{ ＩＮＫＬＩＮＧＳ v.4 } A Thread For Writers

[Silverhart]

First thing that pops into your head when you think of 'cliches'?

At first I couldn't think of anything, but then I thought 'prophecies that always come true'. I really dislike prophecies in stories. Nine times out of ten they are completely unnecessary, and in the 10% they're not, they're 100% unhelpful. Seriously, unless you're looking to win the lottery I see absolutely no good that can come from knowing anything about the future, because things will happen regardless of whether you know it will. Plus there's no reason to believe anyone who claims to speak prophecies. The real world is full of people making false predictions for money and attention, so why is it in fiction that every one who has a prediction is taken seriously, and never shown to be wrong? I find it hard to believe, even in worlds where it's possible to predict the future, that there aren't quacks who are shown to be wrong. Unless every single prophecy maker in every book is actually a quack, and every single character is just super gullible, in which case that would actually be hilarious.

Oh boy, "The person to defeat the evil will literally be the only person to stand up against evil." And by the way, literally no one else should stand up for themselves against the evil while everything you love and care about is being destroyed, because heaven forbid you prove the prophecy wrong just to save the lives of your loved ones.

Wow. That was a rant. XP I don't even know if prophecy counts so much as a cliché as it does just a really lazy writing technique.

Personally, I don't think clichés are necessarily bad. Even the prophecy idea could be used to good effect - I haven't personally encountered it, but there are plenty of books with prophecies that I enjoy despite them. I really enjoy stories that work to be original and play with or subvert certain tropes and clichés, and I wouldn't have those stories if the clichés didn't exist. But if I'm being honest, there are also stories that rely on certain clichés that I really enjoy. ^^

I kind of wonder about all these complaints about teen books. I've sort of moved out of the YA book section in recent years other then to continue reading series or authors that I follow; or if a specific book is recommended. But when I was reading YA I found plenty of books I enjoyed, with very little of these clichés. Of course, I typically stuck to fantasy. Ah, I sound like every writer - "in my day, writing was actually good." XP I just find it interesting that I rarely stumbled across these clichés. It might just be the genres I read.

How does your tone differ depending on whether you're writing something you love or something you hate?

It becomes very sparse. But strangely, when writing something I love it's also sparse, because I'm rushing to get all my thoughts down. XP But eventually, when editing I lovingly craft and add to my loved parts, and then throw out the parts I hate.

What's the last writing project you abandoned?

My novel. I abandoned it on March 4th. Six days ago I picked it up again and have been furiously tearing it apart and piecing it back together. So it was abandoned for about ten days total. XP If it wasn't for the characters I would've thrown it all out, but I love these dorks too much to throw in the towel just yet. It seems they'll have to work a bit harder to get rid of me.

[Ranger of the North]

First thing that pops into your head when you think of 'cliches'?
Romance *hides self in a ditch*

How does your tone differ depending on whether you're writing something you love or something you hate?
Things I hate in creative-writing terms aren't even begun haha. Even for schoolwork stuff, though, I enjoy quite a lot of it tbh. I'm an 'all or nothing' kind of gal anyway, so even the stuff I don't enjoy so much (like reports) I end up putting a lot of effort into lol.

[HP is a potato]

First thing that pops into your head when you think of 'cliches'?
Hallmark romance, and action spy movies.

What's the last writing project you abandoned?
Of all the projects I've willingly started, I've finished two of my stories. The most recent one to be abandoned was a stupid romance idea I came up with in cahoots with a friend from school, but I ruined it on the third page, so RIP me.

[Pyjaks]

How does your tone differ depending on whether you're writing something you love or something you hate?

If I'm writing something I hate, I sound very "factual" and dispassionate. There's no voice or anything, it just sounds dull lol

What's the last writing project you abandoned?

Ughhhh the word's "abandoned" and "writing" in the same sentence make me feel guilty. I kinda sorta abandoned this short story I've been working on for months now. It's almost finished and I'm very proud of it but the end is just...I have no idea what to do with it, y'know? Everything I write just seems wrong. So it's just kinda sitting in a google doc and I go back to it every few weeks and stare and try to think of something

[Musicality]

First thing that pops into your head when you think of 'cliches'?

The "Oh my character blacked out but isn't actually injured or anything" cliche. Honestly, if you faint you should probably go to the hospital, not to fight a monster. (Or something, it's usually used as a way of transport). Also the "Oh hey! It's a mirror!" Cliche. If you don't have the timing right to use a detail to describe your character, why not plop them in front of a mirror, right? Wrong. (or at least in my opinion) This is just lazy. Use time to describe the character and force your reader to have some imagination >.<


On a totally different topic my writing EOC is next week! Woo! While everyone else is moping around bc we are going to have to write a "boring" essay and read "boring" passages I'm like "Yess!!! This gives me a chance to expand my writing out of my comfort zone and try to make something awful into something amazing <3" Only sad part is that it happens to fall on my birthday and therefore I have to wait an extra day to get my permit

[Silverhart]

First thing that pops into your head when you think of 'cliches'?

The "Oh my character blacked out but isn't actually injured or anything" cliche. Honestly, if you faint you should probably go to the hospital, not to fight a monster. (Or something, it's usually used as a way of transport).

