Cliche

[sweetnpetite]

I have been noticing that a lot of times when i get a story idea I will feel that it is 'cliche'-- the whole topic. Like say for instance I decided that I wanted to write about a girl with an eating disorder (I don't, lol, that's just an example) I woudl think to myself-- girl with an eating disorder, that's too cliche. You can't write about that.

I've just actually realized that, consciously. because it's like the idea would pop into my head and then I would immediatly dismiss it.

I wonder if others have this problem, or am I just weird?

I think that I realize that what makes an idea cliche is not the idea itself, but how you deal with it, but still, certain ideas just strike me as 'too done' or something. Maybe I just try to hard to be original that I discard any idea that doesn't strike me as completly unique.

 

[rgraham666]

All my ideas are pretty cliche.

I don't mind that. I enjoy writing about such ordinary things in such a way as to make it interesting. It's a real challenge.

 

[bronzeage]

We seldom invent a new word, so we rearrange the ones we have. Sometimes an idea is cliche only because it so common in ordinary life. All of Shakespeare's plots are cliches and were when they new.

Just because an anorexic teeager named Amber or a redneck truckdriver named Bubba are cliche characters, does not mean they can't say something new.

The idea is not cliche, the treatment is. My biggest problem is trying not to reuse the same metaphor or image twice, especially in a long story, where later parts may be written months later. I depend on my editor to help me with that.

She is very good at warining me when I have treated an idea with a cliche.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I don't worry about something being a cliche. A while ago I wrote a story about a big, hung black delivery man and a blonde from Alabama fucking in her bed. Very cliche but so what. It made a really smutty story.

 

[Huckleman2000]

It's two-thousand-and-fucking-six.

There's no such thing as an original idea anymore.

I wrestled with this recently when someone asked me to read their story. It had some familiar elements, and the plot followed a familiar arc. Nonetheless, it was treated in a skillful and unexpected manner, and was a really pleasurable story to read. I was familiar with the plot and many of the devices, but it was still engaging to see how the author put those elements together and chose to emphasize certain elements at the expense of others.

So, when writing my feedback, should I acknowledge the elements that might be seen as cliche? Or should I try to emphasize the skill and originality that the author treated the familiar plot circumstance with?

Either way, it's a risk to discuss with someone close to their work.

It's a reason I've got stories in various forms of completion, but haven't posted any of them.

I admire anyone who posts a story. None of an author's ideas come completely 'out of the blue'.

I find it much easier to advise someone about this familiar blockage than I do to overcome it myself.

Hope that was helpful.

 

[amicus]

sweetnpetite]I have been noticing that a lot of times when i get a story idea I will feel that it is 'cliche'-- the whole topic. Like say for instance I decided that I wanted to write about a girl with an eating disorder (I don't, lol, that's just an example) I woudl think to myself-- girl with an eating disorder, that's too cliche. You can't write about that.

I've just actually realized that, consciously. because it's like the idea would pop into my head and then I would immediatly dismiss it.

I wonder if others have this problem, or am I just weird?

I think that I realize that what makes an idea cliche is not the idea itself, but how you deal with it, but still, certain ideas just strike me as 'too done' or something. Maybe I just try to hard to be original that I discard any idea that doesn't strike me as completly unique.

