Cliché
Let me start by saying write whatever makes you happy. Really. Just don't expect to impress if that happiness is knocking at the door of what has been done a thousand times and likely done better. No one is going to answer. If you set the bar only as high as "trite bullshit we've all seen and got sick of last Summer" expect to accomplish just that.
STOP DOING THIS!
A cliche is something that a reader looks at and understands implicitly, because they've seen/heard it a thousand times. Unfortunately, that also means they've seen it a thousand times... Familiarity can help, but when reading a book, it becomes as mundane as the real world.
A cliche is something that a reader looks at and understands implicitly, because they've seen/heard it a thousand times. Unfortunately, that also means they've seen it a thousand times... Familiarity can help, but when reading a book, it becomes as mundane as the real world.
People want to get lost in a story, not see what is familiar to them.
A good example of cliches are "sayings" (e.g "That's how the cookie crumbles--fast as lighting--Flies on shit--etc.). However, they are not strictly limited to the words, but of the plot, and other meta levels of your writing. In fact, cliche can be applied to any numbers of sub-layers, be it your plot, dialogue, word choices and over use of "sayings", characters, etc.
A good example of cliches are "sayings" (e.g "That's how the cookie crumbles--fast as lighting--Flies on shit--etc.). However, they are not strictly limited to the words, but of the plot, and other meta levels of your writing. In fact, cliche can be applied to any numbers of sub-layers, be it your plot, dialogue, word choices and over use of "sayings", characters, etc.
Specific genre fiction usually (vampire/angel/wizard) notwithstanding, if you incorporate these types of story elements just for sake of saving face with your reading audience, or trying to impress or because it's comfortable, shame on you. You're doing exactly the opposite of what you should be doing, i.e being creative. Instead, you are verbatim ripping other popular ideas and using it as a cop out for your lack of creativity.
"Oh, Twilight is cool...lemme just make my character a vampire :)"
"Oh, Twilight is cool...lemme just make my character a vampire :)"
"Oh, I have an apprentice wizard! His mentor needs to die in chapter 7 :)"
If you aim for what has already been done a thousand times, that's all you'll accomplish.
If you aim for what has already been done a thousand times, that's all you'll accomplish.
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