I love that cliché. XP Chances are good that if you black out, you probably have some sort of concussion, that would be very serious, it's true. But it's just so funny to me (in stories, I mean; in real life it can be extremely serious). Honestly, it's a cliché I can easily forgive because it makes me laugh. Once read a book where it seemed every other chapter the main character was blacking out - I loved it. XP I try to avoid it in my own stories personally - for that same reason of 'if you black out you're probably concussed', plus it's sort of a lazy way to transition.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

If its any longer than a minute or so than there is serious signs of the injury being a concussion or something really bad. I prefer to drug the character if such a scenario is necessary. But I'm also pretty sure there are other ways of passing out, blood loss, shock, pain, those could be used instead of a trauma to the head.

[Musicality]

I mean, I will admit that in an early story I had the main character black out from the pain of the ceiling crashing in on her but she woke up in a hospital type place. (It was really a government testing chamber but that's besides the point)

@Silver
I can see where that could stem from. I personally don't like the possible jumpiness it could give and feel that the actual journey from place to place is just as important, if is written well enough, as the most adventurous fighting scenes and the blacking out seems to just take that away. For instance in a personal book I adore, the main character (Jason) kept blacking out. I started getting tired of it after a while because it felt like that was all he could do and he kept missing everything. Granted, the book was told from multiple different points of view so it wasn't as big of a deal. (I still love the book and have read it 15+ times. Cookies to who knows what book it is)

@Song
I could see the drugging being an option as well as long as it was used in the right scenario. Let's say the characters were walking through the mall and out of nowhere the narrator blacks out. Then the pov switches to the cops and they say the girls are drugged and been kidnapped/ killed. Unless this is the murder of a mystery/ horror story in my mind it doesn't truly fit. Make sense?

[blackbird.]

first thing that pops into your head when you think of 'cliches'?

for me it's the whole 'girl next door with pluck and charm and a quiet inner strength'. these characters are always a little too perfect for me and it propagates the idea that the flawed, broken characters are already a hopeless case and they don't deserve attention because they don't deserve redemption. i'm fine with it when these girls have to work hard and hey actually earned what they got, but when life just dishes everything out for them and they have good looks, money, social skills and are completely happy with their self-centred and isolationist life without feeling the need to do anything with their lives, i just wish they'd have to endure some sort of suffering so that their character can actually grow. (and no, liking a boy who doesn't like you back but in the end he notices you and you two get together ISN'T a character development arc).
that and when the male protagonist has to choose between two girls (in the very typical love triangle) and makes the illogical and potentially disastrous choice because 'oh, it's love'. but love as a feeling is fleeting and there is no way it'll work out. if a character is making poor choices because it's 'love', chances are, it isn't love, it's hormones. and hormones have half-lives which means that feeling of 'love' is going to go away soon and their happily ever after isn't going to work out very well. but, of course, the part where their relationship collapses isn't going to be mentioned because love is everything and every horrible decision is suddenly acceptable because 'oh, it's love'.

how does your tone differ depending on whether you're writing something you love or something you hate?

when i love it, it's very well-crafted and i've given much more thought into it. my work will be filled with literary devices like metaphors and parallel structures and colour imagery and alliteration and all that jargon. it would take much more time, but i wouldn't mind because i love it. when i hate it, it's quite obvious to tell that i'm writing it just for the sake of writing it. it's especially bad when i just have no inspiration for it.

what's the last writing project you abandoned?

i had this epic 20-chapter story about a group of ragtag adventurers exploring a labyrinth (inspired by etrian odyssey) and how they change from the experience as they encounter monsters and life-and-death experiences and their own demons from the past. and they fall as characters but they learn to build themselves up from the own rubble of their lives.
there's the leader who is so inexperienced and thinks everyone doesn't listen to him and doubts himself. he has this thing that whenever something goes wrong, he blames himself, even if he has nothing to do with it.
then there's a warrior who is so caught up with honour and duty and proving himself and his worth that he suppresses all emotions and desires which all goes to poop when he meets a girl and has to battle with his own emotions.
then there's a girl who was raised to be a perfect porcelain doll and supposed to marry a rich young man, but she broke under the pressure of living a life she didn't want to live so she ran away from home to live on the streets and now she's tough and can't let anyone in.
then there's this orphan guy who everyone thinks is mental because he just acts crazy and laughs for no reason and has conversations with people who don't exist, and he is so used to everyone thinking that he won't ever succeed that he's obsessed with being good at something, but he doesn't want to show that he's trying because people laugh at him for that too.
and the last member is a girl who is very emotional and is so used to being protected that she doesn't think she can take care of herself so she attaches herself to whoever she thinks can look after her. she's so caught up in the idea of having a knight in shining armour that she deludes herself.
of course, there's a plot to it and each character has their own resolution. and i'm really into this story but i just can't seem to write it, only plan it. so there's my problem.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

snip

@Song
I could see the drugging being an option as well as long as it was used in the right scenario. Let's say the characters were walking through the mall and out of nowhere the narrator blacks out. Then the pov switches to the cops and they say the girls are drugged and been kidnapped/ killed. Unless this is the murder of a mystery/ horror story in my mind it doesn't truly fit. Make sense?

Yeah, I totally get that. But if the blacking out is totally necessary then having them pick up a smoothie and having that be drugged isn't as far out as randomly blacking out in the mall.