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.
