That's an interesting one, I was thinking about that too. On one hand, I want to have average looking or even below average characters, but on the other hand, somehow, it feels...wrong? Like trying too hard? Or is it the fear that with how judgemental people are, who wants to read chubby sex, for example? In erotica, I find that, due to reader immersion, they frequently have average looking heroine but the guy is like some mythical sexy beast. Does gay erotica do the same? I suppose real everyday sex is not adventurous or interesting or varied enough (generally speaking) to spark reader's interest, so the scenes have to be more elaborate and thus less realistic?
Yep. And it often follows the same pattern. The frail, unassuming wallflower finds himself in improbable circumstances that bring him to the attention of "Biff Buffington", sex god and heir to the Fallic family fortune. Or else you get two mythical sexy beasts. That happens too. ETA: If anyone happens to be writing gay erotic sci-fi that includes a crashed ship (intro to unassuming guy) and a rescue team (intro to Biff Buffington), you can go ahead and stop writing that story because... dun2death!
So they just put a cock on the typical female character then? The biggest cliche I find in fantasy is that anyone who dresses fashionably must be a villain. Littlefinger turns up in every fantasy novel ever written. And if a monarch likes his clothes then that's it.....he'll be hated by all and sundry and usually kills kittens too. There's no such thing as metro in Ye Old Timey kingdoms. Oh yeah. I have a beef with kindly assassins who take in street waifs and become their bodyguards and pseudo parents. Don't you have better things to be doing like strangling people and collecting payment from the underworld? Just for once I'd like to see the assassin grapple with the idea of killing the kid to rid themselves of the inconvenience. Seems more plausible to me. And while we're at it, lets just kill off 10yr old boys who are magical savants and only realise their freakish powers during a random and unexplained ambush.
My assassin would dump the kid in the nearest orphanage, stuff a bag of coins in his hand and say, "Good luck." while leaving. He/she has no time to be the surrogate parent of the kid, no matter how doe-eyed the kid is. A tangent to that is how the kid seems to turn the assassin/smuggler from the cold-hearted cynic to the warm-hearted human over the course of the story. Ever noticed that?
Hey guys, I'm writing a 'poker game' scene into my current piece of work. Is this too cliché? (developing the characters through an exciting game of poker) If so, I may consider making it another game that I have made up (this is sci-fi). EDIT: also, one of the players is a dog.
Ten year old magic girls, too. While we're at it, let's get rid of magic altogether. I know it can't really be considered a cliche, but damn. There's way too much magic in fantasy literature (maybe especially in amateur fantasy literature), and too often it's treated as a get-out-of-jail-free card. I've had it up to my eyeballs with magic. Magic is officially boring - very boring.
Two phrases I always avoid like a pile of dog-shit on the roadway are: 'they/he/she looked around'. What a boring, useless, limp, lifeless few words! 'he/she/they entered the room'. Ditto! I also really hate it when characters 'flick' cigarettes away. I smoked for 3 years, and never once did I flick a cigarette away. Ever.
It's only as boring as you make it. May as well stop writing humans all together, my God they're overrated. Ever notice how it's always the humans who save the fantasy kingdom? The galactic universe? Even the Doctor has the form of a human. Mass Effect 3 has the galaxy bending over backward to save the human home world from an army of galaxy-destroying super ships. Talk about arrogance. The humans are always the ones who get recognition. Chewie never got a medal in Star Wars IV, yet the pesky humans did! Any aliens who aren't the bad guys are either happy to be subservient to the humans, or die tragically for the sake of the humans. Just once I want to see a movie/read a book where there are no humans ever. >:[ You don't have to write about humans, humans don't even have to exist in your story. This was half satirical and half serious, mind you.
A lot of young writers try to make their characters interesting and competent, rather than human. STOP IT!
This reminds me of a series back in the 80's called Teen Witch - every book featured the girl getting into wacky trouble with her powers with the moral being she'd be better off without them?! What the hell was the point then? The damn genie stories always pulled this stunt too - although I did love John Collier's genie story.
The good guy always wins the game in the dying seconds. How about he gains the lead from the beginning and romps home absolutely trouncing the other team/player.
You know, I'm mad all over again. Chewie didn't get a medal!!! Pissed me off at the time. Still does. George, you goofed on that one. A blight on an otherwise perfect movie.
I am a human. I relate to humans. Stories about humans can have meaning for me. I am not magical. Stories about magical beings have less meaning for me. Not no meaning at all, just less meaning. The problems of magical beings are not necessarily problems that I have. The solutions available to them exceed solutions available to me. Their concerns must be different from mine (this is an aspect of being magical that too few writers explore).
So he's basically Superman? Super Saiyan 3 Goku? Where's the fun in watching the good guy absolutely trounce the other team for a whole game?
