You're Better Than That. Avoiding Clichés in Your Characters and Plot Devices

’Ello, loves! We’re back for the final Stay-Away-from-Cliché-Installment. We’ve covered phrases and idioms, overused gestures and descriptions. Today we bring you… 

Story and character clichés.

You can’t come up with a truly unique plot, because only ten exist (depending on whose list of tropes you use). But you can put a unique spin on the pieces of the puzzle. 

First, character clichés. Stay away from stereotypes in general, but there are several character clichés that creep into otherwise good stories. Watch out for these guys when you're crafting your main characters. (If you want to write REALLY well, keep them out of your supporting cast too).

You know who I mean: 

•  The Big Oaf

• The Cheerleader/Athlete

• The Warrior Princess

• The New Girl

• The Bad Boy

• The Geek

• The Sage

• The Chauvinist

• The Mustache-Twirling Villain

• The list goes on…

If you want to use a variation on any of these characters, give them a paradoxical quality. Otherwise, they’re about as interesting as…anything you’ve already seen a million times before. 

Surprise people. 

I saw a novel once about a narcoleptic detective. What the what? 

There’s NOTHING cliché about that possibility. 

Take the normal, and brainstorm like mad.

• Gregory House, MD. The brilliant medical-puzzle-solver...and egocentric drug addict.

• Jason Bourne. Robert Ludlum’s CIA-programmed black-ops human weapon who is capable of love and regret.

• Valkyrie. Steven James’s villain genius who values both “the game” and the sanctity of life.

• Ron Swanson. The steak-devouring man’s man who hates the government but works a government job—and who’s as loyal a friend as you could ever need.

• Samwise Gamgee. A quiet gardener and trustworthy friend with more courage and faith than Sauron sees coming.

• Miss Skeeter. Kathryn Stockett’s spunky red-headed writer who cares more about befriending the help than finding a husband in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi.

• Abbey Sciuto. Ridiculously kind and naïve Goth who lives with nuns, sleeps in a coffin, and is both artistic and science-minded.

• Rogue. X-Men’s compassionate and insecure mutant who has the power to suck life from anyone.

• Bones (Temperance Brennan). Brilliant, socially awkward, intensely rational FBI consultant, majorly lacking people skills--but close with her co-workers and capable of strong emotional connection.

• Angela. Christopher Paolini’s quirky herbalist who follows no one’s rules but her own and is FAR more important than anyone thinks. With a weapon cache Chuck Norris would envy.

Let’s go in a different direction now. There are plot devices that have become cliché, too. They pop up all over, but they honestly amount to lazy writing. You’ll recognize them, I’m sure.

• The moment of waking. Sure, your main character will have to wake up sometimes (every morning, no doubt), but don’t feel like you need us to begin every day with her. And if you can, have her wake up in a different setting. Once or two "wake-ups" are more than enough. Choose wisely.

• Introspection while looking in the mirror. I get it. I do. What better moment for your character to take stock of her life? I mean, if she’s already scrutinizing her outward self, why not gaze into the depths of her own soul and analyze who she’s become? (Easy answer: Because someone has to stop the madness.) Let her pick up an old photo or a keepsake. Or use dialogue to trigger her inward journey.

• It was all a dream. Please. Just, no. ESPECIALLY not in the first chapter. Your readers will feel like they've been lied to …because they have. The characters, the world, the motivations—everything they’ve latched onto wasn’t even the real story. You can occasionally use a dream sequence later in the novel, but do it well, and for the Pete of Sake, make it worthwhile.

•  Literally bumping into the love interest. He, of course, helps pick up the items she dropped in the debacle. Your couple-to-be can meet a million other ways. Be creative.

• Finding a bomb with only seconds to spare. As soon as you read this, you're picturing the big, red, digital numbers showing the countdown. Am I right? Whether the bomb gets defused or everyone dives for cover, it's been done so many times that even Bruce Willis would have a hard time making it unique. (Which makes me wonder, how many times has he acted this scenario out?) Maybe that also explains why I gave up on his movies long ago. Too much the same...

•  The prologue. It used to be new and intriguing. A hint of back story in the beginning. These days, it's rarely necessary. Ask yourself whether you can weave in the same details bit by bit as the story progresses. If you can, then the prologue is just lazy. If there is no other way to make the audience aware of something crucial, then go for it. Perhaps a character who has no other POV opportunity wants a moment to speak.

• Flashback. Remember what I said about the prologue? Same deal. Weave in what you can organically, using dialogue, deep POV, or internal thought. And if you must, make sure your transitions to and from are clear and un-clunkified.*

*New word for the day.

You want to be a writer. You ARE a writer. Have fun coming up with your OWN nuances, gestures, and descriptions. Be creative. 

We do this because we love words, right? So even when it's daunting, tackle it. Sculpt your words into a work of art.

This week, we've got another free-edit contest--but this time I'm the one doing the editing. Anyone who comments with another character or plot cliché will be entered to win a five-page edit! 

Looking forward to hearing from you! Thanks for swinging by.

 
                           Thanks to Rileyroxx and Jusben for the pics.

No she didn't!

Last week Bethany talked to you about avoiding cliché phrases and common idioms in your writing. Today, I want to talk about cliché gestures and descriptions. These are the mannerisms that every character has, the physical actions that crop up in every chapter. Another plug for The Emotion Thesaurus. Each emotion entry will give you fresh ways to express the emotion as well as clichés to avoid.

Have you ever read a book where it felt like all the characters did was sit around and smile at each other? He smiled. She smiled back. Everyone grinned until their cheeks hurt, and you, the reader, came away with a migraine. Overuse of smiling is one of the clichés I see in almost every manuscript. It even worms its way into my own during the first draft. 

