A NOTORIOUS EPIDEMIC: Are You cliche? || Questions. - Comments

Sure, everything has pretty much been done before, but regardless of the fact every story is going to have some minor cliche in it...As long as it's not just like anything else, then I'm not too worried, because some people add different twists to old cliches and it's surprisingly good. But what I consider cliche? Something that you can name off a million other movies/books that literally have the same storyline with different characters, or literally have the same basic scene. Or, it's like that sound they use for zombies, you know what that is? Most the time, it's a cow; yes, a COW! I get really tired of it. Basically, cliche to me is something I'm beyond tired of.

Of course, no one can really avoid it, but they can do better than doing pretty much exactly what others have done. I will never defend cliche, because it does quite bother me, in my view of it.

My take on clichè is that while stories of that particular strain may be prevalant, and bore the reader to tears because it has all been done, and in the back of their heads their imagination is weeping in the corner in the shape of a little child, because they know deep down there are over a hundred stories just like this on.
People don't expand on the idea, example; good boy likes bad girl, it's a complicated situation, they are in truth nothing alike, perhaps the boy doesn't want to be seen as a holy specimin of successful parenting, but he is by no means a 'bad boy' at heart.
Why do you then make it so simple? How is it that one day Bad Girl looks at Good Boy, and now finally sees Prince-fucking-Charming? And then it's so easy after that, they always get eachother in the end.
A break on that clichè is Papertowns by John Green.

I'm not okay with any of it because while you are allowed to follow societal guidelines (god forbid) that does not excuse you from the pains of originality.
Why even pick up your pen to write a story, if you have no intention of making it any different than its five hundred other carnations?
Nothing good ever came from 'following societal guidelines', being safe never made a critic dizzy with anticipation, future generations will never gawk over a safe book.
Gatsby died, he never got the girl.
Tom was sentenced to death, Atticus was never able to save him.
The timeless stories come from breaking the leash, not being dragged by it.

I have literally never written about any of those things, nor will I ever write about those things... I think all of you guys got that covered, actually those topics are like a mummified corpse, and you guys are all like the winding gauze, wrapping yourselves around it again, and agian, and again.

Nope.
I'm still quite content in my ideas of the clichè, those being that it is a useless mode of fiction that gets us nowhere fast.

What's your take on cliche?
Well, for me, I love taking something cliché and so overdone in a bad way that always ends up in a Mary-Sue production of sorts, and then adding my own twists and making it original to an extent. Taking something predictable and so sought-after and making it as unpredictable as possible.
Are you okay with it?
It's okay to be cliché as long as you change it up a little so I can't predict the whole story line and the ending, with every complication already figured out after the first two chapters. Now, if it's something that starts off as cliché in the beginning but begins to get better and there are more twists, that's fine.
Do you want to change the perception of cliche now that you know you are in fact "cliche."?
I'm on the fence with it. I think that people knowing what cliché essentially means is a good thing and that if they strip away all of the perceptions beforehand and really take a look at what it generally refers to (like what you did with that list) and keeping in mind that cliché isn't bad as long as it's well-written, no one's going to think it's cliché.
Do you hate the word as much as I do?
I love the word cliché. The accent is pretty. :)

1. Nothing everything is new and not everything is new. It's all the same, no matter how much you dress it up and claim it's new. xD
2. Yes, Ma'am I am.
3. No, Ma'am. :3
4. Sometimes but it's always going to be around.

I like your take on it Isadora Pierce
I wish I was at peace with it the way you are, Ackerley Windsor

1. I think every story is a bit cliche to a certain point. Whether it's enjoyable and well written are the next questions.
2. Yep, I'm a bit of a cliche writer myself. I'd hate my work if I wasn't okay with it.
3. Always known I was cliche and I like it so not really.
4. Nope =) I think it's a fine little word.

I'm okay with cliche because if it's written well, you don't care. The story is amazing and more than half the time if you sort of have an idea what's going to happen, you want it to.

Nah. Everyone is a little bit. Any writer is. Any play write is. Unless you're like Shakespeare.

And nope, I don't hate the word. :D

1. It can't be fought because it's all been done before.
2. I am, yes.
3. I've always known about the cliche thing.
4. I actually like it.