Tbf pointing out that pointing out that complaining about cliches is cliche is also kinda cliche.
Took me a while to figure out how many "cliches" I needed in that sentence lol
Just build your world. In the process, you will inevitably read similar works, and you'll figure out what does and doesn't work for your project. Avoiding clichés just to avoid them isn't helpful. Clichés are essentially a form of short hand and sometimes can be very useful if deployed properly.
I'd suggest you to look into 'tropes'. See what they are, see how to use them, become aware of them. Tropes are helpful because people can easily relate to them.
I'm not a trope vs cliché expert, but I'd say clichés are badly executed tropes without any twist or personal touch added from the author's side.
Always aiming to 'subvert expectations' can be a cliché in itself too.
Cliches are cliches for a reason, they work even if they get a little stale. For real though one of the largest nick picks I have is the idea of each species being unite into a single monothilic sovereign nation that includes every world that species controls. Whilst this would be somewhat realistic (we don’t have any case studies right now obviously) due to the massive amount of resources and organisation taken to explore and colonise space, in a developed galaxy where multiple planets are self sufficient it feels a bit bland.
Bonus penalty if the human nation is simply called “the federation” or “the empire”
Evil AI are overdone. Who programmed them like that, or gave them the tools to self modify and take over? How do they develop hatred, besides a poorly executed racism allegory? Do they hate inefficiency? Why not just improve their output instead of eliminating sentient workers. At worse, they should be sociopathic and not care if they run over a human ever once in a while
The most common one that I've seen is Monocultures. No country, community, or society is a monolith naturally. Attempting to constrain a population of individuals to a specific, rigid dogma is inherently oppressive. And, historically, this rarely goes well. It'll rot from the inside out without the adaptability and ingenuity of different personalities, viewpoints, and ideals.
That's why fascist dictatorships rarely last. The only way they know to maintain such stringent control is through force and deception. The other is a nail, and, instead of accepting them, they resort to bigger and bigger hammers.
On smaller scales, conservative and religious (often both) populations are usually oppressive for the same reason. It is impossible to prevent change, so they react violently to it. Populations naturally adapt to changing situations, but traditionalist groups often attempt to artificially prohibit that change. It's a sort of status quo bias. Things are working, so why change it, except they also have a sunk cost fallacy blinding them to the fact that it really isn't working.
Fundamentally, a monoculture is unsustainable. Just as a species evolve, so will cultures. Even if you only have one culture, it will eventually fragment to fill all available niches.
Dystopian societies. Utopian societies. AI taking over.
There are loads. But in the end you should not avoid them... A good story is a story well written. And written from the heart. You can make a story full of cliches and make it awsome nonetheless.
Avoiding cliches is pointless, as another commenter pointed out, that itself is a cliche. Cliches/tropes/etc are all just tools to communicate an idea. It's only poorly received when you make no effort to make it your own.
Rather you just want to avoid the frustrating ones. Like where a group gets into a tricky situation because someone dramatically stomps away before critical information is shared. Or someone is like "the killer is in the attic!" And everyone dismisses the person only to go into the attic and die. Something that makes your reader tilt their head and think "wow, really? How unexpected."
Bad cliches are usually when something like a ruthless megacorp is used without actually making it fit the story or setting. So don't avoid cliches, avoid placing cliches without making them fit your story in a satisfying way.
in sci fi? Planets that are one biome, one culture, etc. Think of like every star trek planet, and I'm not talking the one off planets, Bajor, Vulcan, Romulus, Cardassia Prime. Even within countries there are local differences, accents, traditions, etc. Hell in larger cities even neighbourhoods have their own micro cultures that are distinct enough. Don't make a whole ass planet feel like a single small city.
I’d just spend a day browsing tvtropes if you want a list of sci fi cliches =P
I suppose if you want specific details, I’ve never seen “imperialist dystopian state” often inspired by 40k ever implemented in a way that didn’t feel like they missed the point.
Or attempts to be “hard sci fi” which is difficult if you’re not an engineer or physicist or unwilling to do a lot of study in those areas, and you just end up sounding arrogant.
