They sailed into a storm of redundancy. Lightning bolts were just deus ex machinas. Waves were rising action that never crested. And there, in the eye of the chaos, floated the Author’s Block , a ghost galleon manned by the spirits of abandoned story ideas.
The captain of the Author’s Block was a skeleton in a tweed jacket: “You can’t save them, Tropea. The author has used ‘reluctant hero,’ ‘mentor dies in act two,’ and ‘power of friendship’ fourteen times each. The story is collapsing into a black hole of cliché.” tv tropes pirates
Tropea grinned. “That’s where you’re wrong. Crew—deploy the Subversion Cannons !” They sailed into a storm of redundancy
The first mate, a grizzled parrot named Deus, squawked, “Squawk! Beware the Mary Sue Current ! Squawk! Last crew who went there came back as love triangles!” And there, in the eye of the chaos,
Tropea handed them a quill. “Start with one honest moment. Not a trope. A person .”