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Clichés to avoid or twist

Hypoxia

Hypoxia

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I found on WritingWorldDotCom a cute page, Clichés to Avoid -- Or Reconstruct for writing Romance fiction. Overview of overdone tropes:

The Evil Other Woman
The Evil Ex-Wife
Evil Relatives
City Girl To Country Mouse
The Naive Virginal Heroine
The Duke Of Slut [tamed]
The Will Stipulation
Amnesia Plots
The Silly Big Misunderstanding

I see lots of these in some form here on Story Ideas, especially Naive Virginal Heroine and Will Stipulation. IMHO such tropes are best handled with parody, twists & inversions, and the addition of tentacle monsters.

Discuss.
 
I come across Naive Virginal Heroine a lot. That's probably one of the cliches I hate the most. Just because a girl(woman) is a virgin, doesn't make her stupid. Virgins know what a penis is guys.
 
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The thing about the amnesia cliché is that it can lead to some very interesting stories if it's written well. It's just so overused that everyone rolls their eyes when it comes up. I had a pretty legit reason for writing a story like that but I'm very hesitant because of the eyeroll effect. Not that my story would be the typical amnesia story, it would be about a small group of people who all have no idea who they are and why they are there, but it's not lazy writing in this case. There is a valid plot reason for them to have lost their memories (they were erased by someone).

I have a feeling a lot of these clichés are like that. Even attempts to use them well will be met with criticism just because it involves a cliché, no matter how well written it is.
 
Naive virgin is just such a bundle of fun... and they do exist. Then, of course, overdoing it becomes unwilling comedy very fast.
 
I agree completely about the 38DD breasts. It seems that everyone's wife is 5'4" and thin, with DD breasts. Come on people!
 
Hypoxia wrote:

Overview of overdone tropes:

The Evil Other Woman
The Evil Ex-Wife
Evil Relatives
City Girl To Country Mouse
The Naive Virginal Heroine
The Duke Of Slut [tamed]
The Will Stipulation
Amnesia Plots
The Silly Big Misunderstanding

IMHO such tropes are best handled with parody, twists & inversions, and the addition of tentacle monsters.
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I'd say the most overdone tropes are the handsome football player/hot cheerleader, the incestuous stepbrother/stepsister, followed by the horny high school jock/horny woman teacher. In addition to the one's above, throw in a testicle monster here and there--you'll have covered most of the overdone tropes. :D
 
A challenge! Write a single chapter story including all of the above.

Love and Kisses

Lisa Ann
 
LupusDei said:
Naive virgin is just such a bundle of fun... and they do exist. Then, of course, overdoing it becomes unwilling comedy very fast.
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Naïve virgin is good if you make the character interesting, or her naïve nature is purposely used for comedic purposes. My character Julie from 'April Leads Julie Astray' is a somewhat naïve and virginal daughter of a church minister but she is a nice girl, has plenty of depth to her character and certainly has not enjoyed an easy life. Her naïve moments (not recognizing that two male support characters are gay) add comedy to a serious story, and shows how things were more innocent when the story is set (1963).

You can also invert things with this trope, for example I wrote lesbian erotica between two Jehovah's Witness girls and the white blonde Caucasian girl is the more intelligent and streetwise of the two, with the African-American girl being dumb and naïve.

Some tropes mentioned in the OP are winners if used correctly, like city mouse/country mouse. And I often write about dysfunctional families, so evil relatives work well for me.

But as I have found out this year by writing Incest/Taboo, new and different ideas that rarely or never appear among these stories, these readers don't tend to like things to be different or original. I wrote a lesbian story about two step sisters and they didn't like it. I had never seen a story about foster siblings so I wrote one about a guy who falls in love with his foster sister and guess what? They didn't like it either. And while body swap is hardly a new story idea, I thought that a fantasy story series where a nerd swaps bodies with his twin sister's dumb jock boyfriend was a sure winner. They absolutely hate it, hate it with a passion, and it seems to be Literotica's answer to 'Dirty Grandpa', 'Freddy Got Fingered' or 'Movie 43'.
 
