-bad evil, whatever). If that’s the sort of story you love and want to write, then you know right off how your story is going to go.
The same goes for mysteries (for example, the “incompetent detective”), and romance (I’m currently writing an “enemies to lovers” story).
Just because you start with one trope, doesn’t mean you can’t play with it. You could subvert it—making your Cindarella male. You could play it up and really dig your story into the trope in order to write satire. There are many different ways to use tropes—you are limited only by your imagination.
Tropes come in and out of fashion like the length of your skirt or how wide the bottom of your jeans are. At times people crave books written with a particular trope. If you search for popular tropes, Writer’s Digest has lists of the most popular tropes in various genres including romance, mystery, fantasy, and thrillers.
It may go against your creative instinct to use a trope, but I think you should embrace it. Not only is it an interesting place to start, but your readers will appreciate it because (whether they realize it or not) readers love tropes—just think of how you might search for a book on Amazon. When looking for a new book, most people will either type in an author’s name, a book title, or a trope. If your book falls into the trope they’re looking for, it’ll get shown (so don’t forget to put it in with your keywords if you self-publish).