Writers: Tools of the Trade

Being Cliche; Being Original

Clichés.

We are told to avoid clichés like the plague, which should be funny as that phrase itself is a cliché. But seriously, clichés are bad! Evil! Never do them!

But why? Why are clichés supposed to be avoided?

Let's look at the word itself. The word cliché means "stereotyped and trite." In other words, dull and uninteresting. Anything can become cliché in a matter of time, depending on how popular the idea is. A cliché is a phrase, motif, trope, or other element within an artistic work that has become common enough to be seen as predictable, tired, overused, and generally unfavorable.

Now here's where I get annoyed. Many times, people will say "Don't be cliché! Be original!" But they never say what is cliché, what is to be avoided. Since this is a chapter on clichés, I'm not going to get into how one can avoid falling into these clichés because I don't have all day. There's way too many.

What follows is by no means a complete list; these are things I've just come across in my time while writing or researching. Many of these vary, depending on the reader and how they view it.

A character is about to do something they love (like going to a rock concert) and something prevents it from happening (like being grounded).

Waking Up: Avoid the first moments of the day, especially if your character is being snapped out of a dream. Bonus points if they wake up from an alarm blaring in their ear.

Hi, My name is: Avoid the character introducing themselves, especially in first person.

School Showcase: A character introducing the requisite best friend and the school bully

Family Showcase: Introductions of parents, siblings, pets

Room Tour: A character sitting in her room, thinking, looking over her stuff

Emo Kid: A character sitting and thinking about all his problems

Normal No More: A character lamenting how normal, average, and/or lame her life is, which is the writer setting us up for the big change that's about to happen

Moving Van: A character in the car, driving to his new house, hating every minute of it

Mirror Catalogue: Looking at oneself and describing one's flaws, usually with a self-deprecating voice

Summer of Torture: A character lamenting how she has to do something that she doesn't want to do (live in a haunted house, go visit Grandma, work at the nursery) all summer long

New Kid: A character worrying about being the new kid on his first day of school or wizard training or the vampire academy

RIP Parents: One or both parental units kicking the bucket suddenly and tragically

Dystopian Selection: In the dystopian genre, it's the day of choosing jobs, getting selected for something awful, being paired with a soul mate, etc.

 Pointless dialogue

The phrase "Curves in all the right places"

If you care to read more, Google has a list. Check out the Evil Overlord's List if you want a laugh and find the clichés of "fantasy" stories, particularly the villians.

Now, some of you may be reading this and saying "Hey! Did you open your story Persistent Silence with the protagonist waking up from a nightmare?" And yes, I did, and yes, I know it's a cliché, but I'm not too concerned about it. Why? Because the nightmares are part of the plot.

*EDIT FROM 2019* I have since writing this changed my beginning of Persistent Silence so it no longer starts out this way, as I have grown immensely as a writer since penning this list. Even if you start with a cliche from this list, your writing is not set in stone. It can change, evolve, and grow into something better. 

Beginnings are the main spot where it's easy to fall into a cliché. This is because you need to get your story going and it's easiest to just start with the character waking up. For most stories, this makes no sense, and everyone will be mad that the writer didn't jump to the middle of the action and make an in medias res intro.

Just, for the love of all things written, do not start your story off with this, an excerpt from my first story Aquazul.

"I awoke, cold, just the way I had since I was six years old. My name is Sarah, and I'm eleven years old now."

No, just no.

I think the worst part about that opening was that I had tried to avoid the cliche then fell right back into it.

Plot clichés:

These are really easy to pick out. While reading or watching a movie, predict what will happen next. If you know exactly what is going to happen, it's cliché.

So how do you beat plot clichés?

Outsmarting your reader.