Hey guys,
This is something that when I hear it, I don't know whether to cringe, or whether to thank the person. Being told a story I wrote reminds them of a ton of other fantasy novels they've read or just point blank, 'that plots a bit cliche'. Would you classify that as a bad thing? Because I find with fantasy in particular that the same formula tends to get used time and time again, this whole thing of light dominating dark. LOTR and The Wheel of Time are notably big competitors, yet The WoT isn't slammed for employing a similar formula to LOTR. An evil threat rises with high reference to darkness, and the light must regain dominion over dark to return the world to peace. So a company of adventurers set out on a quest to save the world, with the protagonist being a young and unlikely individual. In LOTR case, Frodo Baggins from The Shire and in The WoT's case Rand Al'Thor from Two Rivers.
Yet this aside I grew to enjoy The Wheel of Time and never found me relating it back to LOTR as being a hindrance on my enjoyment. I suppose, a story doesn't need to try too hard to employ a new flavor in the generic fantasy formula for it to be something special that readers will hold dear to them for years to come, which is my goal in becoming a writer, to create stories that people will look back on like an old friend, as anyone should with a good story.
This is something that when I hear it, I don't know whether to cringe, or whether to thank the person. Being told a story I wrote reminds them of a ton of other fantasy novels they've read or just point blank, 'that plots a bit cliche'. Would you classify that as a bad thing? Because I find with fantasy in particular that the same formula tends to get used time and time again, this whole thing of light dominating dark. LOTR and The Wheel of Time are notably big competitors, yet The WoT isn't slammed for employing a similar formula to LOTR. An evil threat rises with high reference to darkness, and the light must regain dominion over dark to return the world to peace. So a company of adventurers set out on a quest to save the world, with the protagonist being a young and unlikely individual. In LOTR case, Frodo Baggins from The Shire and in The WoT's case Rand Al'Thor from Two Rivers.
Yet this aside I grew to enjoy The Wheel of Time and never found me relating it back to LOTR as being a hindrance on my enjoyment. I suppose, a story doesn't need to try too hard to employ a new flavor in the generic fantasy formula for it to be something special that readers will hold dear to them for years to come, which is my goal in becoming a writer, to create stories that people will look back on like an old friend, as anyone should with a good story.