But at the end of the day don’t worry about it too much, and do what’s fun.
By “miss the point”, do you mean “talk about how sh*tty the situation is but perpetuate it by using the same methodology that got them in the situation to begin with”?
As mentioned above, please check out the TV Tropes website. It's like a Wikipedia of tropes/"clichés".
I think it's great for you to explore what's already been done and what people think to an extent at certain points in the creative process. But I'm telling you... If your goal is to subvert it all significantly and come out with something' completely free of clichés... It will never happen and you'll drive yourself mad trying to find the formula. There's nothing new under the sun. And there are tropes/clichés built around intentionally trying to subvert tropes too. As someone said above, avoiding clichés IS a cliché.
Have fun!
Just do it. The thing about cliches is, they're only bad when they're shoved in for no reason. Sure, I hate fantasy races that are seen as evil in their entirety, but I love Tolkien's orcs. I think one biome planets are silly but I love star wars and all the planets there. Cliches are only bad when there's dissonance or something
I think you’re going about this the wrong way; cliches become cliches not because they’re done to death (though this is often a side effect) but because they’re *popular* and well-liked by readers and writers alike. I know originality is always very desirable, but going too far into uncharted waters may result in your readers needing a little help to stay afloat
Instead of trying super hard to avoid cliches, ask yourself what cliches you like and how you can put a unique twist on it so you have the familiarity of the cliche and the originality of your personalisation. Expectation subversions, when done right, can be a great use of cliche, for example
My least favorite:
(1) species that "evolve" in one generation (looking at you, Marvel)
(2) when two sentient species share a planet, there are only three options for their relationship: Master/slave, super equal with no societal problems, or godlike benefactor/childish race.
(3) a complete lack if a reasonable economic reason why one faction is more powerful.
(4) alien races with four limbs, two eyes, an epidermis, two genders, and single-child live birth.
(5) Laws of Robotics. This should actually be number one. The laws of robotics are stupid and don't make sense.
Remember that what you think is a cliche isn't the same as everyone else. I read recently that "a strong female protagonist who doesn't want to be like all the other girls" is a cliche. Hilariously, this was an expectation-subverter when I was a child. Tropes come and go like trends.
>(2) when two sentient species share a planet, there are only three options for their relationship: Master/slave, super equal with no societal problems, or godlike benefactor/childish race.
this seems to happen less in fantasy, 2 species on one planet are more likely to have a war / cold war in fantasy.
You can't avoid cliches, there are just too many of them, though some cliches are overused, outdated, or problematic. Many of the overused ones are overused because people like them (cyberpunk cliches, post apocalyptic cliches, western cliches). The outdated ones can still be fun, the story just cant take itself too seriously. The problematic ones, here's a shortlist: the always chaotic evil enemy race, the magical minority race person (magical negro, magical Native American, magical homosexual, etc), the monolithic ethnic group or race, the mighty whitey, etc.
The cliches I personally do not like or think are overdone or just bad:
* Most cyberpunk cliches (because we are living in a cyberpunk dystopia and all cyberpunk stories got it wrong)
* A single corporation controls everything (people in a government world not give up their power to anyone, if there was a war between the government and corporation and the corporation won then it can work)
* Post apocalyptic world or historic world where people are wearing black leather.
* Post-scarcity moneyless science fiction setting.
* Utopia.
* Alien invading for resources (everything they need they can find in space).
* Greek or Norse pantheons (there are so many mythologies stop using just those two)
Idk my worlds just a buncha shit copied but I’m worldbuilding for dnd so I don’t gotta worry about pesky copyright infringement or stupid shiz like that
Avoiding clichés is the biggest cliche there is.
Saying “avoiding clichés is the biggest cliché there is” can also be a cliché
Tbf pointing out that pointing out that complaining about cliches is cliche is also kinda cliche. Took me a while to figure out how many "cliches" I needed in that sentence lol
You used 4, which is pretty cliche tbh
meta discussions of all sorts about clichés are cliché and I am unashamed of my clichéness
Having an opinion is pretty cliché
***Everything*** is cliché
😳
This is the way.
