WHAT CLICHES DO YOU HATE MOST?
- September 5th, 2009
- Posted in miscellaneous
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Perhaps this is a more interesting question. What cliches in romances/erotica do you hate most?
One that many people cite is a heroine who thinks she’s ugly–or at least not beautiful enough. I personally wouldn’t call that “cliche”. How many women can boast that they’re perfectly satisfied with how they look? Especially ones who would like to be in a relationship yet cannot find someone? I would think that a woman looking for love but being constantly rejected would have self-esteem issues. Then how would it be deemed “cliche” for her to think she must be lacking in some way? I think I would call that logical characterization. When someone you find attractive shows interest, wouldn’t that be a little validation? (Or damn, even a little miracle to some people?)
It’s difficult to find that mutual spark with someone. I can imagine a heroine’s disbelief at actually finding it with the hero.
Or how about the cliche where a heroine’s only faults are minor and therefore not really faults? “I’m so terrible at cooking!” or “I’m clumsy and fall down a lot! or “I’m so absent-minded and I leave things all over the castle!” Are these merely attempts to make an otherwise perfect heroine seem more humble and realistic? Well, a romance or erotica novel is kind of meant to be a “Mary Sue” (or “Gary Stu”) for the reader to slip into the role of the hero/heroine, right? Would you want to imagine yourself in a role where you are extremely overbearing and think you know the right way to do everything? How is that likable?
Is there only a short list of “faults” to choose from then? Must the author attempt to present an otherwise unforgivable fault in a way that makes it seem less censurable? What if the hero is an unapologetic chauvinist? Even if the heroine turns his views around, how could any reader like him after knowing how he started out?
A “cliche” I personally hate is the “misunderstanding” where the hero and heroine think the absolute worst of each other for ten chapters just because they can’t have a five-minute conversation.
I’d like to know what you think, though. Which cliches in romances/erotica do you dislike the most?
Off to a bad start plot device…heroine has fender bender with hero who turns out to be her new boss. He calls her a woman driver. She calls him a jerk. Sparks fly.
I get a little tired of the tall, dark and handsome bit. Sure that’s attractive, but can’t we vary the wording a little bit. And I’ve just read TWO novels set one hundred years ago where the hero and heroine meet and have sex that night.. A little unrealistic, don’t you think? I know some publishers want sex in the first twenty pages, but damn, didn’t they work up to it a little bit that long ago?
I agree, Jean, that it’s a little much to ask the author to make up some way for the hero and heroine to knock boots as soon as they meet, or include sex in some way, even if it’s not the hero and heroine. What ever happened to good ol’ sexual tension?
Oh God, Kelly, how many times have I read a book where that happens? How many *movies* have I seen where that happens? Gah!
i know what you mean. i hate it when the character is too perfect so you feel as if they are unreal but i also hate it when they spend the first half of the book in denial of their feelings and the second half mooning thats they missed thier chance because they were too pig headed to see what was in front of them.
if you have read “what a dragon should know” by G.A. Aiken you would understand that i feel these are the best set of characters as both like each other but pick at the faults that help make the characters endearing to the reader and each other.
they’re not perfect but they dont really care.
yeah so thats my rant for today.