McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Seeking help. Am I just one giant walking cliché?

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hamiltond:
ROFLMAO!!

Anduriel:
Well I shall take that as a compliment lol.

And I will endevour to work on these ideas and see where the road takes me!

Starbeam:
One thing to be careful of is that when you start consciously trying to be different from everything else, you lose the story and it becomes obvious.  It's like people who put elves in their stories, but then try to twist them in so many ways to keep them from being Tolkien elves.  It usually doesn't work very well.  An example of elves that did work, R.A. Salvatore's elves in the Demonwar books.  They don't really have much in common with Tolkien elves aside from living in the woods and being longer lived.  An example of elves consciously trying not to be Tolkien elves, and failing, are the elves in Eragon.  They're lithe and longlived and beautiful and live in the forest and are aloof from humans, and to make them different, they're vegetarians.

In other words, just write the story.  Don't worry about being too cliched until after that's done.  Any cliches might work themselves out in the writing.  Another thing you could try is to ask the friend why they think it's too much a cliche.  I can think of only a handful of movies/books with a similar premise, but few of em are widespread enough that too many people would see a comparison.

sluice:

--- Quote from: Anduriel on April 06, 2008, 11:36:56 PM ---Ok, hey guys! My name is Julian.

And I would just like to say; my grammar sucks! I’m trying to fix it, but for now… if it’s bad… don’t say I didn’t warn ya! ;-p

Right, now on to business. I am a film and television production student, a musician and a martial arts enthusiast (WOHOO! Jim Butcher and I have something in common!) I try and write screen plays, and am now trying to turn my hand to writing novel-styled fiction. Or at least written fiction that is not in film/television screenplay format. Prose.

I very much enjoy contemporary/ urban fantasy.

And thus I wish to delve into the genre. However I get mixed receptions about my topics… and my writing style.

Clichés are a problem it would seem. I was going to write a short story about a dead guy  who arrives in the afterlife, only to find it’s not such a dream. He gets given a job and is either made a “gaurdian angel” type or has to solve a variety of possession related “crimes” of the afterlife. I wrote a first paragraph but got no further than that after being told it was too clichéd. Here is said paragraph:

You want to know the annoying thing about being dead? I mean; once you get over the initial ‘Agh, oh my god I just died a horrible and painful death and now where the hell am I?!’ thing. It’s the fact that there’s still jobs. Now, you’d think that once you die that you’d pass on to the next life where everything would be amazing and heavenly. Literally. Able to relax for eternity in a paradise beyond your wildest imagination. Well it just ain’t so. Well ok, it isn’t so if, like me; you weren’t a complete Saint when you were alive. In fact Saints are pretty much the only ones who do get the whole paradise beyond paradise deal. But hey, I’m not really allowed to talk to you guys about that. It’s a long story, and one I’m not risking my ass to tell ya. When I mentioned hell earlier? Well that can get pretty literal around here.

Now I do admit that it was… not great… not great at all.

Anyhow, I then went into a mild panic about whether or not I was actually too clichéd in my actions.

So I came together with this idea:

A Bounty Hunter who is an old soul who has been cursed to be constantly reborn only to die terrible deaths. However a second curse was laid on this person to remove all memory of the previous past lives. Then we would delve into why, how etc etc

How does this sound to people?

And also, how do you avoid a cliché or becoming to generic?

Wohoo! That was long winded! But finally done. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Julian

--- End quote ---



I like the character dying over and over again in terrible ways, but why have him forget?

Shecky:

--- Quote from: sluice on April 08, 2008, 05:57:37 AM ---

I like the character dying over and over again in terrible ways, but why have him forget?

--- End quote ---

Complete forgetting would be good for a series of vignettes that are resolved, say, many centuries down the line. Or it could be suppression instead, and he only remembers late in life so he can judge his own progress (or lack thereof) - brings home the emotional drama.

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