I would say though that though maybe there are no general ideas, that doesn't really touch on the things that make a given work unique. The characterization, the plotting, the dialogue, all are things that really show the imprint of the writers hand, and those are the things that make a work unique or not.
Take the novel "Kitty and the Midnight Hour". There's certainly been books about reluctant werewolves, and ones about women breaking free from bad relationships and developing something to live for, and certainly any number of urban supernatural books. Five seconds of Googling reveals the TV Tropes machine going *ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk* spitting out the tropes. But the thing that makes the books unique and very readable is the voice of the character, how she deals emotionally with he situations she finds herself in, and how she works herself up from a state of dependancy to independence in a very believable way. TV Tropes has very little to say about the things that make the story unique.
You're right- tropes themselves aren't bad. But giving them too much attention is missing the forest for the trees.
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I would say though that though maybe there are no general ideas, that doesn't really touch on the things that make a given work unique. The characterization, the plotting, the dialogue, all are things that really show the imprint of the writers hand, and those are the things that make a work unique or not.
Take the novel "Kitty and the Midnight Hour". There's certainly been books about reluctant werewolves, and ones about women breaking free from bad relationships and developing something to live for, and certainly any number of urban supernatural books. Five seconds of Googling reveals the TV Tropes machine going *ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk* spitting out the tropes. But the thing that makes the books unique and very readable is the voice of the character, how she deals emotionally with he situations she finds herself in, and how she works herself up from a state of dependancy to independence in a very believable way. TV Tropes has very little to say about the things that make the story unique.
You're right- tropes themselves aren't bad. But giving them too much attention is missing the forest for the trees.