I've read a ton of fantasy novels. I enjoy them, but there's a lot of overlapping ideas. Some of these ideas seem to move from the realm of "trope" into "cliche."
Personally, I'm usually fine with reading "cliches" as long as the writing is interesting. Chosen ones, Tolkienesque elves, half-whatevers, secret heritage, old wizards, and the like are all fine with me. I read 17 of David Eddings' books, most of R.A. Salvatore's stuff, and even got to book 8 of Wheel of Time before finally giving up. (Not because of cliches, but because it took too long for anything to happen, and because too many main characters were becoming unsympathetic.)
When it comes to writing, though, I'm trying to avoid cliches. The problem is that I'm used to writing non-fiction, and whenever I try to avoid too many cliches in fantasy, I end up with a boring, anti-climatic storyline with characters I have no interest in. (Oddly enough, looking at that little tongue-in-cheek "cliche checklist" in one of the Stickied threads, my current story doesn't really violate any of them, but I don't think that means anything. It's more of a joke list than anything else.)
The problem is that I like fantasy for a reason. Even though my preferences are outside the mainstream, I still like to have the occasional "evil artifact," "crazed wizard," or vampire. (My crazed wizard acts more like the Joker than Saruman, but he's still a crazed wizard.) Cutting out every possible cliche seems to leave nothing that qualifies it as "fantasy" anymore. Even worse, the "weird idea thrown in to avoid cliches" has become a cliche in itself. (At this point, I'd rather see Tolkien races than the Apo'stro'ph'e, the 10,000th psionic insectoid race to show up in fantasy while the author congratulates himself on his originality. And really weird races often lead to infodumps, because there's no basis of familiarity for the readers, although I don't think that's mandatory. Some authors pull this off very well.)
So, what's the solution here? Does every new story with a dragon have to define "dragon" as a giant, acid-breathing spider with bat wings, who kidnaps maidens in order to lay her eggs in them? Where's the middle ground?
Personally, I'm usually fine with reading "cliches" as long as the writing is interesting. Chosen ones, Tolkienesque elves, half-whatevers, secret heritage, old wizards, and the like are all fine with me. I read 17 of David Eddings' books, most of R.A. Salvatore's stuff, and even got to book 8 of Wheel of Time before finally giving up. (Not because of cliches, but because it took too long for anything to happen, and because too many main characters were becoming unsympathetic.)
When it comes to writing, though, I'm trying to avoid cliches. The problem is that I'm used to writing non-fiction, and whenever I try to avoid too many cliches in fantasy, I end up with a boring, anti-climatic storyline with characters I have no interest in. (Oddly enough, looking at that little tongue-in-cheek "cliche checklist" in one of the Stickied threads, my current story doesn't really violate any of them, but I don't think that means anything. It's more of a joke list than anything else.)
The problem is that I like fantasy for a reason. Even though my preferences are outside the mainstream, I still like to have the occasional "evil artifact," "crazed wizard," or vampire. (My crazed wizard acts more like the Joker than Saruman, but he's still a crazed wizard.) Cutting out every possible cliche seems to leave nothing that qualifies it as "fantasy" anymore. Even worse, the "weird idea thrown in to avoid cliches" has become a cliche in itself. (At this point, I'd rather see Tolkien races than the Apo'stro'ph'e, the 10,000th psionic insectoid race to show up in fantasy while the author congratulates himself on his originality. And really weird races often lead to infodumps, because there's no basis of familiarity for the readers, although I don't think that's mandatory. Some authors pull this off very well.)
So, what's the solution here? Does every new story with a dragon have to define "dragon" as a giant, acid-breathing spider with bat wings, who kidnaps maidens in order to lay her eggs in them? Where's the middle ground?
