Do Not Rinse, Just Repeat

[Scygnus Darkhawk]

I'm sure most of us have read a fic from a certain fandom, with a certain pairing, and thought it was rather good. Then, the next time we look for other fics with that fandom and pairing, we find another, and it seems pretty good as well. Then another, and another... but by the fourth or fifth one, you begin to realize... THEY'RE ALL THE SAME! :headbanger:

Now, I haven't read that very much lately from other than here, so I don't remember what other series it might apply to, but my particularly on-the-brain beef at the moment is with Inuyasha canon couple fics.

Now, I'm an Inuyasha fan, though I understand it's lost favor since its conception due to Rumiko Takahashi's penchant for repeating herself; I've only seen up to episode 24, so there's still some novelty at this point.

I must've read, over the past year or three, ten or twenty Inu/Kag fics of various quality and length. It's a pairing I like, and the series has interesting and amusing characters. But the overwhelming majority of those happen in the exact same manner; they get in trouble, confession, screw like minks, mating marks, wedding, eeeeeeetttttccccceeeetttteeeerrrrraaaaa...


WHY!? Why can't anyone come up with a more interesting and original idea and write it well!? Honestly!

I'm thinking about doing it myself, and I have an idea, but it's lemonish, so if I post it, it'll be over there... I may not, but here's the basis... by somewhat of a dues ex machina method, Tentacle Demon Kagome.

So, someone else, please, point out another, and lets see if we can't start reforming made-of-cliche fics!

C'mon, somebody toss out a cliche!

 

[Mereo Flere]

Everything is a clichÚ. Even me.

I'm a walking clichÚ, to be honest.

Still...originality, or what passes for it anyway, is hard to come by simply because it is original.

 

[sigfried27]

episode 24 huh...be prepared for many, many fillers, all essentially the same thing: Shippo falling for some young girl and fighting a weak demon, Miroku and Sango intearctions that are all the exact same, etc...

But all that aside, the fact is that a great deal of fanfiction is written by pre-teens or early teen year ages. They lack any form of originality and creativity, and as such, all you will ever find is "canon" pairings, especially in a fandom such as Inuyasha where kids that age flood the section with their crap.

 

[runestar]

The inuyasha manga seems to looping round the same premise - Inuyasha encounters a powerful foe, finds some way to enhance his sword, then meets a more powerful foe...In between, insert the eternal triangle between him, Kagome and Kikyo. The other cast members seem to have been sidelined. Occasionally, Naraku appears, does battle for a while, then escapes.

While the past few issues did reveal some twists, like Kikyo's demise, the revelation that Kohaku cannot be raised by Tenseiga, which only works once, appearance of Sessh's mother, etc, I find that the plot is just moving along too slowly for a story that should have ended 20+ volumes ago. <_<

 

[Scygnus Darkhawk]

Yes yes, we all know Rumiko Takahashi's work sort of peters out into repitition after a while. But that's not what I wanted, I wanted to hear some fanfiction cliches that are all-too-common. So I can help tear them down with something original... I feel like having ideas tonight :sweat:

 

[Mereo Flere]

Love Hina.

Motoko and Keitaro lose the fight and get hitched.

That's probably one of the more famous ones, honestly.

 

[MnemoD]

I find that offensive, Sigfried.

I strive for original, if not at least NEW things when I write.

Though, that comes as a problem as I discontinue most of my fics due to a loss of muse, or interest.

Though, I've never written Inuyasha fanfiction, unless you count my one Self Insert that wasn't a mary-sue, but it was more a fic on my character with the other characters as side characters. (Yes, my first stupid fic.)

 

[sigfried27]

I find that offensive, Sigfried.

I strive for original, if not at least NEW things when I write.

Though, that comes as a problem as I discontinue most of my fics due to a loss of muse, or interest.

Though, I've never written Inuyasha fanfiction, unless you count my one Self Insert that wasn't a mary-sue, but it was more a fic on my character with the other characters as side characters. (Yes, my first stupid fic.)

If you are fishing for an apology, then you are out of luck. The fact of the matter is that a large majority of these cliched stories are done by the younger writers. Almos everything has exceptions, and this is no different, but for the vast majority, youner writers write more cliched ideas because after reading a story they like, they want to do their own spin on it, which usually only changes one small aspect. Besides, I am admitedly a bit of a bastard, so offending people is nothing new, I have done it plenty in one of my stories and in many reviews I leave.

All that aside, for cliched ideas, any large section on FFnet will have plenty that are not difficult to find. The main example I would know of is the Naruto section, and all the many cliched fics about Naruto being an overpowered genius all along, or being dark all along, or being exiled from the village and coming back ridiculously strong, etc...

