Prisimpad: A Guide to Wattpad, Writing, and Whatever

ON WRITING: That's So Cliche

A lot of writers will say cliché is bad. It's an ugly word you should avoid at any cost. I'm not going to say they're wrong, because that is up to the beholder. Clichés are very, very, subjective. What I will say, is that a cliché is what you make of it. A cliché is only bad if you don't put your own personal spin to it. Very few stories in the world are 100% unique. Hell, in my own writing I can tell you several possible clichés within. Even some of the ones I'll mention here I've used before in some small way.

What is a cliché? Well, it's an idea, phrase, or opinion that has been overused and has become boring. The saying of "beating a dead horse" can apply to these stories. Maybe it was original at one point, but then so many people started to do it, that it became cliché. Here's the thing, what is cliché to one person might be a trope to another. All stories have tropes and the writer may not give a crap if said trope has been used a ton of times to make it cliché. If you put the right spin on a cliché, they can become a trope again. Just like if you don't keep your trope interesting, it can become a cliché. Confusing? You betcha.

A trope is, for lack of a better term, the engine of the story. It is what guides the story along its path to completion. Tropes define everything from the characters themselves to the actions and environments. These are things that are commonly used, and we recognize them as commonly used, but are still effective story telling.

What exactly is the difference? That's a line which can sometimes be hard to determine because of the fact that it really is subjective to the eye of the beholder. Every genre has a particular trope that tends to come with it. For scifi, it could be a spaceship crash lands on earth and insanity ensues. For Romance, it could be boy meets girl and love ensues. What makes these tropes become cliché is something like boy happens to be super popular and meets super nerdy girl and is bet by his popular buddies to make her popular. Or alien spaceship has an alien who survives the crash and befriends a human who then goes to great lengths to save the alien from the military. You'll find so many stories with those basic plot lines it'll make your head spin.

As much as I loathe them, a love triangle is a trope. Who is a part of that love triangle is what will make it cliché. Oh how I loathe love triangles. But I digress.  Mary Sue characters, officially I believe they're considered tropes, but I personally see them as cliché. Missing or dead parents of the MC, that's a trope but one that dangerously skirts on the edge of being cliché. Brooding hero . . . trope. Brooding hero who is turned around by instalove with female . . . cliché.

Now those are just clichés/tropes in the plot. There can also be cliché's in the actual writing. If your book is in the first person and the MC uses a mirror to describe themselves . . . danger, Will Robinson, danger! That is very cliché. Especially if that mirror method is a way for the writer to describe the character the first time we meet him/her.

Another cliché that's bad is starting your book with a dream, very cliché and stupid. For the love of all that is holy and pure . . . enough with the Beep, beep, beep. Damn my alarm went off; I was having such a great dream too. Let me go describe myself in a mirror now. La di da. The reason it's so bad is because it gets done so often and it's very rarely done in a way that's interesting.

However, before you scream "Oh my golly! Cliché! Kill it. Kill it with the rage of a thundering man." Think about it for a moment. Is it a cliché? Or is it a trope? And if it is cliché, how can you put your spin on it to make it not cliché?

Let's say you have the popular jock meets nerdy girl and turns her into a prom queen cliché. Maybe your spin can be that he doesn't succeed. Maybe she can turn out to be an alien who was pretending to be popular so she could suck the life force out of the jock because that's how she survives. Or the jock is actually secretly a ninja turtle. Who knows. Don't be afraid of the cliché, make it work for you. If you must start out with that dream sequence, find a way to put your spin on it.

In my books a common trope I use is characters who can shapeshift. I had to actively force myself to try writing a book with a character who didn't shapeshift. That. Was. Hard. For me, a shapeshifter has almost become cliché in my writing because of how often I use it.

Ultimately, don't fear the cliché. Just be aware of their potential boringness and go from there. If you love the cliché, if you don't care, then go with it. There are people out there who will still read the book even with a cliché in it. There is a reason they sold enough for people to emulate in the first place. However, if you want your book to stand out from the crowd, you have to work that tired cliché into something special. Renew it and make it shine.

If this didn't make any sense, speak up and I'll try to clarify. I had a hard time learning the difference between trope and cliché so I'm not sure I'm explaining it right. And just because I haven't used this word enough in this part..... cliché cliché cliché cliché. Woo! Redundant writing, yeah boy!