A lot of people have heard of tropes, and think they’re like cliches, but that’s not quite the same thing. Tropes can be clichés but only when they don’t vary at all. But let’s start with the definition of a cliché versus a trope.
A cliché is defined as a trite, stereotyped expression by dictionary.com. It’s things like “emerald green eyes” or “head over heels.” They’re widely recognized because they’ve been used so often that they’re now stale. They’re boring, uninteresting, and too many of them will make most readers put the book down. When a trope becomes a cliché, it’s because the person used a trope (like Strong Female Character) and didn’t put any effort into it. She could be the MC of any number of books, because they just cut and paste pretty much every trait she has. Maybe she’s invincible. She’s frequently one-dimensional. She doesn’t act like women typically do (though I’m not calling out the “men with boobs” aspect of this trope because, honestly, that’s me. I am a man with boobs, and I love that trope when it’s well done because I get to see myself for a change.) Often she’s full of harmful stereotypes as well.
A trope is different. At its very basic it’s one of the building blocks that help make stories of all kinds. Romeo and Juliet? Star Crossed Lovers trope. Dragon Age: Origins uses the Secret Baby trope. Love Triangles, the trope, can be found across many different mediums. Bury Your Gays is a trope that in recent years has (thankfully) received a lot of pushback due to inherent problems with the trope itself that are rooted in homophobia.
Circling back to the Strong Female Character trope, there is nothing wrong with a strong female lead. The problem isn’t that she’s strong, so much as she’s lacking experiences and reactions that tend to be common to women/femme presenting people. Femme people aren’t usually as physically strong as their male counterparts, and they’ve been socialized completely differently as well. A strong female character is thus going to behave differently as a result of these things. The problem isn’t the trope; the problem is the execution sometimes relies on erasing the differences between strong men and strong women. The trope isn’t the cliché, the trope is built with cliches, which makes a notable difference.
Another thing to consider with tropes is each genre has at its core a list of expected tropes that are part and parcel of the genre. It’s not that you have to use every single one, or you can’t mix it up, so much as your success will partially depend on whether you use the right tropes or not. A story heavily steeped in magic is likely going to have the mentor trope. A romance story is going to have a romantically based trope, like enemies to lovers or beauty and the beast tropes. The success of each one is going to depend not on the tropes you use but on how well you execute them.
Well, what about tired tropes? Like many things, they cycle in and out of popularity. Someone will do a fantasy story revolving around the “chosen one,” the market will get flooded as people add their own takes to it, and eventually, others will get tired of it and look for something different. There are a couple things to note, however. Every trope always has its die-hard readers. There will always be a market for your story, regardless of how popular it might be. The other thing is subverted tropes can mix things up enough to breathe life into something that is getting stale.
As far as cliches go, while they’re generally not a good idea they do have their place in stories. A humor book built around cliches could work well because of the subverted expectations. Or a satire story, because it’s not meant to be taken at face value. Both types of books would work well with malaphors (where you mix up sayings such as “it’s not rocket surgery”) for example. Or a deliberate call out to the cliché itself (“was it over the top to say her eyes were as blue as the ocean?”)
At the end of the day, you should write the story you would most want to read. After all, you’re the one telling the story. You’re not going to finish something you’re not interested in writing. Just be aware of your genre, be aware of tropes versus cliches, and write your heart out.