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  1. CatnipCupid

    CatnipCupid Member

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    Tiresome Cliches

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by CatnipCupid, Mar 27, 2013.

    the engine roared to life


    his smile didn't quite reach his eyes


    her gorge rose in her throat


    I mean enough's enough. Any one else come across some you'd like to share?
     
  2. CommanderEVE

    CommanderEVE Member

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    - He smirked, or he grinned.

    - As dark as the night.

    - Cold as a stone.

    These are the ones I use to use a lot, now I cannot not stand to use them. I guess I am getting better.

    I do not think this one is as cliché as the rest you mentioned, as I have not seen this one before.
     
  3. JayClassical

    JayClassical Member

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    i hate plot cliches where theres a love triangle and the nerdy guy always gets the girl
     
  4. peachalulu

    peachalulu Member Reviewer Contributor

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    Yeah, I'm more about story cliches - than just cliche phrases.
    The hunk whose naturally so tall the heroine has to crane her neck to admire his gorgeous blue eyes.
    The hunk with the smokin hot bod.
    Women who are crazy about shoes.
    The gay best friend. Or the over-sexed, sassy friend, or the loyal friend. A lot of bff's in women's fiction all tend to blurr for me.
    hot, brooding vampires - just once I'd like to see a nerd get bitten.
     
  5. CommanderEVE

    CommanderEVE Member

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    The classic 'Teenage camp' story. Yes, I dislike it also.
     
  6. 123456789

    123456789 Contributor Contributor

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    60% of everything posted in the workshop.

    Sorry, I HAD TO :)
     
  7. Xatron

    Xatron New Member

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    I would like once, just once, to see an ugly vampire chick. Be it books, graphic novels or movies, i have not seen one single vampire-vampire female you can call ugly. Except the twilight chick, but then again those aren't vampires.
     
  8. CatnipCupid

    CatnipCupid Member

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    Oh, yeah:

    They filed into the classroom
     
  9. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Plots are not cliches. A cliche is a phrase or metaphor that has lost all meaning or impact, because of overuse or because it no longer reflects common experience.

    vampire romances are not a cliche. "Easy as pie" is a cliche. "Tides of change" is a cliche. "Sick as a dog" is a really dumb cliche.
     
  10. rhduke

    rhduke Member Reviewer

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    "It was a dark and stormy night."

    Heh, "A Wrinkle in Time" starts off like that, but it didn't really bother me, even when I didn't realize it was published 50 years ago.
     
  11. Thornesque

    Thornesque Senior Member

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    One that I'm guilty of myself is...

    "His/her brow knot together," or "He/She furrowed his/her brow."
     
  12. Fullmetal Xeno

    Fullmetal Xeno Protector of Literature Contributor

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    I bet my stories are included in that too. Damn it. :D


    To respond to what the OP asked, in my opinion "The Prophecy" or "Unlikely hero who learns everything in two days" is the most brain-enticing things ive ever seen in fantasy in particular.

    For genres like horror, it's ALWAYS little demonic girls. Why is that?
     
  13. modus

    modus New Member

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    Hm, I've never heard either of these phrases.
     
  14. AVCortez

    AVCortez Active Member

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    never read brow knot together, but furrowed... Is that really a cliche? It's like saying "He smiled" - I took it more as an expression. How else would you say it?

    cold hard truths are pretty bad.

    stinging insults are bit over-done as well... As much by myself as anyone else ;).

    Tried true blood? I'd eat up the leading ladies but there as some fuggers in there as well.
     
  15. madhoca

    madhoca Contributor Contributor

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    New cliches get me when I read them for the millionth time, e.g. "Her/His lips curved" ENOUGH! Just say s/he smiled.
     
  16. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    I asked that on a forum once, and they told me that basically, taking what is innocent (a child) and corrupting it by making them look ghastly and undead makes for good horror.

    As to why it's only little girls, and not boys? Have no idea, I'm afraid. :/
     
  17. CommanderEVE

    CommanderEVE Member

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    I have noticed that almost each writer as their own set of clichés, words they like to use over and over. And they may not be what are classed as 'universally cliché', meaning almost everyone falls for writing them.
     
  18. madhoca

    madhoca Contributor Contributor

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    ^^ Yes, sometimes there is a turn of phrase which becomes horribly popular after a bestselling writer does it to death shamelessly (or without realising), especially for describing emotions; all that show/tell dilemma, no doubt. I often wonder why an editor never has a word in the writer's ear about this, e.g.
    he waited a beat
    her lips curved (really hate this, so it gets second mention)
    eyes darting
    breath hitching
     
  19. CommanderEVE

    CommanderEVE Member

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    The more and more clichés there are, the harder it gets to think of new phrases without making them sound ridiculous or choppy. But that could be just me, I seem to like everything to flow like a Gothic poem.
     
  20. spartan928

    spartan928 Member

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    Cuts like a knife or similar overused similes. Also, I groan every time I read a book or short story that starts with descriptions of the weather. Kicks in the who-gives-a-crap-ometer right off the bat. Oops, there's another one. Admittedly, where do all these crazy phrases come from? Off the bat...who started that?
     
  21. AshleyFinn

    AshleyFinn New Member

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    The biggest cliche of them all is believing you're above using them.
     
    2 people like this.
  22. AVCortez

    AVCortez Active Member

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    New favourite person, haha.
     
  23. Fullmetal Xeno

    Fullmetal Xeno Protector of Literature Contributor

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    By using twists into cliches and creative differences yes you are. You're creating your very own story. That's why they call them cliches, it's because they are bland and unoriginal.
     
  24. KaTrian

    KaTrian A foolish little beast. Contributor

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    It's a tightrope to balance on all right (omg, did I just use a cliché...): when do you use too many clichés, when are you being over-complicated? But I suppose I'd rather pick clear and simple ("furrowed his brow") than invent something very weird like "when he thought it over, his eyebrows looked like two hairy worms french-kissing." Unless I wanted to be IRONIC!

    I like the expression "lips curved." I mean, is it always a smile anyway? Or is it a smile only when you mean to smile? I can curve my lips so that it doesn't look like a smile as much as someone criminally insane making a duck-face.

    It's pretty used, but I still like the saying "his jaws unhinged." I don't know. The visual is funny. As for story clichés: the gorgeous, skinny heroine! Blah. Hence we wrote a muscle-bound plain girl to be our sci-fi heroine. Then of course, the love triangle where the hot girl picks the nerd... As if! More like friendzones the nerd and has awesome, sweaty--
    Yeah, I don't like that either. Unrealistic much.
     
  25. psychotick

    psychotick Contributor Contributor

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    Hi,

    I sometimes use the gorge rising in the throat as better way of saying someone felt sick. But it's an old cliche, not a new one. Gorge in this case actually refers to the oesophagus, and the only other place I can think of it being used is as part of gorget, which is a throat guard in a set of armour.

    Cheers, Greg.
     

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