Poll #28: What's your opinion on cliches?

[Andy]

What do you think of cliches?

[jordanisonfire]

Well, you can't really have any completely original literature anymore, so a few isn't bad, so long as they aren't the done-to-death-ones.

[Rouge]

I agree with Shadow. You can't get around not using them. It's pretty much impossible unless you're some complete super genius that can create something so freakin original that there aren't any. *breathes*
Haha, no way.

:)

[Shaun]

Cliches are fine as long as you add some interesting twists to them and attempt to make the your own. Just don't use them a lot because people can see through it.

[Rouge]

I just don't think they should be over used... A few of them is alright but when you have an entire story with them? It's horrible and I won't read it.

*cough*PAOLINI*cough*
:angel:

[Midnight_Moon]

WHAT IS SO BAD ABOUT PAOLINI!!!!! Everyone has been copying each other in the fantasy world forever it seems. Tolkien, from what I hear, it the ultimate! So, why don't you guys like Paolini? I read the first one and I enjoyed it and really want to read the second one but my life is really busy with school.

Ahem, sorry about that. I have a different opinion then y'all so I wanted my voice to be heard. Sorry for kinda spamming. I'll move to the Debate Room. *Head off to got elsewhere.*

[Dunnskee]

Tolkien got his stuff from Norse mythology and some other older literature.

I think cliches are practically inevitably going to be seen somewhere in whatever you write, as overplayed character-archetypes and journeys are done often.
But, if you know how to masterfully work what could be seen as a cliche, people don't really notice. Except hardcore idiot critics.

[GeorgeMichael]

what's a cliche?








:)

Yes, I chose that, just to be the innocent bystander in all of this, Mainly because there are so many cliches that I love, and when they are used they can be so effective... and at the same time they can also ruin a story... so yeah, both sides of the battle but not leaning far enough to choose any of the other choices :) and "What's a cliche" is non confrontational

[Starry]

WHAT IS SO BAD ABOUT PAOLINI!!!!! Everyone has been copying each other in the fantasy world forever it seems. Tolkien, from what I hear, it the ultimate! So, why don't you guys like Paolini? I read the first one and I enjoyed it and really want to read the second one but my life is really busy with school.

Ahem, sorry about that. I have a different opinion then y'all so I wanted my voice to be heard. Sorry for kinda spamming. I'll move to the Debate Room. *Head off to got elsewhere.*

When I first read Eragon and Eldest, I liked them fairly well, but if you really look closely, Paolini is pretty much the least original fantasy author out there. Every fantasy author has to cope with cliches somewhat, because it does seem that it's all been done before, but there's a difference between drawing your inspiration from ancient mythology and essentially copying another author's work.

One of my friends went through Eldest and put a sticky note in everywhere there was something stupid-sounding (epitomized by the phrase "you and thine dragon") or where Paolini is trying to be Tolkien. Pretty much all of his place names are places in Middle Earth with like one letter changed, as are a lot of his characters. Here's a sample from the Eldest notes, talking about the Algaesia map (they're typed on a private forum):

"Nominee for most ridiculous name: Flam, which seems to be a lake. Anyhow, starting in the upper right-hand corner, we encounter the island of Vroengard, which has a… city? volcano? lake? hole? on it, named Doru Araeba. Vroengard sounds just a little too much like Asgard for my liking. Proceeding eastward, we run into the Spine. Why this mountain range gets an English name I have no idea. Moving further east, we encounter into Du Weldenvarden (which sounds vaguely like it wishes it were German. Du Weldenvarden Lake #1 is named Ardwen, which sounds absolutely nothing like Arwen. At all. Lake #2 gets a random umlaut. For the cities, we have Osilon, Kirtan, and Ceris (accent free), and Ellesmera, Silthrim, Nadindel, and Ilia Feon (with umlauts or ´s). Why does Ilia Feon get 2 words? The Gaena River (two vowels in a row, because Tolkien liked the way diphthongs sounded) flows out of the forest into Eldor (a lake, which as such really ought to be called Eldor Lake or Lake Eldor or something like that. How many lakes do you know with one-word names?). "

(the entire commentary is 31 pages, all pretty much like this)

Oh, and so this can be a somewhat productive post (aka not spamming) I think some of the best stories are ones that entirely reinvent cliches, rather than avoiding them.

[Shaun]

And now that this argument has sprung up I have to play devil's advocate:
There is no such thing as original fantasy. Period. Even the Bible isn't original.

[Zaphkiel]

And now that this argument has sprung up I have to play devil's advocate:
There is no such thing as original fantasy. Period. Even the Bible isn't original.

I disagree with that Bible statement.

[Shaun]

Except it's true and it's documented :P. The virgin birth, Noah, etc etc etc. All of that had been done long before Christianity showed up on the map :P.

[Zaphkiel]

You'd better show me some hard, cold proof buddy.

