Wasting Away Again in Tired Ol' Clichéville

[Angie]

I've been reading a ton o' books over the past few weeks, and I think I've exceeded my cliché quota for the next two or three years. Don't get me wrong, I've fallen prey to the evil cliché fairy's machinations, finding multiple instances of worn out descriptions in my own work, many, many times. I have a friend who shrieks in glee every time she comes across one in my work - "you're always busting me, and then here's a bunch in your story!" Well, yeah. Guilty as charged. Which is exactly why I ask others to read stuff before I send it out. I mean, if I could catch 'em and exterminate 'em on my own, I wouldn't need another reader would I?!

But c'mon...what the hell does "stench of death" really smell like? Besides, "sweet" and "metallic," or possibly "rotten." Seriously. I wanna know. Just once I'd like to read a description of what rotting, bloody corpses smell like that's actually visceral and not short hand for "trust me...it's gross and it stinks." Come to think of it, that's more interesting and original than "stench of death."

And do cops eat anything besides pizza when they're working a case in police procedurals? Don't they ever, y'know, just pick up a bucket o' chicken, or get some sandwiches? A burrito, maybe? Hey, I'll even settle for the ever popular take-out Chinese food if it breaks up the pizza parade.

Then there are the stereotypical characters. Mob guy? Must have an Italian last name, or maybe Russian. Um...okay. It works especially well if the only Italian in the story is...a mobster! How about a Canadian mobster? I've always found those shifty Canucks particularly worrisome.

Cop? Anger issues, PTSD, substance abuse (alcohol is a big winner in this category), divorced or busy gettin' busy on the side are all de rigeur and freakin' boring. "Ka-Ra-Zy" bad guy? Hmm, childhood trauma, usually sexual abuse, and either brilliant or quite stupid, not much in the middle ground. Typical "mommy didn't love me, daddy didn't care" stuff, so now s/he is gonna make (somebody) pay. Oh, and don't forget the "psychopath" label. That one makes me extra nuts, because it is not accurate and has become shorthand for "Ka-Ra-Zy" bad guy without actually specifying anything. Yawn.

Now I've got a lot of respect for writers who grab a cliché and then tweak it into something nifty and new - Bruen's Jack Taylor should be a cliché, but isn't even in the same area code, IMO. And I understand the well-chosen (and written) icon. But I'm finding that those tend to be the exceptions rather than the rule. What's up with that?! With tons of words and personalities and plot variations available, why do we trot out the over-used cliché so damn often? 'Cause, y'know, I'm just askin'...

[Stephen Blackmoore]

Thank you. I've actually been having this exact problem with the whole "stink of death" thing. I'm finding it tough to get a good shorthand that doesn't go into too much detail to break the story's flow. Excuse me, I have scenes to rewrite.

[Anne Frasier]

i wonder if the whole stench of death thing started as a way to avoid being graphic. the problem i've encounter is that many publishers and editors tend to shy away from any true description of death.

[Robin Burcell]

Okay, this is a really, really fun discussion. I agree, sometimes clichés are too apparent, but is it because they are clichés, or because the rest of the book doesn't support it well?

Part of the cliché thing for your gangs comes from the fact that many of these gangs are actually very well documented, and anyone who does an ounce of research is going to come across this info. If you're writing about the older, larger metropolitan cities, you get your Italian crime bosses. It's fact. What is also documented is that most will prey on their own kind, as they're less likely to report it because of a distrust of cops from their old countries, or a new distrust of cops in this country, or retribution from the gangs that preyed on them. Hence, Russians picking on Russians, Chinese on Chinese, etc. So it's not really cliché as much as reality. It starts to appear cliché when you start reading the same old, same old. That's probably why we gravitate toward the books with great characters. Great characters trump clichés any old day.

As for cop clichés, I have to agree on the overuse of TV clichés, but have to agree with others. I rarely ate pizza on patrol, because it takes too friggin' long to cook, and who has time to order ahead. If it isn't done by the time I pull my patrol car through the drive-thru and toss the money at the window, it's not happening. But pizza is ordered if you're working a long case, tied up inside for hours, because it's easy to feed several investigators, it can sit cold, be reheated over and over, still be eaten, and there you have it. Cold, congealed pizza is much better to eat over cold, congealed hamburgers and fries. You have to know which food for the right circumstances.

I'm not alcoholic, have been happily or otherwise married to the same guy for 20-something years ;-) I do have PTSD (and any cop who has worked for a number of years and experienced death and destruction will have it--a fact of life) of which has cropped up at the most inconvenient of times, I don't have anger issues, unless something really ticks me off ;-) , I have met/arrested a few truly psychopathic nut jobs that scared the crap out of me, but most of the crooks I dealt with on a daily basis were idiots, and, come to think of it, so were some of the supervisors I had to work with. I wasn't the greatest cop in the world, neither was I the worst. I might have been the most creative in my particular department, and when I was younger, except for one guy, when I wore makeup, was possibly even the prettiest (being the first and only girl cop in my dept for a number of years.)

As for that whole stench of death thing? Unless you've smelled it, and I mean walked into a room with a corpse that's been baking in a hot room for days in unrelenting heat, no A/C, or come across a corpse outside that's been baking in the sun for days, accidentally moving a part of the body, releasing the odor of gasses that have been percolating amongst the feasting grubs, there is *nothing* on earth that can describe that smell. It literally is a smell you never forget. There is no amount of mentholated rub you can stick beneath your nose that will mask it. Your gag reflex takes over, and if you can get out of the room without hurling the pizza you recently consumed, you are lucky indeed.

