My current project is an action/adventure piece (think Clive Cusser, James Rollins, ect) that centers around hidden treasure, ancient history, and archeology. The novel basically follows the hunt for this treasure and the action that takes part during it as well as the historical deduction involved. My question is, is the whole "treasure hunting" concept too cliche, or can it work if executed properly. The novel contains a lot of accurate information along with a degree of plausible but not actual historical info that is vital to the plot? Is this okay as long is the novel is really just meant as a form of adventure escapism? Thanks!
Forget that the word cliche exists, until you are examining individual phrases and sentences. RFgere really are not very many different stories. What makes it worth reading is how well it is written, and how interesting the characters who populate it are. In character and plot/storyline context, cliche is just a one word dismissal based on minimal information.
If there is enough accurate info, then they will believe the stuff you invented. Even if most of it is invented, as long as you tell it well, people will like it and not care that you made it up. Indy uses lots of ideas from history and religion, but a lot of it is made up by the writers themselves. Thanks to National Treasure and Indy, these stories are pretty popular right now. There are only so many stories out there that I would never put the term "cliche" to them. It's how you use the idea that matters, and if the characters are interesting.
all depends on your writing style and as long as you are not directly copying someone else. As for the plot. It sounds like it would work. So start writing.
Thanks for the responses. I've been playing with the storyline for 6-8 months and I'm just about ready to get writing. The best way to ensure that I complete the novel will be to have a structured plot outline for me to follow so I don't run into any historical innacuracies or plot discrepancies after I started writing. I'll probably post info on my progress at some point in the future.
