Like for example with a fantasy story, cool characters with big swords shooting fireballs and wielding the elements trying to kill an unimaginably powerful dark warrior while at the same time falling in love with each other. Can it be done and done right? I've posted a story that's basically like this, and I wrote it when I was around twelve and I'm wondering if you guys think someone really can make this work. Check out the Pearl and the Onyx. Any suggestions to reduce or increase cornyness or the amount of deplorable cliche-ness? of the story are welcome.
I agree with Mamma on this one. Some of the specific suggestions that I have: Make sure that the characters are real people and not cardboard cutouts. Good writing requires characterization. Real people have problems. They might be throwing fireballs at each other, but they should still have problems. Make sure that the plot is good and makes sense.
i think i can also depend what age you are writing for. the more corny it is, i think that older people are less likely to read it, but children, they'll read any amount of corney you throw at them. i was reading a book the other week that i used to love as a child and it seems to corny and sad now, lol. i think that what you need to keep in mind is if it starting to sound corny ask your self, "is this because it isn't very realistic anymore?" i find that when reading a corny book, i think its corny because it just isn't belivable. hope this helps any, Heather *it also isn't belivable how many times i said "corny" in that comment, lol.
Well lets take The Princess Bride for exmaple. Its an extremely corny book that has become a cult classic. So it all depends on your audiance your trying to reach and the type of message you want to convey. Books can be filled with cliche ideas and concepts but when backed up with talent, developed plot and fantastic characters alot of these things can be overlooked. Make it as corny and over the top as you want just keep in mind that you ahve to do what you like. The only person who absolutely must love your writing is you. If you produce something that you dont like then you shouldnt share it.
IMHO, it could work, as action/fantasy if done just right; or as action/fantasy/comedy if taken way, way, way over the top. I (me, personally) could only handle this as a comedy: - the cool characters are way totally mega-cool: they always wear dark glasses, and they either A) wear black turtlenecks, write (very bad) beat poetry in thier spare time, and say "Daddy-O" a lot; or 2) wear baggy jeans over baggy boxers (the chicks, too), constantly break into rap singing, and call themselves something like the "HomieDawg Rebel Alliance." - the big swords are really, really big: they are difficult to wield and our heroes must remember to lift with their legs, not their backs. For a Freudian touch, they could get even bigger whenever the lovers are feeling attracted to each other - (this one gets political) some of the fireballs are "daisy-cutter" fireballs, which explode into hundreds of littler fireballs. Little fireballs that don't happen to go off look like cute little tribbles (or daisies?), but explode when touched. - the unimaginably powerful dark warrior is terribly, terribly depressed, and doesn't see the point in living (or really, in letting anyone else live). He constantly harangues his evil minions (and hapless prisoners) with long monologues on the pointlessness of life, wiht frequent references to existentialism and nihilism. Or else he just reads to them from Albert Camus. He is utimately defeated by chemical warfare in the form of Prozac saturation bombing. - The lovers are constantly interupting their swords-&-fireball battles to gaze into each other's limpid eyes, and vice versa. For low comedy, the guy may repeatedly find that his "package" is once again getting in the way, while the gal has similar problems with her bust. These ideas are just my insufficiently caffienated silliness: take them for whatever they are worth to you. Just one thing: if you decide to do the straight-up action-fantasy, and some part of it starts to resemble part of the above, *that's* probably not going to work - Evelyn
I wouldnt agree with that...Catch-22 was incredibly cornt, but is considered a masterpiece of literature i guess corniness has to do with the overall tone of the story... a very serious 1984-esque novel with a sudden over the top corniness would seem bad...
heller's work of genius wasn't 'corny'... some of it was certainly slapstick, but it was basically superior satire taken to marvelously insane levels... not the same as 'corny' by any means...
It obviously was fantastic...its one of my favorite books. But the humor in it, it was satirical as well as corny. "You scratch my back and I scratch yours." and Yossarrian starts scratching Doc Daneeka's back... Now that was corny, but funny at the same time.
If you try you can make anything work my friend. And what you mentioned I'm sure it's been done before. I'm also positive with the right amount of heart and time a corny story...doesn't have to be. It can include those things without having need to be ridiculous. Best of hope
