Alright, so we're going to be talking about cliches today. What prompted this is simple. I began rereading Eragon, by Christopher Paolini.
This book is rife with Cliches. Let's list them, shall we?
These are in no way by order of importance or the order in which they happen, just the order that I recall them.
Cliche #1. Eragon is a poor farm boy.
Cliche #2. He has a background even he doesn't know.
Cliche #3. The wise old man. Brom. He knows all about Eragon, but won't tell him.
Cliche #4. Description due to looking at oneself in the mirror. Granted, it wasn't at the beginning.
Cliche #5. Everything comes easy. Eragon is a 'quick learner'.
Those are what I can remember from the first two hundred pages.
Oh wait! One more.
Cliche #6. Prophecy.
Anyway.
My point in this is, I love the Inheritance Saga. (I haven't yet read the last one, but I just started rereading Eragon so I can read them all the way through from the beginning.) Cliche's aren't all bad. So long as you use them correctly.
If you have an interesting story otherwise, cliches are great. Just don't try to hide them. Try to disguise them as something else and SOMEONE will call you on it. Own the cliche.
Man, I had a huge comment...but I accidentally closed the window. So I will just write what I can remember.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a Paolini fan. I read that book when I was 13 and I enjoyed it then, but I enjoy most books I read for the first time. When I tried to read it a second time, before the next book came out...I lost all love for it. I did try to read the second one but I couldn't get through the first half.
He does have a lot of cliches that I see mostly in Epic Fantasies: damsel in distress, evil guy with minions to do his dirty work, a war brewing, endless background history, etc. He uses so much more but I think you get the picture. Do all of them work? I have no idea. I can barely remember the book. I do remember the werecat...it is a werecat, right?
I agree that you should own the cliche but you should also remember not to over use them. Make it work with the plot. Does the villain who is trying to take over the world really need minions? An army, I understand, but minions?
Does that make sense? I cut out a lot of rambling from this post so I hope it makes sense.
-Cylee