Young Writers Society

So I had an idea for a story a few weeks back that would mainly be a deconstruction/reconstruction of the typical "farmboy hero" trope.

The story idea involves a young farmer in a medieval fantasy world who gets captured with a princess by a rival kingdom. The princess, trained in secret by her father's lead dragonslayer, breaks them out, but the boy is mistaken as the hero. This leads to the dragonslayer training him alongside the princess, and further leads into a plot involving an ancient race of beings called the Starborn who are trying to revive their god that was sealed away by the Royal Family millennia ago, and they plan to use the princess' blood to free him. Epic battles and politics ensue.

I kind of like the idea, but when writing just the first chapter I began to wonder if it was actually a little too cliche, as it feels like the absolute standard paperback fantasy...

So, from that little summary, do you guys think this idea is too cliche for writing? I have plenty of other, far more original ideas, but I want to make sure that I don't end up devoting too much time to something that's ultimately pointlessly unoriginal.

If you want my honest opinion? Nothing is too cliche to write.

It just depends on how many times you're willing to rewrite, revisit, and revise to make sure your story reaches a level that you're not just content with, you're glad with. It just depends on how much effort you're willing to put into fleshing out the characters, the storyline, the motivation, the world, until the readers are immersed in the fantasy.

A little secret? You're writing a first draft. The most original idea can have the most cliche first draft, and it's not like you're not going to be editing this. Over. And over. And over again.

Another little secret? Originality may not be dead yet, but it's not the only thing you need for a successful idea. It's way far from being the basis of all genius, let alone the basis of all success: Almost everyone in this world who's had a successful idea has used the breakthroughs of people before them to reach it.

And my last little secret? Not really a secret, but the other two weren't, either. Write it. Write the whole thing, unless you begin to hate it with the flaming passion of a thousand dying suns. Take a break if you need to, change your plot halfway through if you need to, flesh out the world as you go and then start over again in the second draft, and you'll know where you want to go and what you want the reader find out along the way. Lather, rinse, repeat. This may be controversial, but the most important part of writing a novel is actually writing it.

This idea sounds plain-out pretty cool. Most ideas do, when you put them down on paper, as long as you make them sound interesting. It's the writing and the effort that you put into it that shapes it, really, so I wouldn't worry about your plot being cliche unless you directly ripped off something else.

I think you could make it work if you purposely tried to twist the cliches such as how you had the farm boy and every mistook him for the hero. But the princesses blood thing is beyond cliche and I don't see any way you could justify the clicheness of that.

I like Blackwood's idea of the farm boy being mistaken for the hero. I will admit that it is pretty unlikely that could happen, but you could make it work and then have a major plot twist when they discover he is not the real hero. That would make it much less cliched. After that though he might already have enough training to continue in his position though. It's just an idea. You don't have to use it if you don't want to.

I'm going to second Ark: nothing is too cliche.

There are only so many basic plots in existence, and you're going to end up following it. If your only reason for disliking it is "this is cliche and standard" then keep going and keep writing.

If you dislike it because you aren't interested in it anymore, then think about how to spice it up. Think about how to twist the cliches or what part of the cliche you really can't stand, then change it until you're interested in the story again.

So, you had me at deconstruction of farmboy hero fantasy. It's a fabulous idea.

I agree with what the others said, too. Cliche is half in the "how."

That said, watch out for Rebellious Hardcore Princess Is Actually The Hero Syndrome.

That's all.