Clichés

I hope this thread is ok here....

Anyway. We all know the typical clichés that can happen when you are writing a story, but to make a story stand out from the rest, a good author is able to put a twist on that cliché or change it in some way to make it something which is original. Because when you repeatedly see the same cliché in a story, it gets old and you are no longer interested.

For me, my co-written story This, Is Getting Over You began as a "Girl meets Band/Hero" cliché. We wanted to make it something different and original, so we still used the cliché but modified it in some way.
Instead of the girl and band member falling for each other straight away, we made them hate each other, That way they were more like rivals. Even though they hated each other, when they do begin to have a romance, its more of a forbidden romance. And instead of having the main character be a Miss Perfect she's completely the opposite.

What do you guys do to avoid or change a cliché in your stories? Or do you embrace them rather than avoid them?

I usually avoid cliches, but sometimes it's worth it. I use them sometimes...

I use a lot of cliches. And I mean a lot. They're kind of hidden, though.

I don't try to force anything to come out. If they come out, sometimes I try putting a twist on them or they just twist on their own. Sometimes cliches aren't that bad, and in some places can enhance the story rather then dehance it (is that a fucking word?)

One cliche I can't stand is the skittles shit in Frerards. Like, that just kills the story for me, so in all my Frerards, skittles is never mentioned. At all. Also, Waycest is always horribly cliche. It's always written in both POVs, its always them self loathing, its allways their parents abuse them. Then they somehow confess their love and have sex. There are some authors who can use a waycest cliche, but write it well enough so you can't tell.

I agree with the skittles cliché, I used it once...only because it was a comedy kind of one-shot, otherwise it annoys the hell out of me and when I see it in storys it completely turns me off of it.

I also do embrace some clichés, but I don't know how well I pull them off.

There are a couple of stories here that's full of cliches, but you wouldn't notice because it's written and pulled off well.

Anyway, I once wrote a Waycest, but I put a twist in the end. You'd have to read to find out. ;)

And my Frerards, I guess, are a bit cliche, but well... they were just for fun and nothing too deep. So, yeah.

I like to think my brotherly fics aren't cliche, but you guys be the judge.

Are sad endings considered cliche? Because I've never had a 'serious' fic with a really happy ever after. :lmfao

The Way:

Are sad endings considered cliche? Because I've ever had a 'serious' fic with a really happy ever after. :lmfao

I don't consider them as a cliche. I'd consider it a cliche is it was a serious story and then at the end it's a really happy ending...it'd be more dramatic if the ending was sad.

One of my stories is so full of cliches.

Cliches just work sometimes. I know one of my original short stories has a lot of cliches, but I didn't realize it until someone pointed it out.

I write several story cliches. Or wrote rather. I don't think there's anything too cliche about my Panic! stuff . . .
But tons of my Green Day stories were ooberly cliche.
Anyway, I wrote a list of some of the most overused plots to show a girl that it's relatively easy to come up with a plot, but as long as you put your own twist on it, it'll be okay [as long as you have talent, of course].
I was told once that I wrote very repeated storylines, but I did so in a fashion that it was like you're reading it for the first time. I'm not saying that to whore myself, but to point out that it is possible to use the same old storylines if you try to put a spin on it.

- - -

Oh, classic plots. There are so many. And I've used entirely too many of them.

Classic cutting bullshit.
A Manifestation of My Emotional State

Classic rape bullshit.
My Blood, That Wasn't My Brother

Classic girlfriend-cheated-on-me so I'm turning to you for comfort and we end up kissing and fucking and stuff, but we're not gay, we're just friends who happened to fall for each other bullshit.
A Ryden in the works.

Classic daddy raped me bullshit.
Nevermore, Losing the Innocence of Faith

Classic I'm married and cheating with you bullshit.
Three Hearts Beating

Classic you save me from killing myself because you secretly love me bullshit.
Nonempathetic Merry-Go-Round

Classic I'm mentally fucked up and you bring me out of my psychotic state of mind and then I kiss you and romantic blah blah blah bullshit.
Like an Angel [without the romantic part]

I'm not saying bullshit because the plotlines are bullshit. If you twist them and execute them properly, they can be your best friend.

On here, however, all the stories seem to be redundant and fuck with Gerard cutting himself and Frankie seeing it and 'let's fuck to take the pain away' and blah blah fucking blah.

My first story was incredibly cliche. Only because I was semi-new at writing and it sucked.

