With the incredible series known as "The Hunger Games" YA distopia kinda exploded for a while, but now has lost it's thunder, or so I have heard. After The Hunger Games, there where tons of YA dystopian novels produced to capitalize on the leader's success. However, now I fear that it's, well, just too overdone. However, the dystopian series I have planned out is unique/different in one big way; it's not focused on the rebels. On the contrary, the series is actually focused on the perspective we rarely get to see from, and one that is never sympathetic: the leader of the dystopia. The series, as it stands now, is split into two stories. One chronicling his rise to power and the creation of the aforementioned dystopian setting and then one that chronicles his reign and battles against a rebel faction and the very being that gave him the means to build his world in the first place. If your wondering, yes, the main character starts out as a teen(in the first story) and later gains a twisted form of eternal youth for more reasons then one which allows him the time needed to build his world without worrying about aging to death. That said, I still fear that dystopian may be overdone. Does a "fresh perspective" help to make it less cliche' and thus more viable or is dystopian just too overused that no fresh perspective can save it?
No genre is, by definition, "totally cliché". Anything written without originality is going to come off as cliché. But if you don't feel you can offer up something new and original, then by all means look to something else.
As has been said many times in this forum, most stories have been done many times before, fresh perspective is always the key. If you want feedback on your particular take, it has potential but it's all in the rendering.
You should only avoid it if you're writing dystopia for the sake of following the trend, thinking that by doing so it'd make your book more popular, and therefore successful. And it doesn't sound like that's why you're writing it. IMO your take sounds quite interesting. So... write it. I don't really see what's the dilemma lol.
Yeah. I'm not writing for the trend. I'm writing it because I actually love the main character and it's also somewhat therapudic to write this story. While I pulled him from a lot of different people I know, part of him comes from my own....darker thoughts...I had as a teen and in many ways this work, in addition to being fun to write helps me deal with my own shadows, to speak in Jungian terms. I also am writing it because I like smart protagonists with grand, some may even say megalomanical goals. Typical good guys just bore me and I find it grueling to write stories from their perspectives. I like writing chessmaster schemes and manipulation, two things that the typical direct action hero almost never engages in, so take that for what you will. Oh, and finally, politics. A lot of the first story is filled with my own political ideas, but not in a way that is preachy or even blatant. In many, many ways the protagonist is my opposite politically, and in other ways his views match my own. Him and I see the same problems, but have totally different ideas on how to solve them. I write just as much to deliver a message as I do for fun with this, but I make a big effort to not be preachy.(Also, the second story is FAR less political then the first, despite the fact it is about the main character's rule.) I guess I should just stop doubting myself and continue to write it. I have too many doubts that my ideas are either in genres that are too overdone or have protagonists that are not "heroic" enough for the masses. It's not that I doubt that I can't offer something original but rather doubt that despite any new ideas I have the genera may be so overdone that no matter what I do with it I won't get it out there because publishers don't want anymore dystopian stories, even if they are different from all the dystopian stories that already exist. So yeah, I guess I should just stop thinking about marketing and what publishers want and just write it. The worst that can happen is nobody wants to publish it and it just remains with me forever rather then shared with the world, which is basically what would happen if I don't write it in the first place.
^^This. A cliche is a metaphor or phrase that is overused to the point it has lost all meaning, or is no longer meaningful because the context is no longer relevant. Storylines and character archetypes are not cliche. If they are dull, it is because they are poorly written.
