Take this with a grain of salt, but I heard once in a one-day writing class that romance is an exception to cliches. Readers love the tried-and-true methods: girl meets guy, girl loses guy, girl pulls out her hair over guy, girl gets guy again. Publishers insist on certain templates and even have imprints that are structured around very strict fill-in-the-blank storylines, almost like writing a madlib, but this time with sex. Now, I have no interest in writing romance and so I've never verified what this person said, and I heard it years ago, so it might not be true. But, as you said... can you really count romance? But you should make a conscious effort to avoid these things. Cliches can mark a work as trite... usually, anyway. Cliches can be used to comedic effect, especially when you break the fourth wall with them (IMHO), but too many cliches can break a novel, and usually it takes just one. Not trying to avoid them is a pitfall. At least try to put a little twist into it. I mean... do I really want to pick up yet another novel about the new nerd in town who falls for the douchy football captain's cheerleader girlfriend and wins her heart because of his hidden wit and modest charm, all this because the writer decided cliches weren't that big of a problem?
I have to agree that some cliches are generally unavoidable. I worked in a police station for the better part of a year and a lot of the stuff you see that goes on behind the scenes at a police station (general business, yelling, arguing) goes on more often than you think. Well, at least from what I've seen. My novel has a lot of law enforcement involvement and some things you just can't help but write about even though you know in your heart that its cliche. Honestly, it could be said that avoiding certain cliches could be considered cliche. Uh oh. I think I've created the mobius strip of writing logic.
I think some cliche's are fine as long as your whole story isn't one big cliche. I know in one of my stories I have the cliche "boss detective that is really gritty, stern, doesn't have many close friends, has some past tragedy happen to him in his life... etc". I mean you look up and you see shows like CSI: NY and NCIS that pretty much have different flavors of this same cliche. But because the rest of the show is somewhat non-cliche (although I guess you have like 50 crime drama's on the air right now so it probably IS cliche at this point)... it works out. I mean, you can avoid the cliche if you want, but it doesn't really make sense to have a happy go lucky police captain in a serious crime story.
And yet breaking the fourth wall is a collosal comedic cliche that has been used so often in most cases it simply doesn't work any more. Here's the thing about cliches. Done badly, they are terrible. Done well, they're invisible. Unfortunately, in some cases, you're going to HAVE to use a cliche. Also, a cliche tends to be in the eye of the beholder. I know people who consider vampires themselves to be a cliche. It's also a cliche to set out specifically to avoid cliches. I've known writers who've done just that and ended up writing the most cliche loaded piece of nonsense I'd ever seen. It's true that man most often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it. For my money, don't be afraid of cliches. They're cliches because they work. Now, to the question of cliches I hate: Love triangles. A coworker of mine hates: Main Character is forced to move out of the city to the country.
Oh yes, the cliche. Like someone said, there's not much truly original, there's mainly original twists. Here's some I can think of: Huge boorish ugly brutes for henchmen. Sad drug stories. The helpless sap with a cheesy one liner before they die in a ball of fire and explosions. The face-off, 'You should have killed me when you had the chance!' and then the goodie gets out of a compromising situation due to the bad guy taking his eye off the ball (aka failing to tie a proper knot) then kills them. The best kill i've seen in a film is Di Caprio in The Departed. The magical book/object someone has to get so as to defeat the villain. I think the book pisses me off most. The fact there's a romantic interest in nearly everything, even gangster films. The main one of all - good guy always wins.
Anything that's written as is because it follows a known pattern, rather than because it's the best possible way. I try to avoid every single one. (following my own definition, "every single one" is a cliche)
It really depends on what you mean by "known pattern" because I've known some authors where their books always tend to follow the same basic pattern. There is some opening scene that gets you into the story, towards the end of the scene they introduce the beginning of the plot, then you have a few events that take you through the plot, then you have the climax of the story and then the ending. Maybe I'm being too general with this... but the point I'm trying to make is that some people do the same types of things like this because they work. And if you are a fan of the author and know this is the style they write, you would probably keep reading as long as the author does the same types of things that made his writing popular to begin with instead of re-inventing the wheel with every story.
beautiful girls who are lonely and abused by other females (lol) or their dads hmm i'm trying to think ones not yet listed... the first bad guy (in a multiple antagonists world) becomes an anti-hero vengeance stories featuring kick ass girls who saw their parents killed....or something like that stoic, silent but capable men who just don't know how to express themselves LMAO can't think of ones not yet listed....idk
Montages (in movies or shows, can't say I've come across one in written form), but nnngggggg.... it's really hard to find something as effective at showing the passage of time, so this one might get a pass.
I absolutely HATE that kind of novels. If you have read one or two you have seen the pattern and when picking up the third one you already know how it will end... gaah. I know a few writers like that, that I used to like before I saw this pattern. This is very common in romance, and maybe that is part of why it has got such a bad reputation. Even people who like to read romance novels want to be surprised too, wants to not know how exactly how it's going to end and who the mc will end up with. People who actually WANT that kind of predictable stories must have a really boring life. I'm writing romance myself but my story does NOT follow the general plot-progress as recommended for the genre. I think a book that does is doomed to be forgotten as soon as the reader has turned the last page.