The story that I'm writing right now is cliche, but I did that on purpose. It represents how everything can be perfect in the main character's life yet he is still fighting internal conflicts.

I actually tried to take my first story as far away from the cliche as possible, even though it was entirely based off a Billie Joe daydream of the kind that spawned every single "I met Billie and we fell in love right away hahahah pwnage" story.

But I couldn't bear that and it didn't even make sense to me that Billie would leave Adrienne...so he didn't. And it became a rather uncliche story.

There was a time in my stories where EVERY character was either raped, had an addiction, or cut themselves. Sometimes all three. I still sometimes include that, but I am trying not to. Sometimes my characters just go in that direction and you can't stop them- I don't know if anyone has experience that. I still have the problem of including rape, but I kind of put a twist on it, i hope that doesn't sound terrible..like...

in Anonymous, legally Frankie was raped by Gerard. But Frankie says, "I asked for it, you were giving me exactly what I asked for." Moments before Frankie admitted he wanted Gerard to fuck him

In Cherry Soda Boy, while on drugs Reno had sex with some nameless guy which is rape cause the guy took advantage of him. Reno says, "But it doesn't count." Since, accourding to him, taking the drugs meant he left his "ass open for any gay man."

In Dear God, I Think I killed the Sweetest Flower, Justin's rape wasn't even focused on too much. It was used to explain Justin's own sexual tendacies and depression.

My first story was kinda cliche. It was a My Chem in high school type thing where Gerard meets the new girl at school and falls in love with her. Then Frank gets jealous and has sex with him. Now I know better.

I just kind of write what comes to mind. I don't know if you'd call any of them a cliche or not. I hope not and I don't personally think so. But I guess that's for everyone to make their minds up over.
Maybe In My Shoes was a bit cliche, maybe that's partly why it's my least favourite of my stories (and why I'm not working on it anymore).
I just write the scenarios that are in my head, I like having little twists on the end. But sometimes it's not always possible to incorporate them.

i don't really like cliches, but to me, they're kind of a foundation to most stories, like, the classic frerard, frank has problems, gerard saves him, etc, but you can add twists to it, to make it not-so-cliche.

i find them really helpful, but overused if you don't add your own twist to the story.

One of my stories was a tad bit cliche, but I hid it a bit because the story was a sequel. The first story was a complete original; than I wrote the squel that had girl meets band member.

But, like Kiss.Me.Goodbye, I didn't have them fall for each other write away. Actually, the girl hated everything because of what happened in the first story. She also had a few problems with speech making her far from Miss Perfect. Also, the guy did show any interest 'til half way through.

I've shied away from cliche stories. If they do come out in my stories they must be well hidden since no one sees them.

The Serpent and the Prey was your classic bullshit rape plotline.
However, I changed it a bit by having one of my supporting characters kill the rapist and then marry Bam's ex-girlfriend for a green card.
Not all that cliche of an ending.

I have lots of those fucked up depressed stories with a viewpoint that you really have to immerse yourself in or be on crack to understand. But when a story has a viewpoint like that, it's really hard to duplicate and that keeps it from being too cliche.

However, I don't think any of my Panic! fics fall into the cliche category. The only one that could is Room 242 and it takes such a twist on the rape plotline that I don't consider it a cliche at all.

Morals Matter is really cliche, now that I think about it. The whole "but we're not gay but I think I love you" plotline, just with Andy Hurley and Joe Trohman instead of Frank Iero and Gerard Way.

Spaceboy vs. Pluto:

Morals Matter is really cliche, now that I think about it. The whole "but we're not gay but I think I love you" plotline, just with Andy Hurley and Joe Trohman instead of Frank Iero and Gerard Way.

That's true, but I'm doing that with A Whispering Campaign.
But there's the additional add in of Brendon saying "Well yes you are..."

I think it's impossible to totally avoid writing something cliché. I also think it's very important to write something that is cliché when you first start writing, because you can keep progressing and developing original ideas and plots..

My first story was utterly cliché, but I had these little ideas which no one else had.

I kinda saw all of these stories with the female main character having no parents or having their parents die in some horrible way. I'd like to know who first got that idea, because it was good, but just caught into the stream.

I love cliché stories tbh, but they have to be well written.

The first story I actually saw that was very original was 'Billie Jo' -I think- by druscilla; insain back on GSB. It was so unique that I was really jealous. I just thought wow, she's got some talent.
Then I started to notice slash, at first it was original 'boy loves boy'. But, now it's just so annoyingly cliché because they just never progress.

I'm always trying writing something that is original.