An actual question asked on one of the writer’s boards. An aspiring author gave a two-paragraph summary of his plot idea. He said he feared it was just a series of clichés, then he asked whether it was too contrived to be taken seriously.

Now, I don’t know whether publishers would take it seriously. I can only speak as a writer and as a reader. (I have little faith in most publishers to do the right thing by readers, but that’s for another blog post.) But for what it’s worth, here’s my answer:

I’m not sure what you mean by “cliché” and “contrived.” A cliché can’t be contrived, and a contrivance can’t be a cliché, because the two are essentially opposite.

Whether the plot is a cliché… There are two things about clichés: Firstly, they won’t surprise or impress anyone. Secondly, they won’t surprise or impress anyone. That is, on the one hand, you can’t make your whole story out of clichés, or you’ll leave your readers with that “I’ve heard this story before” feeling. But on the other hand, readers will not question whether or not your clichés are plausible. Clichés are clichés because they’ve already been done to death; therefore, everyone already believes they could happen, even if they never could. The Mythbusters do whole episodes where they demonstrate that accepted movie clichés could never happen in real life. But at the movies, no one questions whether these clichés are plausible.

A contrivance on the other hand is one that is implausible. It’s something that does not seem to flow naturally from the rest of the story. You the writer contrived some plot twist and threw it in out of left field, and it makes no sense in the context of the story. In fact, you wouldn’t even have added it, except to generate additional drama or–even worse–resolve some story conflict. You can easily fix contrived plot devices, though. Just give a plausible “reason why” for the plot device. If a contrivance comes out of left field, simply don’t bring it out of left field. The “reason why” doesn’t have to be elaborate. In fact, it can rest on a cliché, because no one ever questions the validity of a cliché. (Readers only question the originality of clichés.)

I guess what I’m saying is, in answer to your question whether your story is a cliché or is contrived: It depends on how you tell it.

One thing you can try, which I find consistently helps, is not to tell a story about your plot. Rather, tell a story about a group of unique characters. You may not have even created the characters in detail yet. Do so. Put together characters for whom this plot makes perfect sense, and your story won’t be contrived, because the characters themselves become the “reason why.” And make your characters unique and interesting, and your story won’t be a cliché, because the characters themselves become the originality in the story.

Keep writing!
-TimK

P.S. I’m sort of on a characterization kick right now, because I just finished releasing 1001 Character Quirks for Writing Fiction: A tool for creating memorable fictional characters, and for it, I had to bring together all my research and techniques on how to make characters deep and interesting.

P.P.S. The trick of writing a story about the characters, instead of writing about plot devices– I got that from watching Gilmore Girls.