Writers' Workshop

Cliche Killers: Your very boring start

Wimbug presents...

Welcome one and all to Cliche Killers. We've been promising this for a while and, finally, for your entertainment, here it is.

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What are cliches? Seriously? You're asking that? Cliches are overused ideas/phrasings/character development/description that makes a story look like you've read it a million times before. Do you want that? OF COURSE NOT!

No one wants to be boring and uncreative!

Note: there is a different between cliches and tropes. What's a trope? A broad, general idea most writing is based on. I think it was stated that there are 7 original plot ideas in literature (Shakespear used them all) and that the rest are basically tropes of that.

Using a trope is inevitable. But again, it's a very broad idea and you can sink your personal voice into it and make it your own. More on this in a future chapter about cliches vs tropes.

Right, back to your beautiful story start and how it's an unbearable cliche.

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No. 1 - Wake me up before you go go

I wake up with a start and take in my pale blue room. Even if I'm a girl, my room is blue because I'm a special snowflake. Now let's spend the remainder of chapter one on my boring morning routine.

So I get up and go to the bathroom where I shower and brush my teeth. Then I pick out my outfit for the first day of school because it's very important. I'll probably pick something emo or hipster because I'm a special snowflake.

Then I comb my *insert color and texture* hair and gaze at my *insert color* eyes in the mirror and voila! Discretely introduced character description.

Then I go down for breakfast and have a small interaction with the relevant part of my family, after which a friend possibly picks me up or I walk/drive in my beatup car to school. There, I meet my only bff who is annoyingly perky.

I'm going to end this chapter with either heading for class or meeting hot new boy in class.

That should hook everyone!

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See that happy sun? He doesn't give a crap about your morning routine. NO ONE gives a crap about your morning routine. It's a total waste of words.

How many times have you seen that exact execution? Come on, count. I'll wait.

Still waiting...

Still not done counting, are you? Because it's EVERYWHERE. Especially in teen fiction and romance set in high school.

You are the author. The God in your world. Why would you choose to start your story at a point where nothing happens? A wise person once said to start your story once it derives from the mundane. Brushing your teeth does not.

I said it once and I'll say it again. Unless your morning ritual includes sacrificing a small goat to Cthulhu, NO ONE CARES!

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No. 2 - To dream a dream

So I'm in this weird place and some interesting thing happens and all of a sudden... BOOM! It was all a dream.

Um... what?

And now guess what? I have to get to school, so I'm going to go through the steps of No. 1 just for the hell of it.