• Other genres have their cliché aspects too

_Nafia

The only aspect of paranormal which is excessively cliché is the werewolf genre. But I won’t be focusing on it since it has been discussed so many times to the point a number of you are already aware of how cliché it is.

The very first cliché I am aware of in fantasy is the use of dreams at the beginning.

A lot of fantasy novels start with a dream.

This is right and so, so, wrong in lots of ways.

First of all, the reader has no idea what kind of person your MC is, neither do they know what is normal for them. Imagine writing about a psychotic or unique character and she/he wakes up from that dream to behave in a way the reader does not expect . . . I mean in a bad way.

For example, their behaviour might then come off as unrealistic or dumb and this in turn can annoy readers, chasing them away from your novel.

I had this same experience. Remember one of the previous chapters about wrong book titles? The novel started with the girl running away from her friend who was a killer and I became seriously annoyed at the MC’s train of thoughts, which I found abnormal. Who in their right mind would be focused on discovering something instead of running away from a pursuing killer?

The problem was this writer did not establish the character before throwing the reader into a dream-like or flashback prologue. Not all writers are skilled enough to establish a solid character in the very beginning, so you have to avoid this kind of cliché as much as possible. When you want to start a fantasy or paranormal novel, please do not start with a dream. It has been done to the point of exhaustion and you won’t be doing yourself any favours.

Another kind of cliché is the start of prologues. This is actually different from the above which dealt with dreams. This one is about flashbacks. Yes, it’s different from dreams and this one has its own problem too.

You see, there are prologues I have seen which serve no purpose to the story. I finish the novel and end up thinking; what was the prologue even for? If it was a trauma, the author was able to introduce it smoothly in the story, so why did they write it in the prologue. A lot of readers skip most prologues as they find it unnecessary; as a lot of novels have shown. I am personally considering removing mine but I have been dissuaded from that.

A lot of prologues I have seen here on wattpad are mostly flashbacks which you think serves to introduce the character or show their origin, but in most cases, it does not. Especially when handled poorly, it backfires. Why include something like that in the prologue when you can introduce it later on in the story?

In worse scenarios, the writer won’t even be clear on which character they are writing about. So, most readers just assume it’s the main character when sometimes it might not even be the case.

Please, if you see or notice that your novel will still be understandable and solid without that petty prologue, remove it! Enough novels start with prologues already.

Don’t look at me. I’m making sure my future works don’t have prologues too TwT. I am halfway innocent.

Another cliché is the use of vampires and werewolves. There is nothing bad in writing about them but it is a problem how excessively severe it has become. It seems all you people know about werewolves and vampires are sexy fangs, sexy chest muscles, sexy abs, sexy down there and sexy hair. Is this all you can actually piss out of your brain whenever you hear the word vampire or werewolf? If not handled well, this is a deadly trap you can fall into. Because if you haven’t noticed, majority of vampire and nearly all werewolf novels involve a girl or woman falling in love with these . . . creatures under similar circumstances . . . as if you cannot even bother to find a better use for these horrifying creatures.

I mean, sure. Sexy them up, drip oil on their bulging muscles, smack some label on them and we’re good to go. Please, avoid these if you can. There are many amazing supernatural creatures you can sexy up or even many that don’t need to be romanticised. No, I am not talking about fairies or fae. Oh, yes. A lot of you are also fond of demons along with the two mentioned above. It isn’t bad but the most disgusting thing—really, it’s disgusting—is when these creatures fall in love with the female for no apparent reason and you put up a silly plot armour that “she’s the special chosen girl”

In case you are not aware, every woman is special in their own way. Next time, kindly specify what he saw in her that he “didn’t” see in other women. Or at least give the two a reasonable motive for sticking together. Dropping the woman because it was predestined by you, miss author, is a bit lazy.

There is nothing more unnerving than seeing this overused line;

I don’t know why I feel this way about her. She is nothing like the other women I’ve met.
Reader’s thought: Isn’t she similar to those other women you’ve met?

Another cliché is trilogies. There is nothing against this but I have discovered that a lot of you write sequels and even more sequels for no apparent reason. I know. Just because you loved your characters too much to let them go is not an apparent reason to continue a freaking book that already ended. IT IS TERRIBLE!!!!!!

The worst is with romance. To be freaking honest, the only romance sequel a lot of people will read will be about other characters. We have seen them fall in love so why are you writing another sequel? Did you hate them and decide they will divorce in the next novel? Fantasy and paranormal genres are no exception to this. Apart from the romance aspect, some of you needlessly prolong the plot just for the sake of a sequel. In case you are not aware, things like these are fairly obvious to your readers if not blatant. Your readers are people. People are human beings. Human beings are not dumb!

Another cliché is MC not being aware of the fantasy world. Of course, my novel also falls in this criteria. When doing this, ask yourself why? Why are humans not aware of the other worlds? Is it because you have seen other novels like that? My answer is yes, I have seen other novels like that and I found it cool. But I did place boundaries as to why worlds wouldn’t know of one another except for a few, but that doesn’t shake the fact that my novel would have had more diversity if the world had been open to others. So please, keep this in mind when you are writing.

Another cliché is ELVES. I nearly fell into this pit but decided to leave that race out of my novel. Toooooooooo many books have done this and if you lack the creativity to make them diverse unlike any people have ever heard of or seen, try to avoid this when writing. You are writing Fantasy for heaven’s sake. FANTASY. Do you know what that means?! You get to create your own creatures and races.

Elves are overused and nothing is actually wrong with using them, but most readers wouldn’t be eager to read novels focused on the oh-so-common elves they have been reading about right from when they were kids. But if you still want to stick with this, I have nothing to say except make sure you have a damn unique plot that would appeal to readers.

Another cliché is prophesying. I cannot count the number of fantasy novels I keep coming across where the MC was “prophesised” about the great harm that would befall their city, or themselves, or their tragic life or the quest they will follow on their journey. If you want to use this, you are free. But just keep in mind that this has been done A LOT.

There are a few more out there I can’t recall but the problem you people have is using and using and using all these creatures over and over and over again. It is agonizing. Even when you do use these creatures, you do not even try to make their story unique or change their lore to fit your novel in any way. Fantasy, supernatural, paranormal. THESE ARE GENRES WHERE YOU CAN GO CRAZY WITH CREATIVITY. WHY ARE YOU LIMITING YOURSELVES?!

But there can be exceptions.

A lot of people have different opinions and even if you still desire to write about elves, dragons, vampires, werewolves, and fairies, avoid archetypes. The things I mentioned above. ADD TWISTS and stop doing the same annoying old thing. There is still nothing wrong with using them, but I will still repeat it is sickening how your plots follow each other like the world is populated by direct siblings.

In other words.

No one is going to read your book simply because it has vAmPiReS or WeReWoLvEs in it. So please do not write based on such a flimsy reason.