But that’s why we have second drafts (and third and fourth and . . .). When you’re editing your manuscript, you can use the Find (and the reading highlight) feature of Word to determine how many times you use a particular word or phrase. If you’re a more visual person, or you just don’t know what words to look for, you can use a word cloud like Wordle to show you which words you use the most.

Here are a few more common clichés to look out for:

• The lip biter. God bless him/her. There seems to be (at least) one in every story. Branch out. There are more (read: better) ways to show a person being contemplative/nervous/shy/etc. (Can someone get that memo to Kristen Stewart?)  It's good to give your character a defining mannerism, but make sure it's original and unique to that character. 
  
• The head shake and/or the shrug. Sure, we all do these, but they're just WAY overdone in fiction. Limit yourself to one or less per chapter. And if your chapters are very short . . . way less. 
• The crier. We all know this person in real life. Heck, I am this person in real life. When someone cries ALL THE TIME, it’s easy to just dismiss their emotionalness (yeah, I made that one up). You want your characters’ tears to mean something. So, let them express hurt/anger/sadness in other ways as well so that when they do cry, the reader really feels their pain instead of rolling their eyes. Usually if the character is crying, the reader isn't, and you want the reader to be crying.
• The woman who gets “weak in the knees” after a kiss. I mean, really? REALLY? No she didn’t. That’s not a real thing.
• Neither is the “electrical jolt” of instant attraction. He touched my hand and I felt sparks. Ugh. Can we not? Please?

Okay, dear readers. Your turn. List the cliché gesture or description that weasels its way into your writing the most. OR . . . share one that drives you crazy when you're reading. 

Avoid Clichés Like the Plague: Words and Phrases...and Idioms

Greetings, writer pals! Two announcements today:

One: We have a winner. One of our delightful commenters has won a free five-page edit! And it's none other than...

Tom Threadgill!

Congrats, Tom! Contact Erynn at alittleredinc@gmail(dot)com to tell her about your work!

Announcement numero dos:

We're starting a new series today on avoiding all sorts of clichés (like the plague).  Today, we'll hit phrases and common idioms that lead to lazy writing. Next week, we'll slam cliché gestures and body language that creep into our characters' interactions. The big finale will knock out the top storytelling clichés.

Let's do this. You want to be a writer. You dream, you plot, you research, and you begin pouring your ideas on paper. Often, the first draft is more about story. You may have some wicked beautiful phrasing in there, there may be places your voice sings, but--odds are--not so many. In fact, it's fairly likely that, in order to keep the story going, you'll take some shortcuts. I know I do. How many of you are doing NaNoWriMo this month? It pays to turn off that Internal Editor and  just write while ideas are flowing.

As long as you turn your IE back on for the second lap. 

Let's look at a few things you can target to seek and destroy as you run back through.

First, lazy words.    Went. Looked. Turned. Gasped. Sighed. 

You can always do better than these. Ask yourself these questions (and avoid answering them by merely adding adverbs).

Went: 

• By what means? Air? Car? Boat? On foot? Crazy local taxi?
• How fast? Did they jet? Race? Speed? Slice? Stroll? Careen?
• If walking, with what purpose/attitude? Were they ambling? Strolling? Sneaking? Skulking?  

Looked: 

• Do you mean appeared or seemed? (He looked angry?) If so, show, don't tell. 
• Do you mean someone physically turned their head and eyed something? If yes, then use the following questions.
• How long did they look? Were they glancing? Observing? 
• How intensely did they look? Did they gaze? Eye? Peruse? Pore over?
• Why were they looking? Studying? Ogling? Lusting? Memorizing? 

Turned: 

• Were they twirling, like Meg Ryan and her mother in You've Got Mail? Because that's precious.
• Did he spin and face his enemy? Did he swing his head to meet her gaze? 
• Were they in a car? Were they veering? Cranking the wheel? Easing? Bearing right?
• Were we talking about lights or music? Switched on? Cranked up? Muted? Dialed back?

Gasped and sighed:

• All I can say about these is that they're overdone. Similar questions might help. Knowing why someone needs to inhale or exhale and what they're truly conveying in that moment is key. If you've got to use them, limit yourself SEVERELY. Once or twice per book? There are other, more unique things your characters can do to express shock, relief, fatigue, or frustration. Find 'em and use 'em. Next week's post will help. 

Second, phrases and idioms. These are so commonly used that they just roll off our tongues. They're the phrases that you can pull right out of the air or right off the top of your head. But we can get carried away using them, and we need to learn to think outside of the box. At the end of the day, as writers, the words you choose matter.

See what I did there? Doesn't that make you almost go ballistic? 

Often, taking something familiar and tweaking it to put it in the language of your character's hobbies, skill sets, likes, and personality will do the trick.

One of my heroines is a musician in a dangerous relationship. Rather than thinking of her boyfriend's mood swings changing like the weather, she thinks:  

In an single beat, there was discord where there'd been harmony.

I've got a baseball player who's had enough of his sister's excuses. In the middle of a serious moment, he wants the truth to register with her. But he doesn't say that. He thinks:

If I could get her out of this slump...

Whenever you see clichés in your prose, get yourself deep into the mind and motives of your characters. If you understand why or how the actions are playing out, chances are, Writer-friend, that you can come up with a much better word or phrase.  

After all, you're a logophile, right?

Now, in the comments, hit me with one of these: 1) a cliché or two that you see all the time (and hate), or 2) a line from a favorite book (or your original work!) where the character's voice has been well-wielded to avoid cliché.  

Thanks for swinging by!
 
                          And thanks to A Syn and ADoseofShipBoy for the images.