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How do I subvert the tropes of a train heist?


I suck at plots. Is there a way to sort of train oneself to think of creative plots, specifically in scifi?What does it mean to subvert a trope?What are common writing tropes in dark romance?Is there any way to get around having everyone in the world speak the same language?How to best pace information reveals to the readerWhat are some tropes associated with social acceptance or rejection of infants with supernatural abilities?What's the term used to describe a twist which is badly written because the twist is based on information not yet available to audience?How Many Tropes Are Allowed In a Short Story?How to defeat a strategic mastermind without throwing the idiotball?How to punctuate dialogue tags with action descriptions













4















What are the recognizable tropes to a "train heist", or more broadly the action sequences where a protagonist boards a moving train in order to stop it?



My protagonist is the unreliable guile heroine who has been playing at hero the entire book. She typically over-inflates intrigue, misreads clues, and bumbles her way through moral conundrums. She alternates between 4D chess and being able to manipulate people by reading their reactions – meaning she has been making it up as she goes. At this point she's no longer sure if she's running a long con or actually becoming a hero, but she knows she's not going to be left out.



Unfortunately I have plotted a very trope-y action climax, but now that I write it, I realize the standard action-hero tone feels wrong so I need to identify the main tropes in order to subvert them. To be clear the protagonists do board the train and it does stop – that still has to happen so it's not a failed trope.



How do I subvert the tropes of a train heist?










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  • It's a very low-use tag but, given that you're working to support tags not getting the attention they deserve, maybe you would like to add action to your tag list.

    – Cyn
    4 hours ago











  • Thank you! I miss those low ones… I typed 3 letters and when nothing comes up I assumed there wasn't a tag...

    – wetcircuit
    3 hours ago















4















What are the recognizable tropes to a "train heist", or more broadly the action sequences where a protagonist boards a moving train in order to stop it?



My protagonist is the unreliable guile heroine who has been playing at hero the entire book. She typically over-inflates intrigue, misreads clues, and bumbles her way through moral conundrums. She alternates between 4D chess and being able to manipulate people by reading their reactions – meaning she has been making it up as she goes. At this point she's no longer sure if she's running a long con or actually becoming a hero, but she knows she's not going to be left out.



Unfortunately I have plotted a very trope-y action climax, but now that I write it, I realize the standard action-hero tone feels wrong so I need to identify the main tropes in order to subvert them. To be clear the protagonists do board the train and it does stop – that still has to happen so it's not a failed trope.



How do I subvert the tropes of a train heist?










share|improve this question
























  • It's a very low-use tag but, given that you're working to support tags not getting the attention they deserve, maybe you would like to add action to your tag list.

    – Cyn
    4 hours ago











  • Thank you! I miss those low ones… I typed 3 letters and when nothing comes up I assumed there wasn't a tag...

    – wetcircuit
    3 hours ago













4












4








4








What are the recognizable tropes to a "train heist", or more broadly the action sequences where a protagonist boards a moving train in order to stop it?



My protagonist is the unreliable guile heroine who has been playing at hero the entire book. She typically over-inflates intrigue, misreads clues, and bumbles her way through moral conundrums. She alternates between 4D chess and being able to manipulate people by reading their reactions – meaning she has been making it up as she goes. At this point she's no longer sure if she's running a long con or actually becoming a hero, but she knows she's not going to be left out.



Unfortunately I have plotted a very trope-y action climax, but now that I write it, I realize the standard action-hero tone feels wrong so I need to identify the main tropes in order to subvert them. To be clear the protagonists do board the train and it does stop – that still has to happen so it's not a failed trope.



How do I subvert the tropes of a train heist?










share|improve this question
















What are the recognizable tropes to a "train heist", or more broadly the action sequences where a protagonist boards a moving train in order to stop it?



My protagonist is the unreliable guile heroine who has been playing at hero the entire book. She typically over-inflates intrigue, misreads clues, and bumbles her way through moral conundrums. She alternates between 4D chess and being able to manipulate people by reading their reactions – meaning she has been making it up as she goes. At this point she's no longer sure if she's running a long con or actually becoming a hero, but she knows she's not going to be left out.



Unfortunately I have plotted a very trope-y action climax, but now that I write it, I realize the standard action-hero tone feels wrong so I need to identify the main tropes in order to subvert them. To be clear the protagonists do board the train and it does stop – that still has to happen so it's not a failed trope.



How do I subvert the tropes of a train heist?







plot tropes action






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 3 hours ago







wetcircuit

















asked 8 hours ago









wetcircuitwetcircuit

16k22876




16k22876












  • It's a very low-use tag but, given that you're working to support tags not getting the attention they deserve, maybe you would like to add action to your tag list.

    – Cyn
    4 hours ago











  • Thank you! I miss those low ones… I typed 3 letters and when nothing comes up I assumed there wasn't a tag...

