Because if I hear elf, I'll just think of Tolkien and any description given to me will be lost.

Um...I'm not sure how I'm going to approach this...most of the races in my story are pretty much the stereotype (centaurs, minotaurs) that goes with their name...I'm ashamed to say I've never actually invented a race.
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Oh, and humans too, I'm using that stereotype in a lot of ways. While discarding other parts of it due to the fact that humans are a lot different there...

I think most authors fall into the term human, to be honest...

That's fine. Great fantasy doesn't require a made-up race.

First of all, stereotypes are useful things ... so it's nice to be able to let the reader "fill in the blanks" for us. (They're useful even in ordinary life; the danger is in assuming that, or acting as if, they are a complete and accurate description of reality, instead of a mostly-accurate executive summary.)

Second, at least in fiction, stereotypes and tropes can change. Tolkien had to explicitly (if I recall correctly) distinguish his elves and dwarves from the "brownies" and malevolent earth spirits of folklore, for example.

What I do (and I think can work really well if done properly) is to start with these tropes or stereotypes, then in a few places turn them on their head. In my world, for example, if you want to know some obscure bit of anient lore that's probably mentioned in a book you only know exists because of a footnote in a manuscript that only survives because of what was written on the opposite side of the parchment, you go not to the elves, but to the great underground cities of the dwarves, who have delved deep and traded far and wide in search of knowledge. But most of the other characteristics of the dwarves are much as any reader of modern fantasy might expect.

I hadn't though of that, but makes sense. However, unless one is writing specifically for a generation or three down the line, I do not see how that applies to how we should approach stereotypes in writing now.

Incidentally, there was one instance where Tolkien had to back away from a worldbuilding element because of the common stereotype. Originally, one of the Elvish tribes was called the Gnomes because of their love of knowledge, but, because of the prevalent malevolent-spirit-of-folklore-stereotype, he decided to change their name to be the Noldor.

Two things: first, we shouldn't rely too heavily on stereotypes or tropes, because our readers might not have the same background we do. (Many of my favorite books are decades or centuries old; I hope my work will survive as well as some of them ...) And second, we shouldn't worry too much about combating the stereotypes (i.e. making the differences between our ideas and the tropes explicit early and often), since if we're successful we might even change the popular conceptions.

I like to avoid stereotypes, because they are so overused. The only race I have in my fantasy world is humans, actually.

You do realize that race has a lot of stereotypes...right?

You know what I meant.

So you mean cliches?

Yes, the cliche fantasy races, such as elves, dwarves, etc. Particularly elves. I don't know why. I just don't like them very much.

First of all, stereotypes are useful things; we are not Ents (who almost certainly delight in, to use an example from a different area of worldbuilding, describing "a valley" as "a narrow low place between two mountains with a creek running through and filled with oak trees and inhabited by a herd of deer ...", only with each of the nouns and adjectives in that desription explained in much greater length than I gave the whole thing), so it's nice to be able to let the reader "fill in the blanks" for us. (They're useful even in ordinary life; the danger is in assuming that, or acting as if, they are a complete and accurate description of reality, instead of a mostly-accurate executive summary.)

Although there are several ways of creating or adapting new races and new outlooks on races, one of the best ways of bringing a race to life is by creating an individual from that race and making him a fully developed character.

Great discussion, gang!
In fact, the ideas expressed here are very similar to and in total agreement with the thoughts expressed in The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference, in it's chapter on races. Most of the chapter highlights the most popular fantasy races (Dwarves, Elves, Fairies, Giants, Goblins & Orcs, Halflings & Hybrids, Merfolk, and Trolls), and different ways that other authors have found to put unique twists on the old stereotypes. So needless to say, when I saw yall talking about refreshing the stereotypes with your own twists, I was I like " I've read the exact same advice before! "

Yes, the cliche fantasy races, such as elves, dwarves, etc. Particularly elves. I don't know why. I just don't like them very much.

Great discussion, gang!
In fact, the ideas expressed here are very similar to and in total agreement with the thoughts expressed in The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference, in it's chapter on races. Most of the chapter highlights the most popular fantasy races (Dwarves, Elves, Fairies, Giants, Goblins & Orcs, Halflings & Hybrids, Merfolk, and Trolls), and different ways that other authors have found to put unique twists on the old stereotypes. So needless to say, when I saw yall talking about refreshing the stereotypes with your own twists, I was I like " I've read the exact same advice before! "

*nods* That's a point Michael McCrae brings out in his chapter, "Race Creation" in the The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy. He also points out that with races that you create on your own, you have to do more descriptive work because the readers will have no pre-established associations to fill in the gaps with.

So basically, I agree that stereotypes can be helpful when used intelligently, but I thought I'd share one last helpful thought:
P.S. - Sorry, for all the referrals to other sources and quotes, still in college-paper mode, I guess.

I would argue that elves are not a cliche. There are three terms here, related but distinct: "trope" (a way stories tend to or usually go), "stereotype" (stronger than "trope", and refers to concrete descriptions rather than general patterns), and "cliche" (a trope, a stereotype, or even a phrase that has been so overused that it usually prevents anything that uses it from being taken seriously). "Boy meets girl" and "the rightful king incognito" are tropes; "dwarves are short and stoky, great miners, and gruff in personality" is a stereotype. The best example of a true cliche I can ome up with is the line "It was a dark and stormy night"; if you start a story with that (A Wrinkle in Time notwithstanding), you're marking the story as something not to be taken seriously, and probably a farce. Elves may be a somewhat overused stereotype, but authors keep bringing enough unique twists to them that ---with new and original portrayals---they can still be used in serious fantasy.