[Midnight_Moon]

I have to agree with Shaun about the fantasy and Bible. That is one of the reasons why I don't write fantasy often because it is always so unoriginal.

[Shaun]

Zaph: look into the ancient mythologies of societies/religions/cultures that existed before the Bible was written and before Jesus was even born. You'll see the similarities. It's not that hard to find, just Google it :P.

Midnight: Generally that's true. The thing about fantasy is that, while it cliche in general, you can write it in such a way to make people forget about that. Good fantasy is fantasy that twists things, that attempts to use things that have already been done in a different way or to employ good characters and storytelling to make you completely oblivious to the fact that what you're reading has been done before. You don't have to be the greatest writer in the universe to write fantasy though. You just have to be aware that you can't just write a typical story about a farm boy who saves the world with a ragtag group of folks. Try to do new things with that farm boy myth. Heck, has anyone ever written a story form the perspective of someone who doesn't save the world, but watches the farm boy do it? I can't think of any instances of that...

[Rouge]

Try to do new things with that farm boy myth. Heck, has anyone ever written a story form the perspective of someone who doesn't save the world, but watches the farm boy do it? I can't think of any instances of that...

*blinks*:mellow: I never would have thought of that.
But it's true. I can't recall having ever read anything like that. Or heard of it.
Someone should do it!!

[Shaun]

I call dibs :P.

[Rouge]

Yes! I'll do a critique on it for you if you will!!! :D

[Alex]

I don't like them, but if people will write them I just won't bother...

[jordanisonfire]

I like the Bible. It's my favourite work of fiction.

[sXe_Jinxeh]

My biggest issue with cliches is that a lot of them are cliche because guess what, some of them actually happen. I am the horrible victim of real life cliches!

So, completely avoiding cliches is unrealistic.

[DreamChaser]

I'm sorry....but I don't know what a cliche is....I get the fact that it has something to do with copying something....but can someone tell me the definition or something cuz I cant seem to figure it out from the comments on this poll

[Simmi]

I'm sorry....but I don't know what a cliche is....I get the fact that it has something to do with copying something....but can someone tell me the definition or something cuz I cant seem to figure it out from the comments on this poll

Cliche:It's like an expression.

[Midnight_Moon]

Cliche:It's like an expression.

Actually a cliche a theme, characterization, or situation that's lacking freshness and originality. (That's what it says on Merriam-Webster.com)

[Phantom]

Cliches tend to confuse me, a lot. I do use them, not very often though. I'm not good at making them up.

[random_writer]

Cliches tend to confuse me, a lot. I do use them, not very often though. I'm not good at making them up.

That's the POINT! You don't make up cliches. They've been around forever, and are overused things. Like, the farm boy who becomes a hero as he follows some old wise geezer on a quest, and his bumbling idiot friend who keeps getting them into trouble as they wend their way through dangerous territory, where he will meet a damsel in distress, save her from some horrible... thing, and take her home and marry her.
(Italicized are the cliched characterization examples.)
I think that cliches that do happen in real life are sometimes unavoidable. Besides, people have been making up stories for so long that it's hard to find something that hasn't ever been done in the history of the universe. I try not to use more of them than are absolutely necessary, myself. At least, in my more recent writings.

[Alex]

Clichés should be limited to satire if at all possible. Using an idea that isn't original just proves weakness as a writer. It can work if it has a point, or if it is done in satire, but in other cases steer clear.

[ckeener]

I avoid cliches most of the time but do adopt them occasionally so as to help my readers connect with my more esoteric ideas.

[Daeiribu]

I love it, when people use cliches as a humorous aspect, but they have to use them in a way so I as a reader understand that it's comic relief, not just some lame plothole :D

[Rose]

I love it, when people use cliches as a humorous aspect, but they have to use them in a way so I as a reader understand that it's comic relief, not just some lame plothole :D

I agree with Dari,
cliche's can be avoided but there must be a cliche' some where in the writer's story (writing).
It's nice when the reaction would be laughing...Or ah man not again, haven't we suffered enough, why do these authors hate us; It's raining cliche's today :ninja::P*so random*
Movin' on.

[dragonheart]

Certain base cliches are O.K. if you are creative enough with them to make it original.

[Clawfire]

I don't think much about them...

[ManyIdeas]

Don't avoid them, but don't ignore them. They can poison a good peice of work. If you do use a cliche, write it well, and write it damn well. Some like chosen-one really get old. Eragon was a chosen one, and I personally hated it. But HP, that's a chosen one, but it's so superbly writen (my opinion), that I wasn't even bothered. So, have them if you must, but write them well. Don't play it out like a cliche of a cliche.

[FayGee]

What's a cliche?:huh:
I see the word all the time and I don't know what it means! Do you know how aggravating that is? :mad: Grrr! I guess I'll Google Dictionary it.

[FayGee]

One minute later...

I Google Dictionary'd it and now I understand. I think.;)