September 13, 2005

The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Cliches

It's here.

After scanning the list, I can say that my first novel Star Dragon misses almost all of these. A few it doesn't are:


Eccentric scientists.

Sentient artificial intelligences that select a human figure to holographically represent themselves.

A few it flirts with, but doesn't violate, are:


The incredibly competent woman-of-action with large breasts, no sexual inhibitions, and more skills/degrees than you can shake a blaster at.

Each and every character has a tainted history.

Some items on the list are a little too specific or vague to be taken too seriously, but yeah, avoid these. Why write a story that's full of cliches that have been done to death? It won't be fun to write, and it won't be fun to read. If you do use some of these elements, okay, but you've got to have SOMETHING in there that's great and interesting to make up for it.

Star Trek is guilty of many of the items on the list, but that isn't fair. Whenever Star Trek does anything, it becomes so well known that it is effectively a cliche and should be avoided unless you can do it ten times better (which is the case in some instances).

Posted by Mike at September 13, 2005 12:14 PM