    – wetcircuit
    3 hours ago

















  • It's a very low-use tag but, given that you're working to support tags not getting the attention they deserve, maybe you would like to add action to your tag list.

    – Cyn
    4 hours ago











  • Thank you! I miss those low ones… I typed 3 letters and when nothing comes up I assumed there wasn't a tag...

    – wetcircuit
    3 hours ago
















It's a very low-use tag but, given that you're working to support tags not getting the attention they deserve, maybe you would like to add action to your tag list.

– Cyn
4 hours ago





It's a very low-use tag but, given that you're working to support tags not getting the attention they deserve, maybe you would like to add action to your tag list.

– Cyn
4 hours ago













Thank you! I miss those low ones… I typed 3 letters and when nothing comes up I assumed there wasn't a tag...

– wetcircuit
3 hours ago





Thank you! I miss those low ones… I typed 3 letters and when nothing comes up I assumed there wasn't a tag...

– wetcircuit
3 hours ago










1 Answer
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oldest

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3














I think the tropes are galloping horse, convenient boarding point, leaping from horse to train (and horse then veering off), a harrowing dangerous trip across the top of the train to get to the engine (perhaps almost falling off, perhaps with a gunfight or fistfight), holding the conductor at gunpoint to stop the train, or while the MC stops it himself. In the city or with a modern train, throw in a tunnel so the MC has to duck or lose his head. Also a convenient way to dispatch an opponent with his back to the tunnel.



The second part of the trope is the heist works; I've seen that subverted at least once (the train was decoy, the actual treasure went by another route).



Subvert the trope by making something the opposite of the trope.



No galloping horse: I've seen helicoptering onto a train. You could use something besides a horse (or the modern equivalent, a motorcycle or car).



No convenient boarding point: The hero can't figure out how to get ON the damn train. This might lead to a comic series of figuring that out (fail fail succeed), but probably doesn't fit your plot of boarding a specific train.



I've seen the harrowing trip to the engine subverted: MC boards on the caboose in disguise as a train employee, then just walks through cars to the front.



I've seen stopping the train subverted: MC pulls a pin to disconnect all the cars from the train, they coast to a stop while the engine races ahead. (I wonder if this is physically possible on a moving train, but ... liberties of fiction.)



You could subvert the trope with a plot twist: The train is an hour late, the conductor tells the hero he got stopped and robbed four hours out of the station. The gentleman that took it said if a woman tries to rob me, he will see her in San Francisco.



You could subvert the trope by blocking the track with something highly visible, so the conductor stops the train voluntarily out of caution. Maybe she tricks the conductor into stopping the train.



She could actually derail the train (dynamite the track).






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    active

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    3














    I think the tropes are galloping horse, convenient boarding point, leaping from horse to train (and horse then veering off), a harrowing dangerous trip across the top of the train to get to the engine (perhaps almost falling off, perhaps with a gunfight or fistfight), holding the conductor at gunpoint to stop the train, or while the MC stops it himself. In the city or with a modern train, throw in a tunnel so the MC has to duck or lose his head. Also a convenient way to dispatch an opponent with his back to the tunnel.



    The second part of the trope is the heist works; I've seen that subverted at least once (the train was decoy, the actual treasure went by another route).



    Subvert the trope by making something the opposite of the trope.



    No galloping horse: I've seen helicoptering onto a train. You could use something besides a horse (or the modern equivalent, a motorcycle or car).



    No convenient boarding point: The hero can't figure out how to get ON the damn train. This might lead to a comic series of figuring that out (fail fail succeed), but probably doesn't fit your plot of boarding a specific train.



    I've seen the harrowing trip to the engine subverted: MC boards on the caboose in disguise as a train employee, then just walks through cars to the front.



    I've seen stopping the train subverted: MC pulls a pin to disconnect all the cars from the train, they coast to a stop while the engine races ahead. (I wonder if this is physically possible on a moving train, but ... liberties of fiction.)



    You could subvert the trope with a plot twist: The train is an hour late, the conductor tells the hero he got stopped and robbed four hours out of the station. The gentleman that took it said if a woman tries to rob me, he will see her in San Francisco.



    You could subvert the trope by blocking the track with something highly visible, so the conductor stops the train voluntarily out of caution. Maybe she tricks the conductor into stopping the train.



    She could actually derail the train (dynamite the track).






    share|improve this answer



























      3














      I think the tropes are galloping horse, convenient boarding point, leaping from horse to train (and horse then veering off), a harrowing dangerous trip across the top of the train to get to the engine (perhaps almost falling off, perhaps with a gunfight or fistfight), holding the conductor at gunpoint to stop the train, or while the MC stops it himself. In the city or with a modern train, throw in a tunnel so the MC has to duck or lose his head. Also a convenient way to dispatch an opponent with his back to the tunnel.



