Today, we’re
going to talk about something else that a writer uses a lot, even though they
shouldn’t. They’re clichés, the tool in
our arsenal that we’re not supposed to use, because nobody wants to read the
same thing twice. However, as much as
that is true, I have an argument for why they actually work. You might have heard this argument before,
which I’m hoping isn’t the case, but here it goes.
Clichés work
because, at the core of nearly all stories, we’re retelling something. It’s a new idea or a new way to go about it,
but, honestly, we’re copying a lot of the same stories from before. Here’s another curveball for you – it’s not a
bad thing. It’s literature’s natural
selection. These stories get retold, in
different formats, because they’re the stories that we want to listen to. They’re the stories that are going to survive
throughout generations, even if only a small handful of people read them. It’s why, at the library, they have those
sample bookmarks of “if you like Neil Gaiman” and then a list of other authors
to try. It’s because even though one
book is different from the next due to characters or plot, we see we’re going
on the hero’s journey. We see that the
detective is going to attempt to catch the killer and will or won’t by the end
of the novel. We see there’s going to be
romantic tension until the couple gets together and then torn apart again only
to have a happy ending. We see, in literary
fiction itself, that a main character goes from being a kid who lost his mother
because of his best friend to someone who accepts the greater mysteries of
life. Now, Prayer for Omen Meany has a
bigger meaning than the one sentence version I just wrote out. You should go read it and it’s one of my
favorite novels.
Going back to clichés,
before I bury the lead entirely, is that we’re told it’s a bad thing. It’s a no-no.
But, considering all that we know, is it really true? I don’t think so. Considering the amount of television on right
now that is either a procedural – thanks to ER or Law and Order or soap operas – or comedy that follows a certain pattern, it’s showing that we
want the clichés. I can even point it
out in literature where you cannot find a good fantasy novel where the male
main character and the female main character don’t get together by the
end. I will go happily read a fantasy
novel that is not A Song of Fire and Ice where that doesn’t happen by the end
of the novel or series. Leave a comment
down below as I’m always looking for more to read. Or give me a detective novel where the bad guy
isn’t captured by the end of the novel or the series. We want our clichés, in the broad sense of
the word, and we should not be afraid to embrace them as writers.
In that same vein, we shouldn’t be
afraid to write stock characters, like the naïve chosen one. What we need to do is change how
they come about it. Harry Potter is
successful because of how he became the chosen one. Yes, there is a prophecy that he is the one
to vanquish the Dark Lord (hello fantasy clichés - a two for one) but there were two who could
have fit that prophecy. How different is
Harry Potter if Neville Longbottom was the one that Voldemort picked? How successful would that story have been if
Neville was the main character and gone through everything Harry did? It’s too much of a stretch, considering how
Neville is introduced and written until the seventh book where he shines. He’s the one who kills Nagini with the
Gryffindor sword and kept up Dumbledore’s Army while Harry’s off saving the
world. Would J.K. Rowling have written
Neville differently if Neville was the one Voldemort gone after? Or would Neville be dead and the Harry Potter
series a lot darker? We don’t know because
the cliché was kept of the naïve chosen one who, despite his limited faults,
vanquished evil and the world is better for it.
That is one big
example on how clichés can work. I can
go on, and will if anybody wants me to, but you get the idea. Clichés are good if you can wrap them up all
bright and shiny and new. The advice for
today is as same as I gave at the top of the post. Embrace your clichés in the genre you’re
writing. You can use them, you’ve just got
to make them interesting. It’s the same
as in everything in life. You’ve got an
amazing idea, that others have done, but you have a different take. It is not wrong to keep to what we’ve read as
they get through. Unless the publication
industry is going to shut down completely, we’re going to keep on reading clichés. Why not take the old clichéd advice and write
what you know? As shown time and time
again, it works.
Until next time,
keep on writing.
