| Home | Updates | Stories | WORKSHOP | About | Links | Contact |
|
I can't for the life of me remember who said this or where I read it, but the gist of the quote was very simple "Earn your cliches." It's an interesting theory, but takes on a new meaning if you believe (as I do) that every original story archetype has already been invented, and all that's left to us is to combine bits and pieces of multiple archetypes in new and interesting ways. In other words, I believe that there is nothing left under the sun, nothing but cliches. So having them roped off is very difficult. What then would I write? Oh good, now I can earn them. But nonetheless, I must be careful. Cliches are lazyness incarnate. When a writer has no idea what to do next, they fall back on a cliche. "Oh, I know: an angry ex-girlfriend will come in, maneuver my male lead into making a scandalous-looking pretzel with herself, somehow arrange for the female lead to walk in right as this is happening—and, oh! the torment! The female lead will storm out, without waiting to hear his explanation!" Yeah. Golly, I didn't see this coming from the absolute moment Jilted Jezebel walked onto the page. How truly and genuinely exciting. Snort. Perhaps the best extant resource for cliches is a wiki called TV Tropes, a free-to-edit open-rights wiki in which people muse about the various themes, memes and (dare I say it) tropes running around in fiction right now. They define a "trope" as "a literary device which the audience is expected to recognize." The Chosen One? Narm (or, to use its official name, bathos)? "You And What Army?" It's all there. I'm not ashamed to admit that I've sunk hours of my life into this site—it's a brilliant and practical resource for keeping track plot devices and developments. It lists various works and the tropes they invoke, as well as various tropes and the works which invoke them. It sometimes goes overboard on the troping—it has pages for things I'm not sure I understand, or count, as ongoing memes. Regardless, it's a great place to figure out what readers are sick of and, thus, what to invert or play backwards in order to keep your story interesting. But, if you're careful, you can also earn your cliches. What does that mean? It's pretty simple: if you play your cards carefully, and line up the facts just right, most of your readers will buy your cliche. Because a cliche isn't a trope. A cliche is a trope that's used lazily. This in itself is proof that the trope has some life in it. Remember, a cliche is something that gets overused—and things that are broken or don't work right don't get overused. It's worth using. But only if you take some time with it. To turn a trope into a cliche, you fling around carelessly because you're lazy and you figure, "Oh, people will buy it. They understand how this trope works. I don't have to justify it." Uhh. Yes you do. Simply put, the line between well-played trope and cliche is how well you set it up. Isn't that encouraging? What it means is that, if you're careful, you can still use cliches. You just have to treat them like any other plot device—plant them alongside the other Chekhov's Guns you're raising, give them the tender care any other major trope would merit. Raise them up properly. Treat them like they aren't cliches, but something new and interesting you have to sell to the audience. In this way, make them interesting. Earn your cliches. And suddenly, all the boring stuff that people are tired of... Isn't boring anymore. And, even better, you've defied our previous statement: you've done something new under the sun. |