Write to Publish: Not Your Mother’s Tropes, How to Subvert without Alienating Yo

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Tropes are the building blocks of literary tradition, but the most exciting works of today are often subversive. Using examples and generative writing exercises, we’ll explore:

• what is a trope
• ways to balance reader expectations with innovation
• how to make old familiar conventions fresh without alienating readers

About
Rachel Horak Dempsey is a writer of dark fiction living in Denver. Her prose appears in anthologies by Shacklebound Books, Brigids Gate Press, Timber Ghost Press, Twenty Bellows (Pushcart nominated 2024) and others. She holds a BFA in Drama and English from NYU, a Master’s in Journalism from Georgetown and an MFA from Regis University in Denver where she currently lives with her family. Find her on X and Instagram @rachelsdempsey or blogging at rmfw.org/blog.