Heyo everyone! Today is another trope talk, and specifically, we're discussing a trope that extends romantic and non-romantic circles. This trope has gone through many names: concealed identity, mistaken identity, false hero/heroine, "not actually the Chosen One", as one writer put it... the list goes on and on. Because there's a lot of intertwining in these subtypes, I just decided to call today's post "The Whole Identity Thing" and move on (because let's be honest, concealing or mistaking one's identity is about as confusing at finding a blog title for it XD). Anyway, without further ado, let's talk about this trope!  What is the "identity issue" trope? Identity issues in books are different, depending on the subtrope. There's the mistaken identity, where a character believes someone to be someone they're not. There's concealed identity, where a character is masquerading as someone they're not. Then there's layered identity subtropes, such as the false hero/heroine (where you think it's going to be someone, and it turns out to be another) and the "false Chosen One" concept (Think Obi-Wan's line from Star Wars: "You were the Chosen One!"). Any way it's written, people are not what they seem, and it creates conflict, character growth, and a web your characters have to dig out of.  What books feature this trope? It's super easy to spot this trope, but it's way easier to spoil it for people. So without spoiling as many plotlines as much as I can here, books that feature this trope include...The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson (Hagenheim #1)A Beautiful Disguise by Roseanne Whitethat one part from Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (if you know, you know)Besotted by Jody Hedlund (and pretty much the entire series)The Lost Heiress by Roseanne WhiteThe Princess Game by Melanie Cellier (part of the amazing Four Kingdoms series)A Castaway in Cornwall by Julie KlassenThe Princess Spy by Melanie Dickerson (Hagenheim #5)Licensed for Trouble by Susan May WarrenLady Maybe by Julie Klassennumerous plays from William Shakespeare, such as Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer's Night Dream, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, etc.Surrender's Strength by Erika MatthewsMaid of Fairbourne Hall by Julia Klassen And movies and shows featuring this trope are...​again, LOTR by J.R.R. TolkienDisney's Sleeping Beauty (1959)
kind of The Bad Guys (2022), a little bit? While You Were Sleeping (1995)Back to the Future (1985)​The LEGO Movie (2014) and The LEGO Movie II (2017) How can I write/improve this trope? It's important to note in the Christian world that this trope is largely built on a foundation of deception (I say as I plan the outline to a mistaken identity novella *facepalm*). That said, I'm not really sure if it needs to be improved, as much as it should probably just be written more often. This isn't a trope I see very often outside of historical fiction (and especially regency romance). I think we don't see it so much now is because it's hard to pull off a different identity in a contemporary setting, where everyone knows who you are now (or can find out pretty easily, thanks to our digital footprint via social media and digitized public records).
So with those two factors, I don't really have any tips on how to improve the mistaken/concealed/otherwise smudged identity trope, other than an umbrella trip: read other identity issue trope-centric books and take notes on what they did. Find a subtrope that works for you. For Shakespeare's Macbeth, it was the false hero (the witches told Macbeth he couldn't be killed by a man who had been born naturally; his demise came about because his killer, Macduff, was born via a C-section, or as Macduff put it "untimely ripp'd"). For Disney's Sleeping Beauty, it became a story of mistaken identity as Philip and Briar found out that not only is she the princess of the land, but that they were already betrothed as kids (one could argue there's some miscommunication on the part of the parents, but when your daughter's been cursed with eternal sleep as a teenager, I guess they get some credit). Find a subtrope that works for your story, and then play off of it.  That's all for now! Do you have a favorite book that relies off of the identity issues trope? Do you have any tips of your own for writing in this niche? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time!
​~Cate