Tag: cliches

cliches

Cliches: Monsters

Katie Marie

Time for a wide range of cliches!

Today I would like to return to one of my favourite topics, Cliches!

As we’ve discussed before cliches can range from phrases to characters, to scenes, and beyond. They are an overused trope and often portray a lack of original thought.

Despite that clearly negative definition, there is a time and place for cliches, particularly around certain characters, as they allow an audience to gain an understanding and expectation very quickly. So, on occasion, a cliché can be a useful tool to impart information quickly. Though it is best used sparingly and if used in relation to characters it should only be applied to very small, very side characters.

With that out of the way, today I want to talk to you about monster cliches!

With monsters being a highlight of the horror genre, certain kinds of monsters have a lot of tropes attached to them. I have already done a few letters on specific monsters, vampires, werewolves, ghosts etc. today I want to talk about a wider range of overused monsters and the even more overused tropes that come with them.

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cliches, Horror Writing

Clichés: Vampires

Katie Marie

They vant to suck your blood.

It’s that time again when I talk at length about clichés that drive me nuts.

Today I want to look at a horror creature that has been done again and again and again, to the point where if I tried to list all the clichés I would write a book. I am of course talking about the vampire. What with it being Halloween and all.

Like with all the previous clichés that I’ve spoken about, these are caused by writer/creator laziness. Instead of trying to put a unique spin on a character the writer/creator will have a standard vampire acting in the standard vampire way. While this might be alright for a side character, as a quick and easy way to establish them without having to spend ages dwelling on a non-critical character but still giving your readers/audience a good idea of what to expect from this character, it won’t work for the main character.

The way to make your vampire character stand out is to make them different than the norm.

Take the Twilight, for example, I am well aware of the hate this series gets but when you look at the figures you’ll see that it worked very well despite the stigma. This book series sold millions of copies, got made into a series of films and made the author an absolute ton of money. All because she took vampires and put her spin on them, and while many didn’t like the new spin many did, in particular, Meyer’s target audience did.

Anyway, I feel that I’ve rambled long enough, so without further ado, let’s jump into my top three hated vampire clichés.

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