Cliches I have and have not written

[gehayi]

I'm taking a page from selenek's LJ. penknife had a cliché poll this weekend, asking which clichés people had written. Now, I'll admit that I haven't written many, since these are pairing clichés, and most of my stuff has been gen. But I thought I'd take a look, just the same.

Comments

[shiplizard]

For the purposes of this particular cliche, authorial-forcing counts as 'forced to share a bed.' Trust me. (And I'll admit to it being a well-loved genre of mine.)

[gehayi]

*laughs* I'll take your word for it. (And I rather like it myself.)

[gehayi]

*innocent look* Doesn't everybody?

[quinby]

..... oops.

I've done a few of those. Although, I must admit that the 'had a baby' one is... not exactly cliche if you're telling a story of someone's entire life.

I did write a hilarious pretending to be married one, though, with Sir Anne and Valspar. They had to go undercover in another kingdom to get informatiom, and, it's just hilarious.

[gehayi]

Considering that Sir Anne is married to the princess of her land and that Valspar is the gayest and most reasonable of barbarians, it would be the most beautiful subversion of that plotline ever.

[quinby]

Oh, it was hilarious. Also, consdering they both love to tease each other, it made for some very amusing jokes under their breath. "Well, I'm -someone-'s wife, that's for certain" "Valspar, I wouldn't actually sleep with you if you were the last person on earth." "Good thing there are more people, then, my lady, because I wouldn't sleep with you either."

[lee_rowan]

Valspar? Did you deliberately name him after a brand of paint? What's the book title? It sounds like a lot of fun.

[lee_rowan]

Well, I admit to domesticity in Walking Wounded, but since the whole point was the guys settling in together after years of separation, a trip to the DIY seemed appropriate. And it was mainly to lure the villain out of hiding. But I don't really see this as any more cliche than "First Kiss." Isn't making a home together part of happy-ever-after?

I've actually read a couple of mpregs (Torchwood fanfics) where it worked; but it's in a universe where that's a canon option.

Almost any cliche can be made to work, I think, if the writer does a good enough job. And as for MarySues -- yes, they're a pain in the neck, but I think any writer under about 20 should be given a pass on that. Isn't that how a writer learns to put herself into a story? It's when that's the only sort of story a person can write, and the Sue-ishness never wears off, that it gets tedious. For me the appeal was never being "The Girl the Hero Falls In Love With," but being the hero.

[gehayi]

a trip to the DIY seemed appropriate

What's the DIY? (The AcronymFinder says it stands for Do-It-Yourself, Don't Involve Yourself, and the airport code for Diyarbakia, Turkey. Somehow, none of that fits very well.)

Isn't making a home together part of happy-ever-after?

Er...well, maybe it should be. But most of the time in happy-ever-after stories that I've seen, the story ends on the couple being together, getting married, kissing, and so on--something that ends on a high note which indicates that future joy can be inferred.

The domestic fic that I've seen has mostly been fanfic to show how a couple's relationship is progressing after they get together. Which isn't bad. It's just not something I've seen much of in the romance genre, where the emphasis is so strongly on courtship.

Almost any cliche can be made to work, I think, if the writer does a good enough job.

I'm not convinced of this one.

Back. Sorry, my computer froze and I had to reboot. Here are some examples of books and TV shows containing tropes and clichés that

[lee_rowan]

DIY is Britspeak for the big-box home improvement stores, so your first definition is the one. Turkey would have been interesting, though.

Making cliches interesting... Every single Dick Francis is a get-em, another fannish cliche (beat the hero black & blue so he can struggle valiantly to a triumph). Having a baby... well, it's done sappily more often than not, but I think Lois McMaster Bujold took it well beyond cliche with Cordelia's experience in Barraryar. I think a lot of things become cliche because they're near-universal human experience, so saying X is a cliche and should not be written can diminish the range of what people write about. It's badly-written cliches that are a nuisance.

And I have done 'forced to share a bed,' though it was in an era where that was simply how things were done if accommodations were scarce and a bed had room for more than one occupant.