RetroFan, I do have one question: will you do a sequel to your Debbie the Dumb Gold Digger story? I liked it; BTW, I left a comment on there as an idea for Vanessa's background, if that's OK with you...

With regards to your more recent stories, I read the stepsisters one and thought it was OK; I haven't read the body-switch story, though...
 
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ThisNameIsntTakenYet said:
The thing about the amnesia cliché is that it can lead to some very interesting stories if it's written well. It's just so overused that everyone rolls their eyes when it comes up.
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I've a couple of stories featuring coma or alcoholic blackout, not standard amnesia. I guess I unconsciously twisted a cliché that's not really tempted me. Writing it is a puzzle: how can I make *myself* accept it, let alone readers? The amnesiac slowly learns they're quite odd. Hilarity ensues. Yawn.

Again, my OP list and link are about romance fiction. I'm just generalizing them to pr0n er I mean erotica. Boilerplate amnesia romance probably sells.
 
Unknown81 said:
RetroFan, I do have one question: will you do a sequel to your Debbie the Dumb Gold Digger story? I liked it; BTW, I left a comment on there as an idea for Vanessa's background, if that's OK with you...

With regards to your more recent stories, I read the stepsisters one and thought it was OK; I haven't read the body-switch story, though...
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I've thought about writing a sequel to 'Debbie the Dumb Gold Digger' and another lesbian story 'April Leads Julie Astray' but even with ideas put forward I can't think of any suitable sequel for either story, as they are self-contained works. Sometimes a story can have a component that leads to a sequel - for example 'The PTA Queen Bee & the Teen Rebel' had an upcoming school fete that was perfect for a sequel. And when I wrote 'Spoiled Princess Hates Camping' I had no plans of continuing with these characters, but they were perfect for my ideas for 'Trailer Trash Teen Hates Rules' so continued them on into this series.

With sequels and spin-offs, it is much easier to miss the mark and fail than it is to succeed, and you see this all the time - books, movies and TV shows. Sometimes they are so bad they damage the legacy of the original. I wouldn't want to write a crappy sequel to April Leads Julie Astray or Debbie the Dumb Gold Digger, so unless I was sure an idea would work I won't attempt a sequel.

As for the body switch story (Body Swap With Sister's Boyfriend), as I mentioned it seems to be Literotica's answer to Dirty Grandpa, Movie 43 or Freddy Got Fingered. If there was a prize for the worst stories written on the site per year, I think this series would get quite a few nominations given one comment (among many negative reviews) advised me to kill myself.
 
pervo said:
I agree completely about the 38DD breasts. It seems that everyone's wife is 5'4" and thin, with DD breasts. Come on people!
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Also, is it really necessary to be so specific with measures? Maybe it is because I am used to the metric system and can never figure out on my own lengths given in inches and feet, but it kind of feels too clinical. In my opinion, a good writer should master the art of description and when it fails to be precise, well, leave something to imagination. It happens anyway, after all.
 
bushyTrail said:
Also, is it really necessary to be so specific with measures? Maybe it is because I am used to the metric system and can never figure out on my own lengths given in inches and feet, but it kind of feels too clinical. In my opinion, a good writer should master the art of description and when it fails to be precise, well, leave something to imagination. It happens anyway, after all.
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Yeah, I tend to leave it at "big", "small" or "average" for the most part, as far as size is concerned. I prefer comparisons though, like saying a girl's chest is bigger or smaller than another girl's, either one in the scene with them or one the character knows. Just how big isn't that important, but relative size is something I'd like to know as a reader so I try to put it in my descriptions too.
 
bushyTrail said:
Also, is it really necessary to be so specific with measures? Maybe it is because I am used to the metric system and can never figure out on my own lengths given in inches and feet, but it kind of feels too clinical. In my opinion, a good writer should master the art of description and when it fails to be precise, well, leave something to imagination. It happens anyway, after all.
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On the job I would use English measure (inches), Metric (Celcius), and Nautical measure (Knots). It was always funny when someone would take a rough estimate and precisely translate it. "About 2.9356 inches." Or make obvious decimal errors, "Better get your pressure suit its 292.5 inches of mercury out there!"