[/I]

~~~~

Hi, Sweets, some good commentary already, hope I can add to those from my perspective and be judged as such...

We are all, 'cliche's' in essence, above and beyond our personal foibles, (and we all have them, secretly or not) there is that time, an epiphany perhaps, when, like walking through a supermarket, we note all the ugly people in the world and wonder where all the beautiful people we write about are hiding.

It is, I think, as someone said, not the cliche', but how we present it....as fiction writers we have a choice of what we choose to glorify and what we do not.

And since you know, and I know, that our values are diametrically opposed, it would be interesting to compare our fictional efforts insofar as entertainment value is concerned...since that is what 'fiction' is all about...

curious, eh?

amicus...

 

[SexSweetheart]

I have been noticing that a lot of times when i get a story idea I will feel that it is 'cliche'-- the whole topic. Like say for instance I decided that I wanted to write about a girl with an eating disorder (I don't, lol, that's just an example) I woudl think to myself-- girl with an eating disorder, that's too cliche. You can't write about that.

I've just actually realized that, consciously. because it's like the idea would pop into my head and then I would immediatly dismiss it.

I wonder if others have this problem, or am I just weird?

I think that I realize that what makes an idea cliche is not the idea itself, but how you deal with it, but still, certain ideas just strike me as 'too done' or something. Maybe I just try to hard to be original that I discard any idea that doesn't strike me as completly unique.

You are right, the way you treat the subject makes it cliche. I'm having that problem with a scene I'm trying to write because I have done many of the things before in my other stories. It's hard to find a new way to do it. http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/blume/sunflower_singlesf.gif

 

[ChilledVodkaIV]

It's two-thousand-and-fucking-six.

There's no such thing as an original idea anymore.

... and every single neuron in every brain around the world conducts exactly the same signal across each synapse.

 

[MagicaPractica]

Yes, I have been thinking about this lately and I keep coming back to Jackie Chan. He said that when he threw a punch he thought about how Bruce Lee would look tough and yell, "Aaaaaahhh!" So, instead, Jackie threw a punch then winced, shook his hand and said, "Ooowwww." That is what I am trying to work toward now. A different take on the usual, create something unexpected.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I never think about cliche stuff. I just write the weird shit no one else with touch. Example ---> http://english.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=109644

 

[NoJo]

S&P, if you worry about cliche, that's a good sign. Originality is something worth making an effort to achieve. And rejecting story ideas that you find hackneyed before you even start to think them out in detail will stop you wasting time on the mediocre ones, and help you to focus your writing efforts onto the better ones.

 

[Weird Harold]

I think every writer/story-teller/lyricist eventually hits that "there are only seven stories in the world" wall at some point -- well, seven, ten, fourteen, or twentyone stories, depending on which scholarly thesis you happen to agree with.

The trick is to get past that wall and realize that what matters is how you make the reader interested in your version of one of the seven archetypal stories.

Yes, I have been thinking about this lately and I keep coming back to Jackie Chan. He said that when he threw a punch he thought about how Bruce Lee would look tough and yell, "Aaaaaahhh!" So, instead, Jackie threw a punch then winced, shook his hand and said, "Ooowwww." That is what I am trying to work toward now. A different take on the usual, create something unexpected.

Jackie Chan's approach is one I like -- I try to set up a story so the reader halfway expects a cliche and then add a twist of some sort to work against the readers expectations.

For example, naming the protganists Buffy and Bubba but making them the opposite of the airhead/chearleader and redneck/dumb jock stereotypes associated with those names.

 

[JamesSD]

I pretty much agree with everything here.

If it's a cliche you enjoy, go for it. Write what you like.

If, on the other hand, you're only half-heartedly into the idea AND it's cliche, maybe it's best to focus your efforts elsewhere.

 

[rgraham666]

I received a couple of minor complaints on my most popular BDSM story saying it was 'cliche'.

I interpret that as lifestyle code for 'not enough pain'.

 

[SexSweetheart]

Just something I read and thought I would share.

Romantic Tip
November 21, 2006

Edible Gifts

One holiday, my husband and I picked out all our presents together, so we both knew what we were going to get. Out of money, and still wanting to surprise him, I thought of a gift that was perfect for him. I got an old baby food container and filled it half with honey and half with sugar. I then put a label on it that read, edible exfoliater. Then I ran a bath with candles, flowers and the works. He loved it! The honey and sugar mix is a great skin exfoliater for the bathtub, and it’s edible so it works in the bedroom too. If the taste is a little strong, add a dab of vanilla extract.
-- Submitted by Top Secret to LovingYou.com http://www.smilies-world.de/smilies/smilies_Picture/nicht_animierte/malelovies.gif