YA Cliches and Why I Write Them Anyway

 

Anybody who knows me will tell you that I love to research things. Literally, anything. Is Wentworth Miller from Prison Break still dating that cute boy, Kyle something-or-other? (Maybe) Do snapdragons really look like tiny skulls when you dry them out? (yes!) Was there really an ancient order of Assyrian lizard demons that potentially trafficked people for ritual prostitution? (More on that in book two). Where was I going with this? Oh, yes. Research. I love it. So when it came to writing a book, I, of course, researched what made a book great. I took classes, bought books and read blogs. Oh, did I read blogs. I think I’ve pinned every article and blog post ever made about writing a great book. I know you’ve seen the posts: All Professional Writers Use Said, Said is Dead-Other Ways to Write Said, How to Write from a Male POV convincingly, 3 Mistakes You Are Making with Your YA Heroine, 10 Worn out Cliche’s in YA. It goes on and on.

Now, before I say point blank I spit in the face of these articles–metaphorically speaking, of course, spitting is gross, Ew–hear me out. Because I get where these articles are coming from. Sure, as readers, we all want fresh new ideas and something different but the truth is, cliches become cliches because when something consistently works, people continue to do it. I think some of these articles are misguided and can actually keep new writers from taking a chance and writing a truly good story.

My book Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things was born of a single solitary snippet of a dream I had six years ago and eventually grew into a 500 page monster. Had I listened to the articles above I may have become paralyzed by my fear of publishing my story. Here are some of the YA cliches you will unabashedly find in my book…

#1. The Chosen One- Yep, three of my four main characters have been chosen to save the supernatural world they live in. Is it a new premise? No, but my readers have told me they relate to my characters and who wouldn’t want to imagine themselves being ‘the chosen one’.

#2. The prologue- While I didn’t use one in book one, there may be one in book two. I’m doing this in order to bring in the POV of a character who we’ll never hear from again. Will it work? Maybe, maybe not, but in order for me to tell my story they way I want to tell it, I think it’s necessary.

#3. Insta-Love- I don’t know if some people would consider Ember and Mace insta-love. Maybe insta-lust? She sort of hates him and loves him at the same time but a backfired spell binds their magic together which may or may not have led to their feelings for each other accelerating quickly. I’m sort of iffy on whether insta-love works or not. No, I don’t believe a girl and boy will fall for each other the second they lay eyes on each other but I know that my mother knew she was going to marry my father the day they met even though she found him infuriating and my brother and sister-in-law have been married for 36 years and they didn’t even speak the same language. So, is it realistic? I can’t say, but if the story makes me believe it, I’ll suspend my disbelief and happily get swept away.

#4. The Hot Douchey Guy-I definitely have fallen prey to this cliche. I’m sorry, but I like hot guys. Some of my good-looking guys are douchey, some are nice, some are misunderstood. I like to think that my characters are well developed enough for people to understand their motives for their behavior. No, this doesn’t excuse their behavior but there are a lot of people out there who aren’t nice, some of them happen to be good looking. I’m okay with a writer using this cliche if they make them pay for their sins before rewarding their douchetastic behavior. Their karma must catch up with them if they are to be redeemed in my eyes.

#5. The Doormat Girl- I do not believe in writing girls as “weak” or needing a man to fix their problems but I will NOT write every female character as tough because not every female is just as not every male is. A few people thought Ember went with the flow of things too easily. They thought she let other people push her around. They are right. She’s a seventeen year old girl who just found out she has a magical ability that is probably going to kill her. She’s a little freaked out and preoccupied. This is a book series and I wanted people to watch her come into her own. I wanted people to see her get stronger and learn to stand up for herself. But sometimes that doesn’t happen. Some people will always go with the flow and some people will always be bitter, angry or jealous. I want to see characters I believe are real people. I want to care about them or hate them or close the book seething because the author made me love their characters and then took them away. I don’t care about giving me a life lesson as much as I care about making me believe in your characters struggle, whatever that is.

#6 The Brooding Bad Boy – This ties in directly with number five but is a little different. I love this character. I fall for him every time. You know who I’m talking about. Damon from The Vampire Diaries, Klaus from The Originals. Those guys. Jareth from Labyrinth. (RIP David Bowie) I’m sorry but this cliche is my cryptonite. Give me the brooding bad boy with a tragic past and a bad attitude and let his love interest be the only one who can get through to him. Sign me up almost every time. I had a review where the reviewer hated that my character Kai was head over heels in love with Rhys who was exactly this; broody, sullen, tragically good looking. Again, I acknowledge that in real life sometimes the broody sullen guy is just a moody bastard and he will never change but in my story, even though Rhys is constantly sighing and rolling his eyes and wearing his perma-frown, he always does the right thing. He loves his pack and his family and he does what needs to be done…he just does it grumpily.

I could go on and on and on but here is my truth…if you tell me a good story and you keep me engaged give me all of it. Give me your bad boys, your doormat girls, your chosen one, your dark creepy prologue. Bring it on. I don’t care if the person said, exclaimed, whispered or cajoled just make me care about your characters. Make me squeal when something cute happens. Make me cry when somebody is hurt. Make me sad the book is over. Make me want to write fan fiction about your characters or ramble on about them on Tumblr.

Give me all the cliches…just make me believe it.