Character Memory Loss-To cliche?

It may not be too cliche. It might be too easy.

Is memory loss what happens to the character, or is this what the author needs to happen? If it feels like a convenience, alarm bells will ring.

If you do need amnesia to make the story work, maybe you can weave a very solid reason around why it happens. If it's because they were weakened, work out why they were weakened more than anyone else. Make it a rule of the story that if A happens, B is the result, and thus the memory is lost.

And if that can pay off later in the story (Our character makes sure A is in place, so B happens, and thus so-and-so loses THEIR memory) then you're rock solid.

Good luck!

My first thought is yeah it's cliche. My second is why would going through a wormhole cause a person to lose their memory? If this is a common form of travel I'd definitely say that's suspect because it would be completely ineffective if you sent a ship through and then the crew lost their memories and could no longer fly the ship. I think it might be a workable thing, but there needs to be a really good explanation for it, IMO.

Second...you haven't explained at all why you want the amnesia factor. Why is it important to the story? I admit...a story about a team of scientists going through a wormhole and having their memories erased or something unexpectedly and having to deal with the consequences could be awesome. As it stands, though, you've just given a random situation. What's the importance of it? Why is it necessary?

Prolly to cliche.

Half of all stories are cliche, its making it work so it seems fresh that is the key.

That said, my first question would by why would A have memory loss and not B?

It's a common device, yes. But Collectonian makes a good about about whether the "common element" the bulk of the novel or just a part of it. It's more a matter of what you do with that device that makes or breaks the story. Plenty of novels use it quite well. I think we even have a few here on the boards who use that device to great success.

I'd suggest looking at your overall story and plot, and then deciding if the memory loss allows you to do something you couldn't do otherwise that enhances the story, or if it's just an easy way to accomplish something. If you're taking the easy way out, you might want to rethink it.

It sounds like a contrived plot device.

Memory loss, by itself, isn't cliche or pedestrian, but the sudden and complete recovery with no lasting effects that carry through the story, which we tend to see in fiction, come across as very contrived and cliche to me. This "all better now, let's save the world" device is most unrealistic when the memory loss is due to some form of brain injury, but it also strikes me as convenient fiction rather than realistic fiction* regardless of the reason for the memory loss.

With the specific example here, is the story about humans? If so, what "energy" is being "drained" from them to cause the memory loss? Perhaps something a little more physiological would be appropriate (unless the characters are not human, but that would require other forms of explanation).

*when an author asks the reader to suspend disbelief through the overall story, it is frequently necessary to either get the small stuff right or at least make it seem realistic.

Lady Akkia said:

The reason for memory loss it that before being in the wormhole they had been fighting against a powerful baddie.

And being in the wormhole(this is still going to be thought over more) they are basiclly getting their energy, or whats left, drained by the dark energy in the wormhole. This is what causes the lost memory . But I'm still mulling this over. .

Click to expand...

I can't speak for the others who asked this, but for me, when I wondered about the reason for the memory loss, I meant from a story standpoint not a plot standpoint. Plot can come up with anything and you can make it work. What I want to know (and what I think will help you) is why you need him to lose his memory.

What does memory loss let you do that you couldn't do if the character retained his memories? If that reason lets you "get away" with something convenient or contrived, it'll likely cause you problems and feel cliched. But if that reason allows you to create a situation or explore an issue that you couldn't do if the character had memories, then the odds are better that it can work overall.

Sounds like it's very random and it'd probably end up slowing your story down if you dealt with it properly. Nothing in the description is convincing me that memory loss would be appropriate.

Is the book starting out with an amnesiac character? Because I can think of several great novels, some award winners, with that setup (like Lord Valentine's Castle fer instance). On the other hand, a character who loses her memory partway through, while the reader knows everything about her sounds sort of blah. That's because there's no tension for the reader, and they aren't reading on out of curiousity. When the reader doesn't share the character's desire to figure out their past, things might fall flat.

Maybe you can twist it so its still a little unusual

xtine said:

It may not be too cliche. It might be too easy.

Is memory loss what happens to the character, or is this what the author needs to happen? If it feels like a convenience, alarm bells will ring.

Click to expand...

I kind of agree with this. One suggestion I'd have to make it seem less like a plot gimmick is maybe to have memory loss one of a few things that went wrong when passing through a wormhole, since you said it wasn't a common method of travel.

For example maybe the trip made the pair violently ill and feverish after passing through which resulted in a very hazy memory of before the trip. Fluids leaking from the ears, muscle spasms, disorientation, maybe even being bedridden for a few weeks... Basically just an unpleasant experience. Then that way perhaps the memory loss will seem like a minor thing in comparison--at least in the beginning.

I agree with Danthia that my main question is what is the reason for the amnesia. Not in terms of how it happens, but in terms of what it accomplishes for you as a writer. I was also thinking it probably helps to know how/if it gets resolved. If it's something where basically they forget something important and then remember it at just the right moment when it's convenient, it could very well come across as contrived.

Something that I do in situations like this that might help you is ask myself what most people would do with this plot element. If I was reading it in a book, where would I expect it to go? Then I go somewhere else with it. So, for instance, if I was reading this and I expected the characters to suddenly get their memory back right before something happened so they could fix some big problem, I'd instead write it so that they didn't get it back and end up even more screwed over as a result, if that makes sense.

I tend to write "cliche" plots, but I enjoy taking things that are cliche and then twisting them a bit so they don't go where you expect.

