Is cliche bad?

[sashamerideth]

Don't worry too much, we won't intentionally lead you astray. That assumes of course, we have any idea what we are doing in the first place.

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[Lepton]

Most fantasy novels tend to be cliche from my experience, which I wouldn't say is a bad thing, as long as there is some originality in the story itself.

I would consider cliche a bad thing, but that's just my personal opinion. When a book gets to the point where the plot is so overused that the reader can actually guess what will come next in the story without a second thought is when I myself, know when to discontinue writing something. To me, that's what cliche is; when the plot has been used so many times before that the reader knows what will come next. This is similar to the true definition I believe.

I'm not saying that the author needs to be so original that the reader would never know what is to come, because I'm sure this is impossible.

 

[Erica]

There are lots of ways to open a story, but I doubt that very many successful novels have completely unique beginnings. It's certainly true that there have been many over the years that open with dream sequences or flashbacks, but there are also many that open with an action/combat scene, a conversation, a coming of age celebration of some kind, a funeral, an omniscient view of the protagonist that fades into a tighter point of view, or an argument between two characters. Probably the most cliched beginning is a a 'zoomed out' omniscient scene where lots of detail is provided about the weather (it was a dark and stormy night) and nothing about why you should care.

I generally only think of an opening scene as cliched if there's something about it that seems nearly identical to another story I've read or if it feels forced in some way. I think if you write an opening scene with a dream that is interesting, gets the reader to relate to/care about your characters or their situation, and raises the kinds of questions that will make them keep turning the pages, then it's okay.

It's certainly true that no novel, no matter how successful or critically acclaimed will float everyone's boat. And we've all had books that were enthusiastically recommended by a friend who has similar taste to our own that we still can't get into.

In his book On Writing, Stephen King said that 'the tie goes to the author' in cases where half your reviewers like something and half don't

 

[Ziggy]

I agree with Lepton, if your story is too predictable it is not going to be interesting for the reader. That's not like "I know the main character isn't going to die because there is a second book" kind of thing. It's that while you're reading you can identify how the author is setting things up for the plot to take what becomes a predictable path.

Opening with a dream sequence isn't necessarily bad, nothing is necessarily bad. There really aren't any rules for writing a good/bad story.

When considering feedback I suggest taking an overview of it, and not focusing too much on specific points. I wouldn't edit your story as you receive feedback. Complete the whole draft, read the feedback as it comes and when you've completed the whole story then go back and edit it.

And no, you can never please everyone.

IMO, write for yourself, what you think is a good story. Feedback along the lines of "Your plot is cliche, be more original" isn't going to be very helpful to you.

 

[eternaldream24]

This thread has been immensely helpful, thanks everyone.
Apparently a couple aspects of my story are "cliche" but I'm not going to let it bother me bc some of the things in my story may have been done before, but not the way that I'm doing them. I'll make sure its cliche yet original.