Illumination: A Writing Guide

Knowing When to Use Clichés and Stereotypes

When people give out writing advice they always seem to tell you to avoid clichés. However, it is useful sometimes to use some clichés and stereotypes of genre. For a start it's impossible to be completely original. You just have to make sure your story is written differently to other similar stories and has strong, individual characters.

It is important to use some stereotypes of genre because:

1 - People pick up a particular genre because they know what to expect from it. There are particular things they want to read about. They know they like a genre and want to read similar things.

2 - Publishability and marketing. Publishers and bookshops love to categorise things and if you don't at least follow some basic trope of the genre(s) you are writing in then it will be harder for them to market so they're less likely to publish it.

Now that doesn't mean I'm saying write formulaic books so you can get published. In fact I would strongly discourage that. But it is something important to bear in mind.

Example 1: the Murder Mystery. There's a murder and a detective (or an amateur investigating ) and there are some suspects and they have to find clues to solve the mystery. It's hard to get around this formula (although it can be done) but sometimes the simple, classic mystery story is the best.

Example 2: High/Epic Fantasy. So you have a map of your fantasy world and ooh look your main character is going on some quest or other and there's some kind of evil villain involved. Most high/epic fantasy books follow a similar formula. You just have to make sure your story stands out enough through your writing/plot development/characters/character arcs/writing style.

Overused clichés:

These are those ones that are best to avoid, the ones that you see all the time and that just make you want to roll your eyes. Some of them are okay to use though you just have to be careful with them.

-The love triangle (which unless you can do something really really original with will be just as irritating and cliché as every other love triangle). It's just been overused and has become boring and off-putting for many readers.

-The nice girl falling for the idiot/jerk character. Really? Why would your MC even want to go out with this guy? It just doesn't make any sense. Perhaps she considers him for a while but I can't fathom why she would actually pick him to be with.

-The character describing themselves in a mirror. Just no. Who walks up to a mirror and describes their appearance in detail? Unless it is character/plot relevant (e.g. they have bags under their eyes from lack of sleep due to *insert life issue here* or their skin has turned pink overnight) this is one that is best to avoid.

-The main character is the chosen one. They have been picked out by a higher force and there's some kind of prophecy involved. See Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, The Matrix, Star Wars, Terminator, and the list could go on...

-Dead or non-present parents. Unless it is plot relevant or plays some MAJOR role in the arc of your main character please think about their parents. This is especially if you are writing realistic teen fiction stories because the most likely scenario is their parents are going to be around so try not to ignore them for convenience and use them to develop your character.

-Good vs. Evil. Now, I'm not saying we should ditch this completely. Sometimes it's nice to just read a simple good vs. evil story. But perhaps think about mixing it up a bit and explore the blurry distinctions between perceptions of good and evil.

-Insta-Love. For a start love at first sight is not biologically possible, only attraction at first sight. You love someone when you have got to know someone and they have got to know you and you understand each other. You can't know that from the first moment you see them. Insta-attraction is, however, definitely possible.

-The "strong" female character. A strong heroine does not constitute making a girl do man stuff. What makes a strong character is the same for male and female characters. They have to be rounded, believable, have back story, have a character arc etc. Just making a warrior of the female gender does not make that character a strong female character.

-The girl who is super pretty but believes she is ugly. To some extent this is kind of realistic for many people. But it has just been overdone in fiction now.

-Everyone is super attractive. Not everybody is super hot and looking like a model. Yes, some characters may be pretty/handsome, but that's not everyone in the world! One of the things I love about Jane Eyre is that emphasis is put on how neither Jane or Rochester are at all conventionally attractive and that they fall in love because of their personalities.

You may disagree with me on some of these things and sometimes it is possible to use these overused clichés in a more original way.

One way to use clichés is to completely subvert them. You can use them to create a parody of the cliché you are using. This can be quite effective because the reader will recognise the cliché and enjoy the fact you've switched things around or made a joke out of it.

What clichés do you find annoying? Are there some you actually really like?