Starting off right!

[STBURNS]

I think most of us could agree that a character can draw us in. I can forgive any writer about treading familiar ground if the character is written well. I will give any story a chance as long as they don't short change me with easy mastery of a craft (warrior, mage, etc).
As far as the farm thing, you have so many angles to work from. Unlike Luke, who was blessed with the force by birth, your character's farming roots can be his strength. Farmers are dedicated and strong. So failures are taken as lessons. Farmers in real life are facinating people. Carrying those strong values into training make a MC dangerous down the road.

 

[kayd_mon]

I am late to the party on this one! I didn't read the whole thread, but I echo everyone who syas that in genre writing, cliche is always there. Engage and entertain, and you're good. Shoot for originality always, but it's ok if some things are tried and true.

 

[Caged Maiden]

So, I used a farm boy in a novel. I opened with a girl and boy in a barn, telling stories, and followed them throughout the next days, showing them as kids enjoying their lives, young people who had to work hard for their livelihood, and young lovers who sneak around when no one's looking. I show the contrast of their upbringing, the girl educated and a budding mage, the boy nothing but a farm hand and a great archer.

So, cut to the third chapter, the boy goes missing, taken from his house by a dozen armored knights on war horses. That starts off my farm hand's story and how he becomes the captain of the king's archers. (he was taken by the king because secretly, the girl he's sleeping with is the princess but even she doesn't know it. The king steals the boy to ask whether he really loves the girl and when he says he does, the king wants to make him a knight. There's way more to it, and i know that sounds cheesy, but it's really good... very dramatic when it's happening.)

I agree, if you want to start with an uneducated nobody, they have to have some skills to draw one, something that makes them special in a way. Also, consider their moral code. A farmer won't shy at the sight of blood because he's seen it all his life, and he may also lack in etiquette and education, but he probably has a good grasp of animals, self-sufficience, woodland edibles, making shelters, hunting (if hunting was allowed in the area. Or he could be a poacher). Either way, think about his life and make him believable. When my young farm hand goes to the city, he can't read, doesn't know anything about etiquette, and basically gets thrown before the king of the neighboring land and interrogated. It's pretty tense.

I think one thing that makes it a convinvcing and lovable character is when we truly see things through a farm boy's eyes. Like not the proper words for things he doesn't recognize, etc.