 

[Dubrichius]

One of the more common Ranma clichÚs is that Akane cracks a major wobbly when she discovers that Ryoga and P-chan are one and the same. Another biggie that I've seen is that Ranma decides to run away from all of his problems, in some misdirected idea of becoming independent. That one occurs almost as many times in Harry Potter fan fiction too.

A big Evangelion clichÚ is that people will return from the ocean of LCL after Third Impact. That ain't never gonna happen, 'cause they're less than dead, they've been reduced to the stuff that you find at the bottom of a Pot Noodle.

 

[runestar]

Love Hina.

Motoko and Keitaro lose the fight and get hitched.

That's probably one of the more famous ones, honestly.

Yeah, that was really popular some time back, though the craze seems to have died down somewhat, or maybe its just my lack of exposure to the fanfiction scene speaking...

 

[Lord Raa]

I know what you all mean.

I find that most fandoms have been innundated with copycrap fics where someone originally had a great idea and they've been ripped off to some degree.

I suppose that I'm lucky in that people haven't ripped of my ideas, though I'm pretty sure that I had the first FMP/Ranma fic. And there weren't too many Ranma/GPX or Ranma/FMA fics before I started mine....


Hmm.

It's a damning indictment on the state of writing if I'm forging the way with original fic ideas.

 

[Jakkun]

Naruto has become filled with timetravel fics where he replaces his past self. That actually branched from Ranma, that has two or three fics that do that. There are three fics, that I know of, called Second Chances. That is how unoriginal it has become, they can't even make a unique name.

I know I have some unique ideas, which I doubt I will ever turn into full fledged stories so they can be copied over and over again.

 

[Fatuous One]

Naruto has become filled with timetravel fics where he replaces his past self. That actually branched from Ranma, that has two or three fics that do that. There are three fics, that I know of, called Second Chances. That is how unoriginal it has become, they can't even make a unique name.

Uhm... No.

Time travel/future self replacing past self fics didn't 'branch' from Ranma. It's merely an idea that's common enough that it gets used in at times. Sort of like how there's almost always fics that have a 'what if' scenario of the main character being born the opposite gender and the like.

They're popular enough ideas that they get adapted to various fandoms, but they certainly didn't originate from those places. Likely, they first began in original works, although none really comes to mind.


Honestly, I have no problems with clichÚs. So long the writing quality is decent enough, the same idea can be worked through and be a different experience reading. Of course, if you run into mediocre writing then it's likely to be boring anyway, so it doesn't matter if the material is clichÚd or not.

 

[PCHeintz72]

Naruto has become filled with timetravel fics where he replaces his past self. That actually branched from Ranma, that has two or three fics that do that. There are three fics, that I know of, called Second Chances. That is how unoriginal it has become, they can't even make a unique name.

Uhm... No.

Time travel/future self replacing past self fics didn't 'branch' from Ranma. It's merely an idea that's common enough that it gets used in at times. Sort of like how there's almost always fics that have a 'what if' scenario of the main character being born the opposite gender and the like.

They're popular enough ideas that they get adapted to various fandoms, but they certainly didn't originate from those places. Likely, they first began in original works, although none really comes to mind.


Honestly, I have no problems with clichÚs. So long the writing quality is decent enough, the same idea can be worked through and be a different experience reading. Of course, if you run into mediocre writing then it's likely to be boring anyway, so it doesn't matter if the material is clichÚd or not.

Agreed, Time travel is hardly from just Ranma. It is present in many fan fiction catagories.

The thing with cliches, it only rarely is a bother for me to read them in moderation. Cliches are not all bad or senseless. The problem is when a story is made of nothing but cliches, good or bad, but especially bad ones.

 

[Lord Raa]

I agree that cliched ideas can work, we've seen skilled authors use them for great comic effect.

However, when does a novel idea become a cliche?

I fear that the answer to that is as soon as someone else uses the idea....

Which means that not only is fanfiction the biggest deus ex machina of all time, but it's also the biggest user of cliches.


Or perhaps my cynicism gland just needs to be emptied.

 

[Alzrius]

Just avoid the obvious pairing is one way to sidestep a lot of cliches in fanfiction. While there's more to do, that's a big one right there.

But honestly, I'd rather read a cliched fic that was very well written instead of an original idea that was written poorly. A good author can make any idea work, if they try hard enough.

 

[sigfried27]

Just avoid the obvious pairing is one way to sidestep a lot of cliches in fanfiction. While there's more to do, that's a big one right there.

Not necessarily true. A lot of people write essentialy the same story that has been around for a while, and then just change the pairing to something less commomn and believe that their story is original.

 

[Lord Raa]

Just avoid the obvious pairing is one way to sidestep a lot of cliches in fanfiction. While there's more to do, that's a big one right there.

