Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A writers job is to write storiesnot to steal or borrow them and, with a coat of fresh paint, pawn them
off as original.
That should be obvious, but its not always completely clear. Our own private thoughts, dreams, intuitions
and fantasies are inevitably colored by what psychiatrist Carl Jung called the collective unconsciousthe
vast, reservoir-like body of shared human experiences and of myths, symbols and legends.
Most sensational subjects have been treated to death. Result: a minefield of clichs. And, as novelist
Martin Amis tells us, good writing is a war against clich. The storys problems might be partially
redeemed by crisp dialogue, vivid descriptions and an impeccable edgy stylebut the plain fact is,
they shouldnt be solved. Steer clear of tired plots and you, your characters and your readers will avoid all
kinds of heartache.
When we produce stories that are derivative, were not being honest with ourselves. Were borrowing
someone elses aesthetics and selling them as our own.
In choosing intrinsically sensational subjects, writers think theyre getting a freeor a cheapride. But as
with most things in life, you tend to get what you pay for.
The best way to avoid clich is to practice sincerity. If weve come by sensational material honestly,
through our own personal experience or imagination, we may rightly claim it as our own. Otherwise, wed
best steer clear. Our stories should be stories that only we can tell, as only we can tell them.
Either your chosen subject plunges you into the imaginations deeper waters, or your story will probably
drift into one of two shallow waterways:
1.
the autobiographical estuary, in which you write strictly about characters and events from your
own life; or
2.
the brackish bay of stereotype and clich.
The way to rescue this and other clichs may lie in exploring those parts of the story that dont belong
firmly to the clich. By investing our characters with concerns and struggles that point away from the
hackneyed and sensational and toward the earthier dramas of ordinary existence, by taking the most
trite elements of our stories out of the foreground and putting them in the background, we begin to lift
them out of clich.
In soap operas we get wish fulfillment and negative fantasy in place of real resolutions. When a
relationship is dramatized, nearly all of the dialogue is head-on and histrionic, vomiting up plot and
backstory. Accusations and apologies are served up along with great gobs of personal history.
A more dramatic, less histrionic approach would convey the status quo between characters up front,
through exposition, leaving subsequent scenes free to explore behavior and character. We read the story
to see how these characters will cope (or not) with each other under specific circumstances (e.g., they
have to pick a coffin for their mothers funeral). When authors explode drama rather than describe it, their
material deteriorates into soap opera and blows up in everyones face. Avoid the temptation to do so, and
your fiction will be more powerful for it.
1) Love triangles- I might be the only one here but I love a good love triangle. I
think it comes from the desire to feel wanted. I might not want my love life that
complicated but I love my fiction to be that way. I like trying to figure out which guy
the heroine is going to choose out of two good choices. And often times, each guy
represents a different live that she must choose from. In a lot of ways, love triangles
are just a great metaphor for the hero/heroine choosing how they want to live their
life.
2) Best friend love interest- I am always a sucker for this cliche. It's an oldie but
a goodie. I was going to put "tale as old as time" here too which works perfectly
since Belle and Beast become friends before they fall in love. Plus, these
relationships are always so cute and healthy. They already know how to talk to each
other so it's always great for them to find their happiness in the end.
3) Fiesty red headed heroine- I like my heroines with a little fire and if they are
people that are willing to speak their mind. I also happen to love red-heads so this is
a win-win for me.
4) Sexy supernaturals- I'm not saying I need my vampires to be gentle or my
mermaids not to lead boats into rocks. I'm just saying I want them to be hot while
doing it. I don't care if it's the main character that is something other or the love
interest but I do like the supernatural to be a little mysterious and just a little bit up
to no good.
5) Absent parents- I'm not picking up a YA to become parent of the year. I hate it
when parents get all meddlesome and become an obstacle. I'm not saying that I
don't want a family there at all. I'm just saying that I don't want Mom grounding
heroine to become the main obstacle keeping the heroine from doing what she
needs to save the world.
6) Forbidden love- I'm not just talking vampire and human either. I like forbidden
love of any kind whether it be warring families, a 17-year-old falling for a college
tutor or anything in between. There can be a zillion different spins on this and it still
makes it exciting.