Well, I have officially stumbled across the most addictive website ever, and since this is a writing forum I thought you guys might be interested in it. http://tvtropes.org It's a collection of events, themes, character types, and other things that frequently crop up in tv, books, movies, ect. It's a wiki site, but unlike wikipedia it's really funny, and useful too. After all, who doesn't like it when their favorite character punches out cthuhlu, or a has a heroic BSOD moment?
cool site. There are some actual interesting articles on here. The Computer is Cheating! This is my favorite one yet. I can't tell you how many times I've felt this way XD.
I find the site too discouraging, myself--it seems just about ANYTHING anyone ever wants to write about or include in their story is there, and while this can greatly help avoid cliches, it can also greatly dampen someone's enthusiasm if they begin to fear that anything they try to write has been done a million times before. Even if the way they planned to present their "cliche" was in a new and original manner. One should take such sites with a grain of salt--they're suggestions about how to avoid doing something in a cliched way--but some beginning writers don't understand that yet. Witness the newbies who pop up in the plot forum and cry, "I wanted to write about such-and-such but I just noticed somebody else already wrote that! What do I do??" That's probably just me though. *shrug*
Same. Especially on Mario Kart Wii. I always get whupped on the last lap by a barrage of shells, POW's and lightning. So annoying. And thanks for the website, it's great
It's actually not about cliche's to avoid, or cliche's at all. It's got a lot of things that are good to avoid, but it's also got a lot of things that are good to use. This is what it says on the main page. I'd have to say one of my favorites is Beware the Nice Ones, especially the picture.
I dunno about you, but sites that just drone on and on about writing are cliches in and of themselves. "Addicting"--it's more like a trap, in my opinion. The amateur writer goes in, and never comes out. There is nothing new under the sun, really. Everything is a cliche. It's making the humdrum everyday sh!t of life interesting that makes a writer good or not good. A writer has to spend a good amount of time in his or her own mind before he/she can really write; there's really no substitute for that. Websites that encourage actual writing and discourage snidery are more interesting to me. I mean, I know people in their mid-teens who are "published" within the wide and sticky trap of anime/manga and the whole e-universe that revolves around it. Some of them can actually write well, but most of them can't. However, all of them THINK that they can write well, reinforced by the "matrix" of the internet. On a side note: That article "the computer is cheating" illustrates the biggest reason I tell students to resist being led to think that they are using "psi powers" to move or otherwise affect something on a website. If you have psi powers on a computer but not in real life--then something is wrong. Yeah: The computer is ALWAYS cheating. Just ask me, I can tell you all about it. I've had no less than three employers install spyware on my compy in the last couple of years--I will even ask them right out if that's what they're doing, and they lie to me every time. I have to go and use regedit to get their spyware off my comp, and THEN they get angry at me. They'll tell me I'm "making mistakes" but it's really that they're pissed because they can't monitor my activity on the comp anymore. The computer is always cheating, and it's really not your friend. What a surprise!! Anyway, I doubt that anyone will pay attention to this, but nevertheless I hope it was helpful. yours in Chaos, Scarlett
Yeah, I'm always there . It's not exactly what to avoid but merely just an encyclopedia-like website for plot devices and situations. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OminousLatinChanting is cool too.
*ominous latin chanting in the background* ahhh. You think I should be worried... I love some of the stuff on here. I like the love trope "That didn't happen", and "All girls like a bad boy." Honestly I think half the articles on the site are cliche's but my gosh if I'm not getting more than a few laughs. I love "Eat Gilligan Already."
"In First Person Shooters, the typical Cheating Bastard ... can snipe the wings off a fly at eighty miles using a shotgun..." Ugh! I hate those uber-snipers!
