What's your goofiest excuse to use a cliche line? (or goofy/silly scene)

[Naruzeldamaster]

And did you ever end up using it in your actual story or not, past or present?

The absolute goofiest scene I've come up with is a 'Not on MY wedding day' Scene in which the Nine Tailed Demon Lord tries to escape it's infernal prison, in which the female lead performs the greatest Theft a Kitsune can perform in their lifetime (Which would be stealing another Kitsune's tail, which, normally taboo, but...given the situation of world potentially being brought to hell) in order to give herself enough juice to seal it away again.

It's pure goofy, there for the sake of it, and 100% the dumbest climax I've ever thought up, the line itself is absurd so I figured I'd make the scenario in which it is used absurd as well.

 

[pmmg]

I am not aware of using any cliche lines, and when I do, I tend to remove them in the rewrites. But, I don't tend to write things to be goofy.

I do think I have a line where one character says 'I love you', and the other says 'I know", which to me felt reminiscent of Star Wars, but the scenes are not similar. Seems in character to me, so I think I left it.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I am not aware of using any cliche lines, and when I do, I tend to remove them in the rewrites. But, I don't tend to write things to be goofy.

I do think I have a line where one character says 'I love you', and the other says 'I know", which to me felt reminiscent of Star Wars, but the scenes are not similar. Seems in character to me, so I think I left it.

Yeah this is the kind of stuff I'm thinking of for this thread. Even though my starting scene for the discussion is in character for that world and the crux of the plot.

It's more the kind of thing where you read it back and think 'wow this is silly' but it's also cute/in character and doesn't harm the story/plot in any way so you leave it in. (or consider changing it until it works)

Probably should have made that clear in the first post.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

This is a bit long, but it needed a tad of a windup and it's still one of my favs. From Beneath a Stone Sky: The Third Book of Binding.

~~~

A hand clamped down over Cian’s mouth, stifling his cry of surprise. It smelled of blood and smoke and it stung the split at the corner of his lip. He grabbed the arm and tried to jerk the body it was attached to over his hip in a Judo throw that Jessie had taught him, only to have his legs swept out from under him, the strong arm pulling him to the ground behind a line of trash barrels.

Etienne crouched over him, soot in his auburn hair. Cian could have kissed him.

Etienne held his fingers to his lips, eyes scanning the courtyard for witnesses that never materialized, and then looked down at Cian. Rage sparked in his gray eyes as he took in the rising bruises on Cian’s face, the way the split had again begun to seep. He reached out and brushed his thumb over Cian’s lip, making him shiver, and then over his hair, soothing and checking all in a single motion.

Cian would gladly have taken another beating if Etienne would touch him like that again.

Etienne raised up in his crouch and gestured for Cian to follow him. Cian followed the faerie knight’s gaze and realized he wanted to try for the citadel gate.

No, that wouldn’t do. They needed a horse. He shook his head, grabbed Etienne by the belt to stop him, and his hands flowed into motion like Winter had taught him, combining what signs he knew with finger spelling. “No, this way.”

Etienne shook his head. He either didn’t agree or he didn’t understand. Why the hell did Etienne think he had a monopoly on being right?

Cian’s jaw tensed and he pointed toward the stables. “We need to go there.”

Etienne shook his head and pulled at Cian’s arm.

Cian pulled out of his grasp. “S.T.A.B.L.E.”

Etienne pointed emphatically toward the gate, gave Cian a little shake, and then tapped his wrist with two fingers. They were running out of time.

Cian couldn’t agree more. He stood up, signing as he rose. “Look, idiot—”

“Hey!” The sound was out of Etienne’s mouth before he could catch it, and he cringed with alarm. Finally, a sign he knew. One of Jessie’s favorites.

Cian cringed, too. He joined Etienne in scanning the courtyard from behind the barrels, but nobody seemed to have overheard. Instead, there seemed to be people moving in groups toward one corner of the courtyard, away from the stable. Smoke was rising from a doorway there. Cian turned back to Etienne and gave him a smack on the shoulder. “H.O.R.S.E. D.A.M.M.I.T.” He pointed back at the stable with an emphatic hand.

Etienne frowned and whispered, “We don’t have time to saddle and steal a horse. We need to leave now.”

Cian wanted to throttle him, but they would have to escape for him to get the chance. “No, it’s already saddled. Just get your ass to the stables. Now.”

Etienne looked surprised.

Cian gave him a dirty look, but turned in the direction of the stable, fully expecting Etienne to follow him.

 

[Jackarandajam]

I'm a "Die Hard IS a Christmas movie" guy, so one of my WIPS is a Christmas fantasy kids story in which most of the characters names have the same letters as characters from Die Hard.
The city is Montakia (Nakatomi), there is an evil wizard named the Grun Shebar (Hans Gruber)...

Anyway, at one point, a homeless guy named palowell (Al Powell) gets the "welcome to the party, pal," but other than that I haven't said anything that would give away the Die Hard connection.

You are all sworn to secrecy if it ever sees the light of day.

 

[pmmg]

Saw that in the theatre last christmas.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I'm a "Die Hard IS a Christmas movie" guy, so one of my WIPS is a Christmas fantasy kids story in which most of the characters names have the same letters as characters from Die Hard.
The city is Montakia (Nakatomi), there is an evil wizard named the Grun Shebar (Hans Gruber)...

Anyway, at one point, a homeless guy named palowell (Al Powell) gets the "welcome to the party, pal," but other than that I haven't said anything that would give away the Die Hard connection.

You are all sworn to secrecy if it ever sees the light of day.

Can't be worse than the name of the 'black dragon of evil' in my story where a lot of the world is made up of data. (It's a literal 'when we die we return to this state of being' situation, but it's quite complicated in how it works. If someone gathers the right kind of data you can be brought back, but it takes a lot of power and skill to do that.)

Torn between straight up calling it Null or just calling it Null-3 Because data is all run on binary (And 3 is not a Binary Number) and the dark dragon is corrupted foreign data from another system. I don't think I want to call it Null in English though because loads of fantasy stories do that.

Also My Zelda Story and Dark Link Being less of an 'agent of chaos' and being more of a vehicle for intrusive thoughts personified, since regular link is a pure boi who is more innocent than a lost puppy most of the time. (I mean he does have some street wise ness to him, but he's still innocent where it counts) Narratively this version of Dark Link literally exists to gently nudge link in the right direction when he loses his way, which kinda goes against him being the 'evil' clone self.

 

[Rexenm]

I’ve been using cliche, nonchalant, catch phrases, in passing, for a long time. It comes from the source that I was never that good at them. I am a laughing stock at impersonations too.

Maybe that is the reason that is all I get these days. If I had to make a distinction, a lot of used sayings end up in my writing. Then they get stuck in my head, and end up repeating themselves.

 

[Jackarandajam]

I’ve been using cliche, nonchalant, catch phrases, in passing, for a long time. It comes from the source that I was never that good at them. I am a laughing stock at impersonations too.

Maybe that is the reason that is all I get these days. If I had to make a distinction, a lot of used sayings end up in my writing. Then they get stuck in my head, and end up repeating themselves.

Try turning them on their heads at the last minute.
"Buy a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll become a poor alcoholic."
Or
"Work your plan and plan your catastrophe."
Or
"Never cry over spilt primordial soup."