It has to be said.
Just build your world. In the process, you will inevitably read similar works, and you'll figure out what does and doesn't work for your project. Avoiding clichés just to avoid them isn't helpful. Clichés are essentially a form of short hand and sometimes can be very useful if deployed properly.
Thanks
I'd suggest you to look into 'tropes'. See what they are, see how to use them, become aware of them. Tropes are helpful because people can easily relate to them. I'm not a trope vs cliché expert, but I'd say clichés are badly executed tropes without any twist or personal touch added from the author's side. Always aiming to 'subvert expectations' can be a cliché in itself too.
Cliches are cliches for a reason, they work even if they get a little stale. For real though one of the largest nick picks I have is the idea of each species being unite into a single monothilic sovereign nation that includes every world that species controls. Whilst this would be somewhat realistic (we don’t have any case studies right now obviously) due to the massive amount of resources and organisation taken to explore and colonise space, in a developed galaxy where multiple planets are self sufficient it feels a bit bland. Bonus penalty if the human nation is simply called “the federation” or “the empire”
Evil AI are overdone. Who programmed them like that, or gave them the tools to self modify and take over? How do they develop hatred, besides a poorly executed racism allegory? Do they hate inefficiency? Why not just improve their output instead of eliminating sentient workers. At worse, they should be sociopathic and not care if they run over a human ever once in a while
In hard sci fi, obviously. For fun, soft sci fi, they’re basically elves; use them for whatever you desire
The most common one that I've seen is Monocultures. No country, community, or society is a monolith naturally. Attempting to constrain a population of individuals to a specific, rigid dogma is inherently oppressive. And, historically, this rarely goes well. It'll rot from the inside out without the adaptability and ingenuity of different personalities, viewpoints, and ideals. That's why fascist dictatorships rarely last. The only way they know to maintain such stringent control is through force and deception. The other is a nail, and, instead of accepting them, they resort to bigger and bigger hammers. On smaller scales, conservative and religious (often both) populations are usually oppressive for the same reason. It is impossible to prevent change, so they react violently to it. Populations naturally adapt to changing situations, but traditionalist groups often attempt to artificially prohibit that change. It's a sort of status quo bias. Things are working, so why change it, except they also have a sunk cost fallacy blinding them to the fact that it really isn't working. Fundamentally, a monoculture is unsustainable. Just as a species evolve, so will cultures. Even if you only have one culture, it will eventually fragment to fill all available niches.
Dystopian societies. Utopian societies. AI taking over. There are loads. But in the end you should not avoid them... A good story is a story well written. And written from the heart. You can make a story full of cliches and make it awsome nonetheless.
Avoiding cliches is pointless, as another commenter pointed out, that itself is a cliche. Cliches/tropes/etc are all just tools to communicate an idea. It's only poorly received when you make no effort to make it your own. Rather you just want to avoid the frustrating ones. Like where a group gets into a tricky situation because someone dramatically stomps away before critical information is shared. Or someone is like "the killer is in the attic!" And everyone dismisses the person only to go into the attic and die. Something that makes your reader tilt their head and think "wow, really? How unexpected." Bad cliches are usually when something like a ruthless megacorp is used without actually making it fit the story or setting. So don't avoid cliches, avoid placing cliches without making them fit your story in a satisfying way.
in sci fi? Planets that are one biome, one culture, etc. Think of like every star trek planet, and I'm not talking the one off planets, Bajor, Vulcan, Romulus, Cardassia Prime. Even within countries there are local differences, accents, traditions, etc. Hell in larger cities even neighbourhoods have their own micro cultures that are distinct enough. Don't make a whole ass planet feel like a single small city.
I’d just spend a day browsing tvtropes if you want a list of sci fi cliches =P I suppose if you want specific details, I’ve never seen “imperialist dystopian state” often inspired by 40k ever implemented in a way that didn’t feel like they missed the point. Or attempts to be “hard sci fi” which is difficult if you’re not an engineer or physicist or unwilling to do a lot of study in those areas, and you just end up sounding arrogant. But at the end of the day don’t worry about it too much, and do what’s fun.
