Tolkien’s theme is a powerful one, in which ages past were filled with beauty and wonder, before our own mundane civilization took over. Their age is ending, and they must make way for the rise of humans. When Fellowship of the Ring starts, the elves are already getting ready to board their ships and sail west. They’re beautiful, mysterious, superior to humans, and in decline. Lord of the Rings elves set the template for all the fair folk to come. Why Writers Use Itīecause Tolkien did it, for one thing. They have only memories of their great accomplishments, and soon they will fade away entirely. They once built wonders of such splendor as to make humans tremble, but now they are a shadow of their former selves. No matter if a story is high fantasy, urban fantasy, or even space fantasy, the elves are always on their way out. Let’s look at some of the most egregious. They worked well before becoming overused, and if you’re not vigilant, you’ll fall into their trap. For our purposes, a cliché is something that would be fine on its own but has been repeated so often it has become trite and predictable. To some people, clichés are any bad story devices common enough to have their own TV Tropes entry. What clichés should someone as a writer avoid? What are some of the ways that they can be changed to be made fresh without falling into something done by another author? You open up your manuscript for editing and discover to your horror that you’ve written a Chosen One story! On the subject of clichés, Ethan Fletcher sent us this question: They sneak into our writing when we least expect it.
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