Generic Fantasy Situations to avoid

Fantasy fiction is doing good business at the moment, but there are
certain situations that have been overplayed. So much so, that they
have become genre cliches, and everbody knows what to expect next. If
you're a writer in the genre, here are ten you should try to
avoid.

Receiving tutoring from the old wise man
The "Merlin" gambit, as used in "Lord of the Rings", "Star Wars",
"Dragonslayer" and innumerable King Arthur clones. A stable-boy or
other similar seemingly low-born type is taken under the wing of the
local eccentric. There's usually a beard involved, and a pair of blue
eyes piercing from beneath some spectacularly bushy eyebrows. He'll say
things like: "All of nature is one", "Use the force" and "You have a
great destiny my boy." Try not to give him a grey cloak, an elven sword
and the best horse. Maybe you could try having the youth tutoring the
old man for a change? Or, more radical, how about having the teacher as
an old woman?

Meeting elves or fairies in the woods
The "Midsummer Night's Dream" gambit. This was much beloved of old
romantics like J.R.R Tolkein, William Morris and Arthur Conan Doyle.
Charles De Lint has successfully transported the faerie folk into
modern habitats, but it's hard to do these days without being
post-modern and ironic. It's possible that the Lord of the Rings movie
will bring the "little people" back into fashion, but in the meantime,
maybe you could try having elves arriving in the middle of a modern
city? How would they react?

Arriving at the magic university
The "Harry Potter" gambit. The gauche apprentice magician (who is
sometimes a stable-boy) meets the doddering old teachers who are all
supposed to be master magicians. This one is so old, and Terry
Pratchett has so successfully lampooned it, that I'm surprised Harry
Potter worked at all. I can only assume that J.K.Rowling's readership
is too young to have heard of Discworld. For a variation, suppose your
hero is completely self-taught, and finds that the College's teachings
are actually diminishing his power? What happens next?

At the council of lords/kings/wizards
The "Round table" gambit. People say things like "The crown is
rightfully mine." or "You must not misuse your power." or "I cannot be
King and man - I can only be King." This is usually either a thinly
disguised re-hash of the Arthur story, or is used as a parable on
modern politics. Either way, the reader can spot the cliches coming a
mile away. The scene usually ends one of two ways: one of the council
storms out and becomes the main villain for the rest of the story, or
all the council storm out and spend the rest of the story on a near
impossible quest until the stable-boy does what the great lords
couldn't. Try to find a new way for this group to communicate. Give
them all mobile phones, or the magical equivalent, and watch what
happens.

Learning to fight
The "Galahad" gambit. The stable-boy gets secret training in weaponry,
allowing him to beat a seasoned warrior in his first fight. People say
"I've never seen the like before." and "He is the best swordsman I have
ever seen." Now how realistic is that? Forget the fact that the
stable-hand always has excellent hand-eye coordination, 20-20 vision,
and the constitution of several oxen. Unless he had a hot bath, the
smell of the stables would be enough to disarm most opponents on its
own. A radical idea would be to have the stable-boy being comletely
useless at weapons. How is he going to fulfill his destiny then?

The parting from everything you ever knew.
The "Dick Whittington" gambit. The stable-hand, being under a geas to
complete a great quest, must say goodbye to hearth and home. People say
"I must go and fulfill my destiny." and "I will return when I have
avenged my father." and "I will defeat this evil or die trying." This
is usually done with a great deal of schmaltz and emotion. Sometimes it
is done violently, the hero being parted from family by the villain of
the piece who he is destined to kill at the end of the story. Either
way, it has been done so often that any tears you are expecting to
provoke could well be due to laughter. Try to do something different.
Why does the hero have to leave his family? What would happen if he
took them with him?

First meeting with the sidekick
The "Little John" gambit. The stable-boy, having set out on the near
impossible quest, meets his future sidekick. Initially they distrust
each other, and often fight, but they very quickly end up as an
inseperable pair. This is so popular it has spawned a whole genre of
its own - the buddy movie. Just don't have them fighting each other on
a bridge at their first meeting. Maybe they have to get together
through neccessity, but hate each other continually? There's plenty of
scope for tension there.

Being abducted from earth to a different world
The "John Carter" gambit. People say "How did I get here?" and "You
have been delivered to us in our hour of need." This one was heavily
overused in the pulps in the early and mid-twentieth century by H Rider
Haggard and A.E Merritt among others. Usually it is no more than a ploy
to get a character the writer is comfortable writing about into a
fantasy situation where said character could never otherwise exist.
Edgar Rice Burroughs liked it so much he even had it happen to Tarzan
on occassion. And it still happens, the most obvious modern examples
being Thomas Covenant and the various present day characters that
Stephen King has recruited into his Dark Tower series. Maybe your hero
could be someone from another dimension who gets transported to Earth?
Or maybe he stays where he is, but everything changes around him?

The multi-race bar room
The "Inn at Bree" gambit. In another article I mentioned this in the
context of science fiction, but it is just as common in the fantasy
genre. After a thirsty day on the road our heroic stable-boy and his
companions will visit an inn. Inside, there will be representatives of
different races from the world created for the story. The innkeeper
will always be fat and jolly, there will always be a silent stranger in
a dark corner, and someone will sing a silly song giving the writer his
chance to show off his invention of other-worldly lyrics. How about
having a human trying to get a drink in a dwarf-only bar, or
vice-versa. There should be plenty of opportunity to add tension
there.

Discovering hidden family truths
The "Ugly Duckling" gambit. The stable-boy gets to the final climactic
battle, only to find that his adversary is his
father/mother/brother/sister etc. People say "It was kept from you to
protect you." and "You cannot kill me, I'm your father." This has been
so overused, it even turns up across genres: witness Luke Skywalker
confronting Darth Vader for example. A variation is to have the hero
find that he is suddenly a prince, or even king. This says more about
the writer's own desires than it does about the plot. Wishful-thinking
fantasies do not usually make strong stories. But what would happen if
the hero already knew his background, but his adverary didn't?

The next time you read a fantasy novel, count how many of the above are
still in use. I think you'll be surprised. It's even worse in film and
television, where all of them can occur in any one movie, and often do.
Just look at Star Wars - it contained most of them, and still made huge
amounts of money. That's why the above should be taken with a pinch of
salt. Cliches still have their place in popular culture. Just don't
take that as an excuse to use them yourself.

Copyright William Meikle 2001
http://www.willie.meikle.btinternet.co.uk