Young Writers Society

Lately I've been wondering about cliches, so I've decided to get your help.

Just post your own list of what you think are cliched plots, story-lines, powers, technology, settings, characters and/or any thing you find cliched (even your own personal definition of cliche).
Your help would be much appreciated!

Characters:

The angsty Hero - He will do nothing wrong, have had troubles earlier on, and whines entire paragraphs. For example...
I looked at Jane, her sweet face tilting up at me. I knew that I should have never known her, never loved her; my wife, my family... all gone, gone because of me. I sank to the ground, and began to feel the tears filling up in my eyes.

The Herione - She will be pretty, anorexic, and irritating to the reader. She will inexplicably fall in love with the hero, even if he is a whiny emo jerk. For example...
Jane flipped back her silvery blond hair, her sparkling blue eyes crinkling as she smiled. Her smile was intoxicating; it made me want to smile too, and something passed between our eyes.
She was thin, the stylish clothing hanging of her lithe frame, her skin a moonlit white.

The Fledgling Sidekick - He will never do anything right; it will be up to the Hero to set this idiot straight. He will have a talent for pointing out the obvious, in case the slower reader can work out what's going on. He is so, totally innocent that you want to burn him alive. For example...
Terry looked up at me, shock in his eyes. "John, he's going to kill her!" he squeaked, running his hands through his scruffy blond hair.

The Villain - He (always he) will be the most interesting character, if done right, and will never get any description or history, or he will be a laughing dark lord dude. If a DR villain, he will be shoved aside for some romance, or merely only thrown in at the end. If a NDR villain, he will be Sauron in disguise, cackle manically about his evil plan, which will do... what? For example...
He threw his head up into the sky and laughed. "This is beyond you, elfin scum!" His fingers, covered by a black gauntlet raised, and struck Derrick, releasing a spray of red liquid. Jane ran to her brother, shaking him hopelessly.
"Why are you doing this?!" I shouted.
"Why, to rule all!" he snarled, taking up his mace.

Storylines:

-A hero must go on a quest to SAVE THE WORLD.
-A heroine must go on a quest to SAVE THE WORLD.
-A hero will fall in love with the herione, while SAVING THE WORLD.
-The sidekick will die just as he gets to grips SAVING THE WORLD.
-The villain will die at the end, as the heroes SAVE THE WORLD.
-The hero will never turn evil, no, he just SAVES THE WORLD.

Also, yes, with the characters, I know, some of them are a lot like Coda and Montmorency, but hey, I'm describing Coda as a girl who wears way too much gothic make-up, and Monty as a guy who a) rips off a guy's face because he has SNAPPED, b) an alcoholic, and c) estranged from his pack.

Hope it helped.

Haha. Just have to say that I love the

Storylines:

-A hero must go on a quest to SAVE THE WORLD.
-A heroine must go on a quest to SAVE THE WORLD.
-A hero will fall in love with the herione, while SAVING THE WORLD.
-The sidekick will die just as he gets to grips SAVING THE WORLD.
-The villain will die at the end, as the heroes SAVE THE WORLD.
-The hero will never turn evil, no, he just SAVES THE WORLD.

part Hero.

Can't think of anything worth mentioning at the moment but if i think of something I'll be back.

~The Heroic Plower of Fields: Everyone from Paolini to Lucas to the late Robert Jordan and everyone in between has used this device. Our hero is a strapping young lad growing up in the (relative) wilderness of a secluded village. By intervention of a Mysterious Stranger, said Strapping Lad is revealed to be the Only Hope to SAVE THE WORLD!!!

~ Buxom Farmer's Daughters and Scantily Clad Xenas: Farmers' daughters may be buxom, but they are still farmers' daughters. Model them on real working farm girls instead of some bizarre 1940s pin-up fantasy of doe-eyed fangirly oozing all over the Strapping Lad Turned Hero. As for Xenas, female warriors are warriors. Unless it's part of their culture to go into battle in the nude or barely clothed, they should be as heavily armed and armored as their male counterparts. They should also not all be dominatrix lesbians or all militant feminazis.

~The Telepathic Companion: for the love of hollyberries, don't make it a bloody dragon! Or if it must be a dragon, make it a DRAGON, not some wimpering sad excuse for a house lizard whose only purpose in the story is to kill things for the Hero, transport the Hero, and be the Hero's Emotional Tampon (not my term, but very apropos, I think). Make the Telepathic Companion a character in it's own right.

~Dead Mentor Walking: The (Old) Mysterious Stranger who set our Strapping Lad on his Quest inevitably dies after imparting all his wisdom, basically serving as a massive infodump portal. They are rarely given any true characterization of their own, and exit purely to orbit the Hero.

~The One Twu Wuv: The only couple I really accept this from is Aragorn and Arwen. They are in a class of Epic Love all by themselves, and everyone who tries to join their ranks are those who make up the cliche. True Love at first sight is just...bland.

~Kate and Petruchio/Beatrice and Benedick/Lizzie and Darcy Syndrome:Note how many names this thing can have! The couple that loves to hate each other at first inevitably winds up together in the throes of ooey-gooey love. Why can't characters just be friends for a while?

~Ultimate Evil: The Strapping Hero never fights just a local evil doer. No! That is too paltry for his Strapping Heroicness! He must to battle with the ULTIMATE EVIL!! The Ultimate Evil of course, as hero so astutely pointed out, will wear all black, be prone to idiotic monologuing that conveniently reveals all his plans, and not follow one jot of the Evil Overlord List.

~ Elves and their Clones: Every fantasy novelist since the Professor has felt a need to have some sort of Immortal and Wise and Ethereal race of beings that are fading from existence and are Superior to all the smelly ignorant humans. In Clicheland (which resembles Umlautgaesia to some of us )they often wind up as the religious/political mouthpieces of the author.

