User blog:Banned In CP/Creepy Cliches Continued: How to Use Cliches

Firstly, I'd just like to mention that you should probably read the first Creepy Cliches article. It will help you to know what to avoid in your writing, but it may also give you some inspiration as well.

Also, to give some credit where credit is due, I was inspired to write this post after watching Terrible Writing Advice's video on using cliches. (Also, my apologies for not having the "e" accented, I don't know how to do that on my keyboard.) I highly suggest watching his video, and also checking out his other stuff as well, as he does have some pretty useful tips and examples of what NOT to do. Bookish Pixie also posts some good stuff, so go check her out.

Now that you've read the first article and hopefully watched some videos, let's talk about the actual use of cliches. In the video, Terrible Writing Advice sets up a systematic way to handle the use of cliches. And that is:
 * 1) Identify the cliche.
 * 2) Figure out what the cliche tries to communicate.
 * 3) Either keep the cliche, subvert it, or replace it.

Identifying the Cliche
This should be pretty easy, as I gave a link to a whole list of CreepyPasta cliches, for various kinds of CreepyPastas. Also, you should actually read CreepyPastas. Or listen to narrations on YouTube, has about the same effect. If you go the listening route, I'd suggest that you start with Mr. CreepyPasta and CreepsMcPasta.

It also wouldn't be a bad idea to read the Marked for Review pastas, as those tend to be the ones with the most apparent cliches, and you can learn what NOT to do. Also, read the classic CreepyPastas. They're the CP's that EVERYONE knows about, and the ones that EVERYONE copies. These stories made the CP cliches. If you don't know the classics, then you should probably spend some more time becoming familiar with the community before posting here. To help you out if you are unfamiliar with them, here's some links for you to read up on:

Slender Man

Jeff the Killer

The Rake (One of the few monsters that actually still creeps me out to this day)

The Russian Sleep Experiment

BEN Drowned

Smile Dog

Squidward's Suicide

The Rugrats Theory

Candle Cove

Ted the Caver

Okay, so you've read some classic CP's, and were probably exaserbated by how poorly written some of them were (*coughcough jeffthekiller coughcough*). Great! Now you're even further on the way to not writing the same CreepyPasta that people have been reading and writing for years!

Next!

What Is This Cliche Trying to Communicate?
I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time discussing this step, so I would recommend watching the video to get a better understanding on this. However, I will say that I do encourage you to use somewhat-cliche expressions, as it helps to make the reader feel connected to the story, and it also adds a realistic element to it. But don't go crazy with it, as then you just sound like a cheesey try-hard. Use cliched expressions when they are the best way to express something so that the narrative or dialogue doesn't feel stiff and robotic.

Assessing the Cliche
Before I continue: I don't suggest keeping a cliche as-is, as is mentioned in TWA's video. And if you do decide to do it, you better do a damn well job of it. Like, on the level of J.K. Rowling. (Don't deny it, she uses a LOT of cliches. "You're the Chosen One, Harry!" "The prophecy predicted this!" "Only YOU can kill the evil overlord who somehow keeps getting more followers despite having no strategy for enticing people to join!")

Now, say you are writing a cliche. Let's take an example from the original Creepy Cliches post. Let's use No. 19, in which the protagonist is writing the story in their last moments. (Usually made clear at the beginning of the story, which I do not suggest.) I choose this one because I myself have a story in the makes about a guy who is writing the story as he is facing imminent death. I knew that this was cliche, but I chugged along anyways (it's written, just needs to revised a bit for mood/tone improvements).

WHY!? Every writer who's ever looked up writing advice knows not to use cliches EVER. EVER EVER EVER EVER!!!!!

Well, once again Terrible Writing Advice comes to the rescue! (Though I did already know this beforehand). Cliches are just fine to use. Nothing wrong with using them. If done right. There's a reason a trope becomes a cliche. The reason is that the same formula is used over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. And once more for the people in the back: AND OVER AGAIN. Think about all the movies and TV shows and books you've read/watched that have, say, an evil villain who must be stopped at once because he's evil! Or, how about: YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE AND ONLY YOU CAN STOP THE EVIL BABY KILLERS BECAUSE THE PROPHECY SAID SO LIKE A MILLION YEARS AGO BECAUSE MAGIC.

A lot, right?

Boooring! No, when using a cliche, it's all about the spin. The individual flair that you as a writer add to the cliche to make it unique. Or, like some tropes that become cliches due to stupidity, you actually make a reason for the cliche to be there in the first place. Let's discuss some methods to make cliches be okay to use.

Patching Up Logical Fallacies
To go back to the example earlier, in my story, the narrator is writing about his experience even though death is soon approaching. But why is this trope a cliche? Because: Who in their right mind would write about what happened when they should be more worried about survivng? Also, usually this trope is executed with the gaping logic hole that there would be many ways to escape, and that there would be many ways to ask for help, like calling the police. So, knowing this, I made the situation to where the narrator literally has no physical means of escape, no internet access, and no cell reception. Oh, and also there's no chance of survival because the monsters are ginormous and literally chewed apart a mini van. And there's a whole pack of them (it's a pack of giant spooky wolves). So let's break down what I did:
 * 1) I identified the cliche.
 * 2) I thought about what made it a cliche, and why it usually doesn't work.
 * 3) I made it so that there would be as few logical holes in the trope as I could.

Now, let's try a different method.

Adding a Flair
This one is pretty simple to do. All you have to do is just change or add something to or about the cliche that makes it different from the mountains of other instances where the trope was used. Again, I'll use an example that I myself have used this with. In my story I Love the Rain, I write from the perspective of a serial killer. Also, it's a micropasta describing the way the narrator likes to kill. There's probably like 20 septillion CreepyPastas with the same idea and the same format. And probably the same length, too, as it only took a few minutes to write and proofread.