      The second part of the trope is the heist works; I've seen that subverted at least once (the train was decoy, the actual treasure went by another route).



      Subvert the trope by making something the opposite of the trope.



      No galloping horse: I've seen helicoptering onto a train. You could use something besides a horse (or the modern equivalent, a motorcycle or car).



      No convenient boarding point: The hero can't figure out how to get ON the damn train. This might lead to a comic series of figuring that out (fail fail succeed), but probably doesn't fit your plot of boarding a specific train.



      I've seen the harrowing trip to the engine subverted: MC boards on the caboose in disguise as a train employee, then just walks through cars to the front.



      I've seen stopping the train subverted: MC pulls a pin to disconnect all the cars from the train, they coast to a stop while the engine races ahead. (I wonder if this is physically possible on a moving train, but ... liberties of fiction.)



      You could subvert the trope with a plot twist: The train is an hour late, the conductor tells the hero he got stopped and robbed four hours out of the station. The gentleman that took it said if a woman tries to rob me, he will see her in San Francisco.



      You could subvert the trope by blocking the track with something highly visible, so the conductor stops the train voluntarily out of caution. Maybe she tricks the conductor into stopping the train.



      She could actually derail the train (dynamite the track).






      share|improve this answer

























        3












        3








        3







        I think the tropes are galloping horse, convenient boarding point, leaping from horse to train (and horse then veering off), a harrowing dangerous trip across the top of the train to get to the engine (perhaps almost falling off, perhaps with a gunfight or fistfight), holding the conductor at gunpoint to stop the train, or while the MC stops it himself. In the city or with a modern train, throw in a tunnel so the MC has to duck or lose his head. Also a convenient way to dispatch an opponent with his back to the tunnel.



        The second part of the trope is the heist works; I've seen that subverted at least once (the train was decoy, the actual treasure went by another route).



        Subvert the trope by making something the opposite of the trope.



        No galloping horse: I've seen helicoptering onto a train. You could use something besides a horse (or the modern equivalent, a motorcycle or car).



        No convenient boarding point: The hero can't figure out how to get ON the damn train. This might lead to a comic series of figuring that out (fail fail succeed), but probably doesn't fit your plot of boarding a specific train.



        I've seen the harrowing trip to the engine subverted: MC boards on the caboose in disguise as a train employee, then just walks through cars to the front.



        I've seen stopping the train subverted: MC pulls a pin to disconnect all the cars from the train, they coast to a stop while the engine races ahead. (I wonder if this is physically possible on a moving train, but ... liberties of fiction.)



        You could subvert the trope with a plot twist: The train is an hour late, the conductor tells the hero he got stopped and robbed four hours out of the station. The gentleman that took it said if a woman tries to rob me, he will see her in San Francisco.



        You could subvert the trope by blocking the track with something highly visible, so the conductor stops the train voluntarily out of caution. Maybe she tricks the conductor into stopping the train.



        She could actually derail the train (dynamite the track).






        share|improve this answer













        I think the tropes are galloping horse, convenient boarding point, leaping from horse to train (and horse then veering off), a harrowing dangerous trip across the top of the train to get to the engine (perhaps almost falling off, perhaps with a gunfight or fistfight), holding the conductor at gunpoint to stop the train, or while the MC stops it himself. In the city or with a modern train, throw in a tunnel so the MC has to duck or lose his head. Also a convenient way to dispatch an opponent with his back to the tunnel.



        The second part of the trope is the heist works; I've seen that subverted at least once (the train was decoy, the actual treasure went by another route).



        Subvert the trope by making something the opposite of the trope.



        No galloping horse: I've seen helicoptering onto a train. You could use something besides a horse (or the modern equivalent, a motorcycle or car).



        No convenient boarding point: The hero can't figure out how to get ON the damn train. This might lead to a comic series of figuring that out (fail fail succeed), but probably doesn't fit your plot of boarding a specific train.



        I've seen the harrowing trip to the engine subverted: MC boards on the caboose in disguise as a train employee, then just walks through cars to the front.



        I've seen stopping the train subverted: MC pulls a pin to disconnect all the cars from the train, they coast to a stop while the engine races ahead. (I wonder if this is physically possible on a moving train, but ... liberties of fiction.)



        You could subvert the trope with a plot twist: The train is an hour late, the conductor tells the hero he got stopped and robbed four hours out of the station. The gentleman that took it said if a woman tries to rob me, he will see her in San Francisco.



        You could subvert the trope by blocking the track with something highly visible, so the conductor stops the train voluntarily out of caution. Maybe she tricks the conductor into stopping the train.



        She could actually derail the train (dynamite the track).







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered 3 hours ago









        AmadeusAmadeus

        62.1k780199




        62.1k780199



























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