Been There, Done That

So, you got the road map, you're planning this grand vacation for yourself and friends of family. You've got it all set. You're gonna hit landmarks everywhere, except, when you say Grand Canyon, one says: "But lots of people go there every year! What's to see, just a big ass canyon!" You take it with a grain of salt and suggest some other major attraction, which is met with the same response. People have been there, people have already done it, so what's the point of doing it again?

This is like the cliché. They've been done over and over again that everyone has seen it of heard of it and knows what it is. Now, it everything has been done before, where are the new ideas? Sad to say, there are no new ideas truly. There is only old ideas and creative ways to use those old ideas. You can't use an old idea in a new way, as it's already been done somewhere along the line by someone. So, you must be creative with it.

We throw around buzz-words like originality and creativity like we're hot cats knowing all that. If you stopped to ask someone what they meant by that, they'd stop short. You'd stump them. They couldn't tell you what's original or creative, just that you have to be it. New and old players to the realm of dueling and RPing toss those words around, trying to ascribe some feeling to it, but if you stopped to ask them what was truly creative or original and they'd stop flat-footed in their tracks and be hard-pressed to answer this challenging question.

We're told clichés are bad, stay away from what someone has already done before. Tell that to the millions of people who are accountants. You wouldn't go up to one of them and say, "Dude, someone already has done what you did. Get a new line!" You wouldn't say to the soldier in the army of any sort that millions have already done their bit and they should try something new and creative, right? So why do we instantly jump down the throats of people new to it using every cliché they've seen and thought cool?

Let's look at the word creative itself.

Creative:

(Adj.) 1. Having the ability or power to create 2. Productive; creating 3. Characterized by originality and expressiveness; imaginative.

(N.) One who displays productive originality.

Well, when we write posts, surely we are being creative, as we have the ability or power to create such posts, so check, and surely we are being production in such creation, so check once more. But what of the third? Originality? Are we being original with the writing?

I'll take a look at a fellow role player that I have a lot of respect for and many people have heard of: Dispeyr. Dispeyr is an interesting fellow, able to create outstanding pieces of literary art, expressive and imaginative both. But here's the kicker--they're not completely original. Now before you suddenly cry blasphemy and turn into a raging mob, hear me out. Dispeyr, for all his good writing, using a wraith, a character of the same name--Dispeyr. In his depictions of Dispeyr, he is dark, ominous and deadly. Fair enough, he's a wraith. But if you stop and look back over the course of all Dispeyr's writing concerning that character, you'll see very glaringly that he reuses the same ideas again and again and again, each time switching up the way they're presented. They suddenly appear new, original and wonderful. Fact is they're not.

I myself commit this same habit with some of my own characters, Amarouk, for one. After a while it grows stale, and even if you're a good writer, it gets old pretty quick.

So what does this mean? It means that yes, you can use clichés, and I encourage you to use them, but don't over do it. Use them in an interesting way in possible, something that captivates. If you think it's wonderful and creative, somebody else might not think so. A harsh lesson, yes, but one to be learned nonetheless. But as with any kind of cliché, you need to be careful in their use otherwise you might just be considered another know-nothing newb.

 

- W. Visarett