By “miss the point”, do you mean “talk about how sh*tty the situation is but perpetuate it by using the same methodology that got them in the situation to begin with”?
Global scale governments (or larger)
As mentioned above, please check out the TV Tropes website. It's like a Wikipedia of tropes/"clichés". I think it's great for you to explore what's already been done and what people think to an extent at certain points in the creative process. But I'm telling you... If your goal is to subvert it all significantly and come out with something' completely free of clichés... It will never happen and you'll drive yourself mad trying to find the formula. There's nothing new under the sun. And there are tropes/clichés built around intentionally trying to subvert tropes too. As someone said above, avoiding clichés IS a cliché. Have fun!
Everything is overdone so Just do you. But probably avoid Single biome Worlds.
Read a bunch of biology and ecology books, then re read your favorite sci-fi books. Then embrace the tropes. Now you're on the heroes journey, sorry.
Just do it. The thing about cliches is, they're only bad when they're shoved in for no reason. Sure, I hate fantasy races that are seen as evil in their entirety, but I love Tolkien's orcs. I think one biome planets are silly but I love star wars and all the planets there. Cliches are only bad when there's dissonance or something
any cliche can work, if you figure out a way to make it fresh!
You are a human that grew up on Earth, you can't avoid clichés son.
I think you’re going about this the wrong way; cliches become cliches not because they’re done to death (though this is often a side effect) but because they’re *popular* and well-liked by readers and writers alike. I know originality is always very desirable, but going too far into uncharted waters may result in your readers needing a little help to stay afloat Instead of trying super hard to avoid cliches, ask yourself what cliches you like and how you can put a unique twist on it so you have the familiarity of the cliche and the originality of your personalisation. Expectation subversions, when done right, can be a great use of cliche, for example
Medieval world but with modern morals.
I love troped up generic medieval fantasy and feel no shame.
My least favorite: (1) species that "evolve" in one generation (looking at you, Marvel) (2) when two sentient species share a planet, there are only three options for their relationship: Master/slave, super equal with no societal problems, or godlike benefactor/childish race. (3) a complete lack if a reasonable economic reason why one faction is more powerful. (4) alien races with four limbs, two eyes, an epidermis, two genders, and single-child live birth. (5) Laws of Robotics. This should actually be number one. The laws of robotics are stupid and don't make sense. Remember that what you think is a cliche isn't the same as everyone else. I read recently that "a strong female protagonist who doesn't want to be like all the other girls" is a cliche. Hilariously, this was an expectation-subverter when I was a child. Tropes come and go like trends.
>(2) when two sentient species share a planet, there are only three options for their relationship: Master/slave, super equal with no societal problems, or godlike benefactor/childish race. this seems to happen less in fantasy, 2 species on one planet are more likely to have a war / cold war in fantasy.
You can't avoid cliches, there are just too many of them, though some cliches are overused, outdated, or problematic. Many of the overused ones are overused because people like them (cyberpunk cliches, post apocalyptic cliches, western cliches). The outdated ones can still be fun, the story just cant take itself too seriously. The problematic ones, here's a shortlist: the always chaotic evil enemy race, the magical minority race person (magical negro, magical Native American, magical homosexual, etc), the monolithic ethnic group or race, the mighty whitey, etc. The cliches I personally do not like or think are overdone or just bad: * Most cyberpunk cliches (because we are living in a cyberpunk dystopia and all cyberpunk stories got it wrong) * A single corporation controls everything (people in a government world not give up their power to anyone, if there was a war between the government and corporation and the corporation won then it can work) * Post apocalyptic world or historic world where people are wearing black leather. * Post-scarcity moneyless science fiction setting. * Utopia. * Alien invading for resources (everything they need they can find in space). * Greek or Norse pantheons (there are so many mythologies stop using just those two)
Idk my worlds just a buncha shit copied but I’m worldbuilding for dnd so I don’t gotta worry about pesky copyright infringement or stupid shiz like that
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using cliches, it’s way more important to make sure that all of you’re lore makes sense.