Lady Akkia said:

it will prolly go like- so and so was already weakened and because of this sudden jump thruough a wormhole caused them to lose thier memory.

Click to expand...

The first thing I'll admit I thought was Quantum Leap. That was a TV show where the guy traveled through time and had Swiss cheese for memory. Then wormhole made me think of StarGate SG-I, though they never used amnesia.

Too cliched?

Don't know. Hard to tell from here, and I'm not going to dismiss the idea automatically as cliche. The key is that you really have to do it well and not make it sound like a convenience. I have seen it done well in a book--title eludes me now, but it was Kay Hopper. It opens with the character waking up. She's covered in blood and starts to realize she doesn't know what happened. Over the course of the next few chapters, she realizes that she's lost two weeks, and that she may have murdered someone. The whole book is her trying to puzzle out what happened over those two weeks, and when she finds out, it's really unexpected what caused it.

But because amnesia is done badly and done so much, you would need to execute it extremely well and try to find something fresh about it that you can do. I personally like the partial amnesia because. I'd still have the characters and who they were available to me so I could work the humor angle--but the problems that come from not remembering things that really cause a lot of problems. Hmm. Think I'll put that down in my idea book. Might make a really funny story.

Linda Adams said:

The first thing I'll admit I thought was Quantum Leap. That was a TV show where the guy traveled through time and had Swiss cheese for memory.

Click to expand...

To be fair though, if you repeatedly travelled through time into different bodies etc it would do things to your mind too. And over the course of the series he did remember more and more.

Then wormhole made me think of StarGate SG-I, though they never used amnesia.

Click to expand...

Nor in farscape. Admittedly Crichton did go a bit boogaloo, but I think that was more to do with the neurochip than his wormhole travel.

The key is that you really have to do it well and not make it sound like a convenience. I.

Click to expand...

This. A thousand times this.

shaldna said:

To be fair though, if you repeatedly travelled through time into different bodies etc it would do things to your mind too. And over the course of the series he did remember more and more.

Click to expand...

Shock Theatre was an amazing episode. [Sam recieved a dose of electo-shock treatment causing him to slip in and out of characters he had previously leapt into.]

One of my character's has his drink spiked with Rohypnol, so his memory of that evening is fragmented. Small fragments slowly return through the novel, but never entirely. I read deeply into the science first, cutting through the myths surrounding Rohypnol and GHB.

Maybe try having the MC just forget the bad guy - like, the bad guy erases their memory of him, but they retain their other memories, which means they'd be trying to work out why they were travelling through a wormhole in the first place.
Then maybe you could have flashes of memory returning every so often of the bad guy?

Woah, I got way too enthusiastic there, sorry!

Well, in a sci-fi context it's more plausible than having a flower pot fall out of a window and hit your character on the head, and cause amnesia. Real memory loss doesn't work the way it works in movies. And writers often use memory loss as a convenient crutch when their story-telling skills aren't cutting the mustard. I'd be less worried about whether it's a cliche and more worried about whether you've really plotted this story well.

Libbie said:

Well, in a sci-fi context it's more plausible than having a flower pot fall out of a window and hit your character on the head, and cause amnesia.

Click to expand...

But if you are going to do this, remember: the only to get one's memory back after that is to bonk yourself in the head again. That will undo the damage.

Danthia said:

I can't speak for the others who asked this, but for me, when I wondered about the reason for the memory loss, I meant from a story standpoint not a plot standpoint. Plot can come up with anything and you can make it work. What I want to know (and what I think will help you) is why you need him to lose his memory.

What does memory loss let you do that you couldn't do if the character retained his memories?.

Click to expand...

THis is the key for me and I find that many writers do not truly understand their own stories.

They tend to think about what would be 'cool' to do. THey end up using gimmicks to shore up a weak story/plot.

When I think of all the great amnesia stories, I think of Bourne Identity, Dark City, and there is another that alludes me right now...

In each of these stories, the memory loss was crucial to the story. Without the memory loss, the characters do not arc, the plot is not as suspenseful, and there would be no climax, in fact, the entire story would change.

Linda Adams said:

The key is that you really have to do it well and not make it sound like a convenience.....

But because amnesia is done badly and done so much, you would need to execute it extremely well and try to find something fresh about it that you can do.

Click to expand...

Another key point.

but basically, from what you describe, I don't understand the need for memory loss.

hmmm...

I was just thinking of memory loss stories. The one theme that they all have in common is that the memory loss is key for the MC to go through a development arc.

they start off as a killer (or bad person), loss their memory, learn to become a newer nicer type person, then get their memories back which leads to an interesting internal conflict/growth.

Anyways, good luck.

Mel...

It won't matter how cliché it is if you don't spell more words correctly.

caw

Libbie has a point about how memory loss actually works. You could perhaps consider some sort of PTS incident where the character has blanked out or supressed memories.

dgiharris said:

I was just thinking of memory loss stories. The one theme that they all have in common is that the memory loss is key for the MC to go through a development arc.

they start off as a killer (or bad person), loss their memory, learn to become a newer nicer type person, then get their memories back which leads to an interesting internal conflict/growth.

Click to expand...

The amnesia plot doesn't HAVE to involve redemption. I can think of three good novels off the top of my head that just use memory loss as a mystery for the character/reader to figure out. It's a well-loved trope. If your story needs it (does it?), go for it.