February at the Inkwell is all about tropes. I sent members their craft guide to kick off the month, as usual, but this month I’m so excited to add another voice to the skill-building resources members get access to — and to share it with you here, too!

I met Amanda Diehl on the very first day of grad school, in our “intro to book publishing” class. We worked together on several class projects, had cubicles near each other’s when we were both interns at Houghton Mifflin (me in marketing, Amanda in publicity), and have stayed good friends in the ten years since graduation, despite no longer living in the same city.

Amanda will tell you more about her background, but she is an expert in tropes, particularly in the romance genre. I knew she would have a lot of great insights to share about how they work and how to use them effectively, so I was THRILLED when she agreed to make a video message for my community with tips about what tropes are, how to identify them, and how to use them.

Without further ado, here’s Amanda:

And here are the resources Amanda mentioned for learning more about tropes and finding books based on tropes you’re particularly interested in:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RomanceNovelTropes
https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/bookfinder/
https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/tag/the-rec-league/