~The Vague and Mysterious Prologue: Ever since Twilight, writers have fallen prey to this epidemic. They write a vague and DRAMATIC prologue to catch interest instead of relying on an interesting character or plot.

~Characters on the Cross: It's my biggest pet peeve. The most fascinating characters are always those who are caught between the extremes, and have to muddle through the story in the grey areas. Oftentimes, they betray the Hero, and are then Doomed to Die to redeem themselves to the side of Sugar Cookies and Light. This. Is. BORING. The conflicted character should live through the story, and make his ammends through his actions, his struggle to win back his friends...not by some quickly swept aside Heroic Moment of Sacrifice.

That's what I've got so far...

Any author who writes a plot driven by an ancient prophecy doesn't deserve to be published. It's a complete cop-out way of justifying what happens in the story. It's as if some fantasy authors think that logic doesn't have to apply to their genre.

Also I hate it when magic saves the day at the last moment. The characters should use their strengths (preferably mental rather than physical) to overcome the supreme ordeal, no suddenly realise they had a dormant magical talent.

It is really hard to make an entire list of the cliches because there are so many and because cliches are very much just matters of opinion. Something old for me doesn't necessarily make it old for you.

Fantasy is probably one of the easiest one to find cliches in. You just have to read several of the top series to get an idea. The problem with Fantasy is that it is a genre that is built around cliches (ex. dragons, wizards, castles, etc.). The good news about this is that cliches are EXPECTED in the genre. This gives you an opportunity to reinvent these long standing traditions.
The best way to avoid cliches in fantasy is to focus more on unique characters then on a unique story line. The same often applies to sci-fi.

There are many cliches for both of these genres. The problem is that, if you removed them all, then there wouldn't be any fun or familiarity left in the story. Taking away all the fun should be the last thing that you want to do.

http://amethyst-angel.com/cliche.html (for Fantasy)

There is a link to a sci-fi one on the top of that page.

Destiny. Oh how I loathe "destiny". Let the characters do something on their own, rather than being "destined" to do it.

Or have them do something completely contrary to what their destiny is supposed to be... and get away with it. So many stories have had characters rebel against destiny, only to be forced into complying with their destiny no matter what they do.

Here's a whole website with articles/rants on all the kinds of fantasy cliches out there.

http://www.forresterlabs.com/limyaael/titlelistall

The one cliche that annoys me the most is the "Orphan Who's Secretly A Wizard/Princess/Spy." *confetti* All of these characters have mysterious pasts, parents who were murdered, discover who they really are while they're teenagers, and go on to save the world. I am so sick of those kinds of stories.

Top Plot Cliches for me:

End of the World

That one is very much overdone. Read one, read them all.

Also,

Robots Take Over World.... blah. Unless you're going to slaughter the robots or take a whole new spin on it, it is the same thing.

Save The World... old news.

and

Aliens Invade... please, that was the seventies.

Top Element Cliches:

too many super computers,

world is controlled by a single all-powerful government,

........

To me, these are redundant. Not to say they will automatically ruin a story. Not so. I've read several sci-fi's with the "big brother government" and "super computers/robots" and such, and even "end of world" thing, but they can be ravaging when written properly. But the most alluring are those that are very original.

My top three original sci-fi's are Artemis Fowl, City of Ember and Truesight.

Scifi is so hard to write. I can't seem to get going on one. But I like to read them!

~Voxina

Ouch, I am so guilty of writing a cliche of The Angsty Hero. My god! I never realised how cliche it is!

Well, my list of cliches -

The Quest
- A quest where you either have to find something or find someone which appears to have no use, which ultimately leads you onto another quest where you once again have to find something or find someone which again seems useless. And then after that you battle the "Evil One", using these items which you thought were useless.

The Weapon
- A weapon fabled for only the most brilliant hero in the world, suddenly becomes yours characters; something the character "mysteriously" bought one day turns out to be that weapon, or maybe they were given it by a "mysterious" stranger and at the end of the story the character will realise is the only thing which can defeat the "Evil One".

The Hero...ine
- The heroine who is basically a hero with quite an impressive chest. Honestly, how many girls are going to break traditions, secretly, to do what they want and run away in the process?

I think that's all I can think off.

Sci-fi:

A brief little cliche in the Sci-fi world is one of the overly science fiction things.

Take Star Trek for one. How in the world can spaceships pass right through asteroids? I mean that's taking Sci-fi to the extreme! Just one little piece of trash can bring down a space shuttle! It is quite outrageous to see a space ship pass right through a field of asteroids and comes out safely, even when it was pounded by hundreds of scattered asteroids.

TV Tropes' Speculative Fiction Tropes.

magnusbanefan13 wrote:The one cliche that annoys me the most is the "Orphan Who's Secretly A Wizard/Princess/Spy." *confetti* All of these characters have mysterious pasts, parents who were murdered, discover who they really are while they're teenagers, and go on to save the world. I am so sick of those kinds of stories.

I'm rather enjoying subverting this cliche. My epic fantasy features a classic "orphan who's secretly the heir to a kingdom" scenario. The protagonist is planning to kill that orphan.

Okay, I have something to add. The name "Ben."

It doesn't sound like much, but here's the problem. "Ben" often turns out to be the Wise Old Mentor type who guides the hero and later dies. i.e. Obi-wan "Ben" Kenobi, Abenthy from "The Name of the Wind."

Now, if your character happens to be named Benjamin and takes on the role of hero or is just a background person, that's fine. I personally enjoy the "Castaways of the Flying Dutchman" series, which features an (orphan) hero named Ben. Who used to be called Nebuchadnezzar.