15 Betrayals We Should Have Totally Seen Coming

Stories are like liquid -- like an ocean of melted, so soft and harsh, caramel -- see-through and viscous. There are things that swim. 

Stories are made of pieces like a machine. Like a machine, some pieces are good and some stick around merely because they've always been. 

Stories are living things with hearts that beat and words that speak.

Stories are things made out of words, and each word has a rule, has a lock, and a key.

Stories are things that move like quicksilver and magic dust flying into your face from the dancing feet of a pretty boy or girl or neither or both or some combination thereof that you like in front of you, offering you a hand, pulling you up to dance.

Tropes are the building blocks of everything. Some are good, some are bad, but each story has them, like every human has blood and atoms and a big resentment against their friends for something petty that they know they should let go of, but goddamn it, Dave, you know I'm allergic to pineapples why do you keep trying to get me to try your pineapple upside down cake, I'm sure it's good, but god - damn!