Not necessarily true. A lot of people write essentialy the same story that has been around for a while, and then just change the pairing to something less commomn and believe that their story is original.

Yes, I agree.

I could a "Ranma is pissed off and about to leave Nerima" fic three times and change the pairing for each version, but that wouldn't make them original.

Of course, that would also offend my own sensibilities - I like to try new things with each fic.

I don't always succeed, but hey, that's just how it goes sometimes.

 

[Scygnus Darkhawk]

Motoko/Keitaro marrige after losing the fight... I think hawker handled that pretty well in Loss and Redemption, doing it, reversing it, and then turning it back around again. Actually kept you in a little suspense, even if it was still obvious where it was going...

Naruto comes back stronger, or has a dark side, or something else, hmm... here's an idea... Naruto goes away, but while he's away, something happens and he decides to give up violence and become a pacifist... and comes back to run his own ramen stand or take over running Ichikaru's(sp?) so the old man can retire. Could be interesting enough, I think, at least for the reactions of the other characters, and the village... ^_^

Ranma... it's been done to death, period. I think what they meant by it branching from Ranma is that it happened there first, and that's where they got the idea from.

 

[Alzrius]

Just avoid the obvious pairing is one way to sidestep a lot of cliches in fanfiction. While there's more to do, that's a big one right there.

Not necessarily true. A lot of people write essentialy the same story that has been around for a while, and then just change the pairing to something less commomn and believe that their story is original.

Hence why I said there's more to do.

At some point you have to sort of take it on faith that someone who wants to write an original fic isn't going to take the path of least originality.

 

[toraneko]

Every cliche is cliche cliche.

No, actually, I mean, everything is cliche these days.

Especially being cliche.

...NO, wait, that isn't what I mean either. Let me start over.


I've heard that, in total, there are only 20 different plots ever dreamed up in any story, period, and every work is just a retread and/or a mixture of those.

Originality shouldn't be the sole focus, because you're bound to be disappointed. Only concern yourself with doing it well, doing it your way, and doing it right. I find that the presentation and execution of prose is the only thing that really can be original.

...okay, now I lost that train of thought. Dammit. :sweat:

 

[Jakkun]

Naruto comes back stronger, or has a dark side, or something else, hmm... here's an idea... Naruto goes away, but while he's away, something happens and he decides to give up violence and become a pacifist... and comes back to run his own ramen stand or take over running Ichikaru's(sp?) so the old man can retire. Could be interesting enough, I think, at least for the reactions of the other characters, and the village...? ^_^

Ranma... it's been done to death, period. I think what they meant by it branching from Ranma is that it happened there first, and that's where they got the idea from.

That is exactly what I meant with it starting with Ranma. The first Naruto timetravel author was inspired by a Ranma fic. His story inspired the rest and it got out of hand. Most use the same method of time travel too. It's always Kyuubi doing some jutsu. It happens when leaf is getting their ass beat by sound, or when Naruto is dying from fighting Sasuke in the VoTE.

Naruto quitting being a ninja and being a ramen chef has been done. It doesn't happen during his training trip though. But he's just a ramen chef!

There are 36 plots, and I think someone made up like 2 or 3 more.

 

[sigfried27]

I thought about "But he's just a ramen chef" too when I read that idea, it is pretty much the same thing, only in that story, he is not entirely a pacifist as he is still willing to fight people should the need arise. Then again, it depends on how much of a pacifist SD meant when he gave that idea.

 

[Scygnus Darkhawk]

I dunno, I was just trying to kill the cliche. Reading the first part of that one you linked, my thinking was a bit different in that it would be more within canon instead of a complete re-make. A sudden personality shift rather than a different starting placement... not to mention that the way they described that Naruto seems like an entirely different character...

And as far as I was thinking, the only fighting he would be doing, or even involved in, would be using the Power of the Wooden Spoon.

Emo Boy: *gets pissed, starts charging Chidori*

*BOP!*

Naruto: No fighting!

Sasugay: Ow! That hurt you damn moro-

*BOP!*

Naruto: And no yelling either! Unless it's shouts of happiness or praise for my cooking.

Sasugay: But-!

Naruto: *raises spoon*

Sasugay: *sigh* *walks away to mope*

Naruto: Now, who ordered the Deluxe Spicy?


Might have to toss in threats of Four-Element Unseal to deal with anyone else that might decide to screw with him. I haven't read that far, but the Akatsuki wanted Kyuubi, right? Okay! Take it! That would probably deter most opponents.

Just an idea, and I don't like Naruto that much, so I probably won't ever write it... though it really could be amusing... might add it to the idea pile for later.