http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Website/TurkeyCityLexicon

Subtitled "A Primer for SF Workshops", the Turkey City Lexicon (named that way because it was made at the Turkey City Writer's Workshop ) is a potential goldmine of tropes. It's a list of concepts that professional writers frequently see in stories presented at the workshop, and although the document has a generally Deadpan Snarker tone, both "Tropes Are Not Bad" and "Tropes Are Not Good" are in effect. Fortunately, it is listed as being not copyrighted, so here's the lexicon itself, minus the introductions, reformatted for the wiki.

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Despite its name, not related to Istanbul (Not Constantinople).

Part One: Words and Sentences

Part Two: Paragraphs and Prose Structure

Part Three: Common Workshop Story Types

Part Four: Plots

Abbess Phone Home: Takes its name from a mainstream story note "Souls" by Joanna Russ (1982) about a medieval cloister which was sold as SF because of the serendipitous arrival of a UFO at the end. By extension, any mainstream story with a gratuitous SF or fantasy element tacked on so it could be sold.

Takes its name from a mainstream story about a medieval cloister which was sold as SF because of the serendipitous arrival of a UFO at the end. By extension, any mainstream story with a gratuitous SF or fantasy element tacked on so it could be sold. And plot: Picaresque plot in which this happens, and then that happens, and then something else happens, and it all adds up to nothing in particular.

Picaresque plot in which this happens, and then that happens, and then something else happens, and it all adds up to nothing in particular. Bogus Alternatives: List of actions a character could have taken, but didn't. Frequently includes all the reasons why. In this nervous mannerism, the author stops the action dead to work out complicated plot problems at the reader's expense. "If I'd gone along with the cops they would have found the gun in my purse. And anyway, I didn't want to spend the night in jail. I suppose I could have just run instead of stealing their car, but then ... " etc. Best dispensed with entirely.

List of actions a character could have taken, but didn't. Frequently includes all the reasons why. In this nervous mannerism, the author stops the action dead to work out complicated plot problems at the reader's expense. "If I'd gone along with the cops they would have found the gun in my purse. And anyway, I didn't want to spend the night in jail. I suppose I could have just run instead of stealing their car, but then ... " etc. Best dispensed with entirely. Card Tricks in the Dark: Elaborately contrived plot which arrives at (a) the punchline of a private joke no reader will get or (b) the display of some bit of learned trivia relevant only to the author. This stunt may be intensely ingenious, and very gratifying to the author, but it serves no visible fictional purpose. (Attr. Tim Powers)

Elaborately contrived plot which arrives at (a) the punchline of a private joke no reader will get or (b) the display of some bit of learned trivia relevant only to the author. This stunt may be intensely ingenious, and very gratifying to the author, but it serves no visible fictional purpose. (Attr. Tim Powers) invoked Idiot Plot: A plot which functions only because all the characters involved are idiots. They behave in a way that suits the author's convenience, rather than through any rational motivation of their own. (Attr. James Blish)

A plot which functions only because all the characters involved are idiots. They behave in a way that suits the author's convenience, rather than through any rational motivation of their own. (Attr. James Blish) Kudzu Plot: Plot which weaves and curls and writhes in weedy organic profusion, smothering everything in its path.

Plot which weaves and curls and writhes in weedy organic profusion, smothering everything in its path. Plot Coupons: The basic building blocks of the quest-type fantasy plot. The "hero" collects sufficient plot coupons (magic sword, magic book, magic cat) to send off to the author for the ending. Note that " the author" can be substituted for "the Gods" in such a work: "The Gods decreed he would pursue this quest." Right, mate. The author decreed he would pursue this quest until sufficient pages were filled to procure an advance. (David Langford)

The basic building blocks of the quest-type fantasy plot. The "hero" collects sufficient plot coupons (magic sword, magic book, magic cat) to send off to the author for the ending. Note that " the author" can be substituted for "the Gods" in such a work: "The Gods decreed he would pursue this quest." Right, mate. The author decreed he would pursue this quest until sufficient pages were filled to procure an advance. (David Langford) Second-order Idiot Plot: A plot involving an entire invented SF society which functions only because every single person in it is necessarily an idiot. (Attr. Damon Knight)

Part Five: Background

Part Six: Character and Viewpoint

Part Seven: Miscellaneous