Love and Kisses

Lisa Ann
 
bushyTrail said:
Also, is it really necessary to be so specific with measures?
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It seems many numbers freaks exist who must be satisfied. The trick: appease both them and their opposites. Is a puzzle.

ThisNameIsntTakenYet said:
Yeah, I tend to leave it at "big", "small" or "average" for the most part, as far as size is concerned. I prefer comparisons though, like saying a girl's chest is bigger or smaller than another girl's, either one in the scene with them or one the character knows. Just how big isn't that important, but relative size is something I'd like to know as a reader so I try to put it in my descriptions too.
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I may say a guy is 6-foot-4 and his sis is a few inches shorter. Or two sisters, each one inch either side of 5 1/2 feet. Or someone reaches someone else's eyes, chin, or shoulder... or elbow. Comparisons like that.

But other endowments? Massive Saxon breasts (or cantaloupes), or long thin (slinky) Asian cocks, or table-tennis-toned legs, or fingers too big to play soprano 'ukulele. But numbers? I only measure some heights, not other dimensions, except as parody. I *do* mention scent, taste, texture.
_____

More cliché: Ethnic or national stereotyping. Saxon boobs, Asian dicks, Levantine noses, towering Samoans, chunky Osages, sultry Latinas, Big Black Cocks, well-used Thai or Creole whores, Redneck floozies, uptight WASPs, yada yada. They're useful as shorthand but too easily overdone.
 
Hypoxia said:
  1. The Evil Other Woman
  2. The Evil Ex-Wife
  3. Evil Relatives
  4. City Girl To Country Mouse
  5. The Naive Virginal Heroine
  6. The Duke Of Slut [tamed]
  7. The Will Stipulation
  8. Amnesia Plots
  9. The Silly Big Misunderstanding
Click to expand...

Okay is it just me or would each of these make a good alternative title for one or mire of Shakespears plays?

1 TheTaming of the Shrew
2 Henry the VIII
3 Romeo and Juliet
4 Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing
5 Twelfth Night, Othello
6 King Lear
7 King Lear
8 Taming of the Shrew
9 Comedy of Errors, A Mid Summers Nights Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Othello
 
I wonder how cliches become cliches in the first place ... ;)

=================

Oh, and this is brilliant I think ... but I'm not sure ... because I'm not one of those cliched cultured people who know all about Shakespear ... but it sounds good.

Salacious_Scribe said:
Okay is it just me or would each of these make a good alternative title for one or mire of Shakespears plays?

1 TheTaming of the Shrew
2 Henry the VIII
3 Romeo and Juliet
4 Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing
5 Twelfth Night, Othello
6 King Lear
7 King Lear
8 Taming of the Shrew
9 Comedy of Errors, A Mid Summers Nights Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Othello
Click to expand...
 
DreamingOfMyEx said:
I wonder how cliches become cliches in the first place ... ;)
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Overuse. And just a touch of truthiness.

Pocketshaver said:
we are talking stupid story ideas, NOT talking about liberal democrat party stupidity
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Take it to the GB.
_____

Cartoonish ethnic stereotypes have their place in parody, and as shortcuts. I can exploit descriptions as Saxon, Haitian, Levantine, Tonkinese etc without loading political points -- that's what they look like, not who they are. Angels and assholes come in all colors and configurations, from the heart, yeah. Or I can flaunt the cartoon, and twist it mercilessly. WASP subs whipped by dusky dommes! Promiscuous Polynesian prince pounces on all his female relatives but finds true love with a selkie (were-seal). Yada yada.

I guess the worst cliches are the most shopworn, most obvious -- most popular. Bad because they're old, or old because they're bad?
 
I quite like the "Naive Virginal Heroine" cliche. It has to be written skillfully, though

One cliche that I hate though - and this is in the "Cheating Wife" category - is when the wronged husband (instead of being angst-ridden) is overjoyed that someone is doing his wife
 
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