Cliches To Avoid Like The Plague?

Maximiljen said:

Ah, yes... I understand this extremely well. Trouble is this: the battle scene ends with a disaster which sets in motion the story, so it might be really hard to hook the reader without revealing too much They could be fighting for anything, that's not important.
I could use a motto or a quote at the beginning, to hint at what's coming, because the battle would stretch on a couple of pages and we don't want the reader to get bored before he reaches disaster part... At least that's how I see it.

Click to expand...

I think perhaps we should give readers some credit. They don't all give up on a book they've chosen to read if they actually have to go more than a page or so with a big payoff.

Maximiljen said:

How 'bout the novel starts right smack in the middle of a battle?
Is that a clichee? Or is it dumb and weird?

Click to expand...

In media res is a perfectly valid writing technique. A story has to start somewhere, and in the middle of an action scene can be a way to propel immediately into action.

Cliches and tropes are tools. Use them poorly, and you're going to end up with a poor final product (that's a screw driver. there's a reason why you're having so much trouble pounding those nails in). Use them well, and it doesn't matter how many times before your ideas have been used. You'll still have a good story at the end.

Thomas Vail said:

Cliches and tropes are tools. Use them poorly, and you're going to end up with a poor final product (that's a screw driver. there's a reason why you're having so much trouble pounding those nails in). Use them well, and it doesn't matter how many times before your ideas have been used. You'll still have a good story at the end.

Click to expand...

Well, there are certain cliches that people these days really should avoid. I'm not talking about your "orphan Chosen One farmboy who learns in a matter of weeks what even the last Chosen One took a lifetime to learn", but about some extremely ignorant and racist cliches such as the "noble savage", "White saviour" and "exotic and mysterious foreigner". They all sum it up perfectly: there are cliches to avoid due to the fact they originate in a time when people of the dominant cultural influence in the world - White people and Western European/American culture in particular (which are both still very dominant) - were extremely unforgiving of anyone and anything outside their own perceptions of what was normal. They didn't want to think outside of their own little boxes, they wanted others to be dragged into those little boxes with them. When they did consider other races and cultures, it was in a watered-down and trivialised manner. It still happens now.

I am White myself - and I admit what I just typed was a bit snarky - but I'm simply trying to point out that there are cliches that don't do any good at all and will ruin even a great story. Not all cliches are born equal, and some just need to die or be inverted against those who originally created them.