Once again, I recognized the presence of a cliche here. So, as in the previous technique, I assessed the cliche, and thought about the staples of that particular cliche. So, what were they? Hmm. We've got something to work with here. Now that we've identified the cliche and figured out what has already been done a million times, we know what we could tweak around with. So what did I do? Well, here's what I changed to make it more unique for some comparison: See? That wasn't so bad. Now we have a story that doesn't just rip off jeff the Killer or any other "Jeff-inspired" killers. There's--GASP--thought put into it!
 * Male. Tall and menacing, probably.
 * Just runs around and kills people in their sleep.
 * Has no strategy, just relies on brute strength and their terrifying (and probably impossible) appearance.... *coughcoughJEFF*
 * Female. Short and small.
 * Actually waits to kill people, not just willy-nilly (as that would be the best route to prison!).
 * Uses a very specific strategy for not getting caught: Waits until there is so much rain that visibilty and hearing drops, thus reducing the risk factor quite a bit.
 * She also uses a chemical-saturated rag to subdue her victims, thus only having to rely on strength for a short amount of time. She then ties them up in a trunk and takes them out in the middle of nowhere so that nobody will know about, you know, the murder and shit.
 * She also doesn't show her face or have some terrifying appearance. She just uses a dust mask to hide part of her face.

Flip the Cliche on Its Head
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Take a giant steaming shit on the reader's expectations for how the cliche is going to turn out. Maybe the chosen one who has no flaws ends up realizing that theyve been fighting for the same side the whole time. Or maybe the scary monster is trying to protect you from something even scarier, or just wants to be friends, but is misunderstood by the narrator because of the monster's appearance. There was one Pasta that I read a few years ago that did this, but I don't remember the name of it, nor do I really remember the major plot points. But it is doable!

Now, for the easiest remedy:

Erase the Cliche
Exactly as it says: give your cliche the boot. Just scrap the trope altogether and either leave the story without it or just change the plot point altogether. I haven't really used this practice much myself, mostly because I really like to tweak my stories and characters to make them unique. But if all else fails, don't feel too bad about just removing it altogether. Especially if the trope is just stupid to begin with. In fact, I feel so compelled to list the CreepyPasta tropes one should never use, that I will! And you better read it, because the internet does NOT need any more of these!

ALL of these can all be seen on the original Creepy Cliches post, but I'll give them the Spotlight of Idiocy anyways, just for emphasis.
 * 1) Telling the reader that it's true. Well, no shit, Sherlock! As the reader, we automatically implement this magical thing called Suspension of Disbelief, in which we read the story as if it were true! By telling us to believe it, you just bring attention to the fact that it isn't real, and then you've ruined the effect. So... NO.
 * 2) Judeo-Christian themes. Uh, only scary if you actually are a Christian. And no, not everyone is. To non-Christians, signs of the Devil and shit is just laughable, because to us it has no plausibility. Not to mention that it's been used as a scare tactic for CENTURIES. Just. Make. Your. Own. Fucking. Monster. Oh, but you ask, "But Banned In CP, if it's not a good idea to use Judeo-Christian ideology to try to scare people, then why is it good to draw from other religions and folklores?" A valid question. And the reason is simple: In the West, we haven't been over-exposed to it out the ass, so it still holds a level of intrigue and mysteriousness. Plus, it probably means that the author actually had to do some research, which isn't really necessary for a story about the Devil popping out of the toilet or some shit. I take that back. The Devil popping out of a toilet would be a pretty funny read. But you get my point. No Devil. No 666. No Beelzebub. Maybe Hell. Maybe.
 * 3) The story/image being cursed. Just... no.
 * 4) File extensions. Maybe scary the first time. Maybe creepy the second time. Maybe spooky the third time. But just downright laughable the fourth time. And you know damn well there are more than four of these kinds of Pastas. We don't need more.
 * 5) Referencing CreepyPastas. This just reminds the reader that the story is itself a CreepyPasta and nothing to be feared. However, it is perfectly fine to reference monsters from non-CP sources, like Stephen King or Clive Barker. That actually makes it seem like you're well read, and doesn't remind the reader that it's a CreepyPasta. Because you're not referencing a CreepyPasta. Also, don't think this means it's okay to make spin-offs of Cujo or Necroscope. Totally unoriginal. Totally not interesting.
 * 6) Cleverbot. Pretty sure if Cleverbot was sentient, the scientific community would have shit their pants and told the whole world. I mean, hell, real AI robots that actually can learn aren't hidden away from the public. Just look it up.
 * 7) Newspaper clips. Overused, that's all there is to it. Unless, of course, the newspaper coverage actually contributes to the plot and isn't just a 2Edgy4M3_RAWRXD exposition filler.
 * 8) Don't turn around. Don't go there, because it is completely and utterly based in impossibility.
 * 9) Video Game Pastas. Please, please, please don't write one. They're the bane of CP existence. Nobody finds Pokepastas scary anymore. Not to mention thet they're BANNED FROM THE SITE.
 * 10) Lost Episode pastas. Not scary anymore. Find something else.
 * 11) Theory pastas. Better be damned compelling. And no, one of the characters being insane doesn't count. Just stay away from writing them altogether.

Review

 * Use Terrible Writing Advice's process to determine what to do with a cliche in your writing. Also watch his video.
 * Remember that cliches aren't necessarily a bad thing--if done right.
 * Become familiar with the cliches of your genre.
 * Identify the cliche.
 * Assess the cliche.
 * Decide the best route to go from there.
 * Don't use tropes like evil Pokemon trying to kill you or some stupid shit like that.
 * Jeff the Killer is a terrible Pasta. God, I can't believe I thought it was good way back in 2013.