So for me, I have to wonder if clichés don't stand out more when the characters and story aren't carrying their weight?

[Angie]

Well...I probably won't throw the book across the room and vow never to read another novel by Author "X" if the story and characters are good, but even so, too many clichés make me wanna scream. A lot. And they do stand out, even in an otherwise good book.

Hey, cliché happens. They came about because at one time or another, the description or generalization worked. Makes sense that some of these stereotypes and clichés are rooted in reality. I guess my point is that instead of continuing to work as a kind of shorthand, they tend to come across as a kind of extreme laziness - "the reader knows what this means...I don't need to worry about it." *Yawn*

I know plenty of people in law enforcement end up with some sort of PTSD (hell, I have it from working at a residential treatment center - it's no fun). I guess I just get tired of seeing it used as a characterization that often might as well have a neon sign above it screaming "pay attention! this will come into play at a crucial moment in the story!" Same can be said for alcoholism, infidelity, etc. Again, if your protag has any of those stereotypical issues, it doesn't mean that the character has to be flat, boring predictable. It just means that if those issues are being used as shorthand characterizations, I'm gonna stop reading.

Now see, your description of what a reeking corpse smells like is much more visceral and creepifying than the old standby "stench of death." Even if you think you can't describe the actual smell, your description of the physical response is spot on and absolutely NOT a cliché!

[Robin Burcell]

Note to self: go back, steal my description above of reeking corpse smell, and replace in current book where I've written "stench of death." :-)

[Sandra Ruttan]

"So for me, I have to wonder if clichés don't stand out more when the characters and story aren't carrying their weight?"

I agree - that's exactly what I think. I was trying to do a role reversal with my short story, Fucked Again, because the woman is the PI and her receptionist is a gay guy. It got some rejections... When I attended Harrogate in 2005 what Jane Wood said on the panel about getting published was that publishers didn't want something truly original. They wanted something with a bridge to what was known to what was a bit different. That certainly seems true in the publishing world, on the whole. A lot of really original stuff seems to come out of small presses that are more willing to take chances or have a focus that is off the mainstream.

Here's another thing, going to what John Dishon said. If the cop goes in and smells and sees that dead body and they aren't affected and then go home and are all happy-smiley-life is wonderful I actually think they're seriously disturbed, because it doesn't even phase them. That's not real. Evil Kev was on a call this week where someone died. That night he said he was okay, but he sure wasn't chipper. It was more avoidance. The next day he said it was getting to him. Numb is fine... but not affected at all? I knew some of the RCMP officers who were called in when four of their own were gunned down. Not one of them didn't feel it and carry it. I'd find it hard to believe in a cop facing some things who didn't have PTSD. It's also how much emphasis you put on it in the story. It might be relevant, but shouldn't just be tacked on for the obligatory personal issue quota.

[Angie]

I think we were posting simultaneously earlier...

Of course people are affected by stuff they experience, I'm just tired of the neon-sign characterization I mentioned above.

I'd been four months at a new job in mental health when I went on vacation. I came back to find out one of the kids I was working with had committed suicide. Dealing with that was not easy. Sometimes I still think about her. I'm not belittling the reality of death or its affect on the living. I think that's part of what bugs me when events like that are used as a quick, shorthand characterization. There's a big difference between fiction that draws on experience - or at least has the ring of authenticity - and the clichés I've seen in some instances.

[Robin Burcell]

And therein lies the crux of your original post. Of course we knew what you meant, but getting there wouldn't have been near as much fun. Clearly anyone who has been there, done that, is gonna have an advantage. If you are, in real life, an alcoholic, womanizing ex-cop turned PI who can't smell, is emotionally dead, and can walk into a room filled with the stench of death after consuming your obligatory pizza bought at the local mafia hang out, populated with every Italian Mob Boss as seen on TV, without hurling at the sight of your decomposing ex-wife, then go home, pop a beer because it doesn't faze you in the least, well, then, sure, you can write about that with some authority. But for the rest of us, just cut and paste the above paragraph into your work. And if you were real smart, you'd let Donna Moore have at it, because she can do cliché better than anyone I know.

[Angie]

LOL, Robin! No, I literally laughed out loud! That's so freakin' awesome...makes me wish I'd written it first.

[Donna Moore]

LOL Robin , and, errrrr...I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not!

[Robin Burcell]

Trust me, Donna, it was the biggest of compliments. It takes incredible wit and talent to compose entire episodes using cliches. (Hint to Donna: time to insert your web link here.) (Hint to anyone visiting her website: Spew alert. Cover your keyboards.)

[Sandra Ruttan]

Okay, I had to laugh at this. First, you know I'm not really disagreeing with you - after all, you know that I tried very hard to write the anti-cliche procedural...

But the Canadian mob?
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070504/rizzut...

Check out that name. "Mob guy? Must have an Italian last name, or maybe Russian. Um...okay. It works especially well if the only Italian in the story is...a mobster! How about a Canadian mobster?"

If it counts for anything, in Fucked Again I had the Scottish mob... I'm trying, dammit, I'm trying!

But if you'd like something that is refreshing, try Steve Mosby's The 50/50 Killer. I'm sorry, not out in the US, but some US publisher simply must jump on it. Not that people don't have PTSD, but it's how it all intertwines and, well, I'll shut up now. Just not at all reading like a cliche. Great procedural.