Who here knows what a cliche is?
*raises hand*
Well, a cliche is a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought, and a very predictable or unoriginal thing or person. Things like:
Girls and guys meeting by literally running into each other
Books starting by the MC waking up by an alarm clock
Etc.

And words and phrases like:

As light as a feather
As bright as the sun
Many hands make light work
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
Live and learn.
What goes around comes around
Every cloud has a silver lining
Break a leg
It's raining cats and dogs
It could be worse
Time will tell
All is fair in love and war
Haste makes waste
Life is unfair
When you have lemons, make lemonade.
Opposites attract
A fire station burning down.
As old as the hills.... etcetera.

What are some cliches you have accidentally written, or found in other books?

I know!
As red as a beet.

A concept that I think is cliche: "A young man and a young lady meet and have to do something together, even though they both hate each other. In the process of their mission, they fall in love."

Ooh, I groaned when I read that. LOL

Just thought I'd mention that though we laugh at clichés, they are often based in reality. I know two couples in real life who literally ran into one another (or he hit her with his tennis racket) when they first met. It's cliché, but it does happen in real life.

Okay, the one that came to mind is that the adopted son of the peasant is actually the heir to the throne.

Haha! That's true... You really have to work on that, God. You're including too many cliches in your writing!

Hehe that's a funny one! Adopted son of the peasant...

Yeah, for better examples I looked to google... this is all it gave me! I wanted to give more examples and I could only think of like three or four lol

Cliche - Like a little orphan girl going to live with an Aunt. Orphan girls in general, really. Think of all the orphan girls in literature - Anne of Green Gables, Elizabeth Ann from Understood Betsy etc.
Or how about the elements we feel like we must include in a family - a tomboy, a scholastic plain child, and a sickly, beautiful child who imagines odd things.
People who were "once beautiful".
Now that I'm thinking about cliches - are they like... caricatures? An exaggeration or over-representation of a topic that is attractive to romantic writers?
Phyllis

Really? I've heard that one hundreds of times! In real life that is.

A cliche can be anything, really. Dragon Writing Prompts has a fantastic post on various cliches in fantasy, covering cliche settings, storylines, characters, plot devices, and events. It's huge, but I strongly recommend you read it through. http://dragonwritingprompts.blogsome.co ... y-cliches/

Guy warning: there is a picture at the beginning of the post of a woman in a dress I wouldn't be caught dead in. Not a lot of skin, but an immodest dress nonetheless. Just a warning so you aren't shocked.

THE Fantasy Cliché -
2. A brave hero steals from the rich and gives to the poor.
-Goes to change plot- Whoopsy...

Howabout this one--

A petite, gorgeous warrior maiden who runs around scantily clad with long flowing hair, and yet somehow also can beat any man alive in single combat with any weapon.

Usually, she's very brash and bold and hates men, but then her heart is captured by an equally attractive hero and they save the world together.

lol. I really dislike that one.

Lol yeah! And that warrior at the start; seems very kind and polite but then reveals her fierceness!!! Ick!

Ick! That one really rubs me wrong.

*Shudders* Ugh. Those are the ones that annoy me. That was one of my issues with Avatar: Neytiri just got on my nerves.

How about the guy wandering the woods, and finds a beautiful maiden singing/dancing and falls in love at first sight?
(I do that one, but I tell it from someone else's POV, so it'll be more amusing)


*slinks away*
Actually, for me, it depends on how that one is handled. Sometimes it can be good, but most of the time . . . ugh.

Lets see . . . The old mentor who tells the young person that the fate of [whatever] rests on their shoulders . . . right before he/she dies of a villain inflicted wound.

That is true...



HAHA! Obi-wan Kenobi- You are my only hope!

Speaking of cliches... Do boring modifiers count?

...loud sound...
...bright sun....
...beautiful maiden...

Hey! That's great! I haven't thought of anything like that! It's always good to have interesting adjectives.
(without of course pulling out the thesaurus and making your readers have no idea what you are talking about the whole time. It's so hard to avoid being extremely far out yet not having cliches!)

-God bless

He he, yeah. I personally like to slip in a simile (right word?) or a metaphor, or a comparison every now and then, just for a more interesting picture than an adjective or adverb would give.

... their jaws dangling like overripe apples.

Reminds me of zombies for some reason??? Hehe

Over-ripe apples rot a bit, connects with zombies possibly because of rotting flesh and hanging jaws.

How about a vaguely idealized Medieval European country as the setting?

True!

I actually like it when an old well worn cliche is taken, crafted anew, and given an entirely new fling. Actually *coughs* I love a well-reinvented cliche. But it MUST be done right, and it's so easy to mess up.

Hehe...I accidentally reinvented a cliché...I did the whole "I am your father." thing, without realizing it too.

* Shudders * Blech. . .

How about this:
Gorgeous girl bumps into handsome guy. They stumble and trip into each other's arms. They get married the next day.

Haha! That one is funny!



Did you name anyone Darth Vader?

Nope, I wasn't even thinking of Star whatever when I wrote it.

Star Wars, Love, it is called Star Wars.

Anything with warrior princesses (or female warriors). 'Cause we all know nothing says feminine like swinging a sword around and killing people!
God bless,
Crushmaster.

Star Wars, really? I always get that one confused with Star Trek... I don't see a difference... Why is Sci-Fi so confusing???

* laughs at Crush *

Star Wars and Star Trek are very different, Bethy.

Bethy's mind only computes the "Star" part and the fact that they're set in space.

*chuckles * In that case, there is also Stargate.

* walks away shaking head *

If no one minds, I'm going to throw the topic on a loop and say something radical: cliches are awesome

Okay, no, not in the same way that Cheetos are cheesy, or Doritos are epic, but still. When used correctly, a cliche can be your best friend That's why they become cliches; because no matter how many times you use them, they still work--sometimes.

So, in a roundabout way, I both hate and love all the cliches. Depends on the execution.

Why do I say that? Well, because technically a cliche is something that has been overused in literature. And technically, everything has been used before; and technically, every time a person uses a story element wrongly, it's just been used and overused.

So we can never be truly original, and cliches will ever be our comrades whether we want them or not. Sure, many times they'll cause us to roll our eyes or twitch a brow when we watch movies, read books, or even write our stories... but if treated right, they make perfect friends.

A cliche: something that isn't used enough because it isn't correctly.

Lastly, however, I suppose I might as well contradict myself one more time and say that there is a difference between cliche plot lines and cliche phrases. Phrases almost always cause heartache in the audience, because there are usually a million ways by which we can say the same thing.

For example, why must something always be compared to a 'speeding bullet'? I'm pretty sure there are plenty of fast items out there. So I, personally, think cliche phrases don't work all that well unless you're going to use them to purposely make your reader laugh--and because it's actually funny, not because it's cheesy

Cliche plot lines, on the other hand, are a completely different ball game. I think they can usually work MARVELOUSLY if--like mentioned before--they're reinvented. Sure, let the fair maiden bump into the guy, let them fall in love, and then... boom. Happy ending goes bye-bye and perfect angelic being turns out to be... not-so angelic *cough*

Anyway... I should probably shut my yap now. I think I've looped around this topic enough already.

Hear hear!

*now wants to read that story*

Agreed, but I was under the impression this topic was for cliches we hated, not ones we liked.

Cliches rule! But not all cliches are created equal.
EDIT: Hmm. Am I right or wrong? I assume right, because even good versus evil is...well...a cliche...
God bless,
Crushmaster.

It seemed to have turned into a topic for discussing cliches in general, mainly because some people were disagreeing on things.