Note: This template is an example to help with Trope Launch Pad
drafts. If you wish to copy it into your draft as a guideline for crafting a new trope, go ahead. Just press the " Page Source" button above, copy the results, and off you go.
Give a short statement identifying the trope, followed by details in additional paragraphs. Keep it concise, but feel free to be funny. Do not put the name of the trope at the top of the draft — when it's displayed in the Wiki, that will automatically be done for you.
Make sure you're draft has proper grammar and formatting. This template can help, but you may also want to test out your draft in one of the Wiki Sandboxes. If you need help with your English, you can also post on the Get Help With English forum.
If you use this template to make a draft, be sure to remove any unused elements before you publish it.
Put all "See also", "Compare/Contrast" and similar links at the end of the description. A sentence identifying the source of the trope name is optional, but appreciated. Some tropes have a small list of subtropes. These should be bulleted Wiki Words at the bottom. :
Subtropes
- Subtrope 1
- Subtrope 2
- Subtrope 3
Examples
- A New Hope: This is the generic format for an example. Check out How to Write an Example
- All trope proposals on the Trope Launch Pad should have 3 examples minimum. Read up on the TLP Guidelines before making a draft.
- All examples should be categorized under Media Categories. Here's a list of the most common ones. Your proposal doesn't need explicit folders if you only have a handful of examples, but the examples themselves still need to be sectioned off into these categories.
- Be sure to arrange all examples as a bulleted list. If your example doesn't have a work page, it's okay to set up a Red Link to it.
- Before launching the trope, the examples need to be alphabetized by the name of the work.
- There is no strict format for examples, in order to keep them from being boringly alike. However, don't hide the name of the work in a pothole or assume that you don't need to mention it at all because everyone will recognize the character name or situation. The name of the work should occur within the first few words of the example.
- Be sure to give context to all examples that explain how they fit within the trope. Don't just gesture at it by saying "it does this", those are what we call Zero-Context Example.
- Multiple citations from a single series can go either into one large entry or several individual entries.
- Multiple citations, if put in individual entries, are on another level of bullets.
- Don't have two levels for only one item, though. See Example Indentation in Trope Lists.
- Sometimes dialogue may be quoted in an example. Use the following template:
Character One: Witty comment.
Character Two: Snappy riposte.
Character One: Devastating put-down. - Subversions, inversions and counterexamples can either go in the same list as examples, or have their own separate lists following it. Usually the latter occurs when subversions, inversions, and counterexamples are common. Do us all a favor and make sure your examples are actually subversions, though.
- Keep "in-line" examples of the trope to a minimum.
- Don't call something "recent" or talk about "last week's episode" or things like that. If your examples are good ones, they'll be around for a long time, and "recent" loses all meaning. Use episode names, or numbers, or give at least a rough date ("In August of 2011...")
