A Few of my Favorite Fantasy Cliches

This is my 100th post! In celebration, I'd like to do something very cliche: write a post about my favorite fantasy cliches. (Cue applause.)

Also, please note that in my blog post, I've used male pronouns to refer to characters, since the majority of fantasy stories are still written about males. Hopefully someday the case will be different!

So, without further ado, I present:


My Favorite Cliches
To the tune of, "My Favorite Things"

Dark stormy nights and scales on dragons
Bright shining daggers and red glowing fire
Stacks of old parchment all tied up with strings--
These are a few of my favorite cliches.

Black or white horses and elvish lembas bread
Watch bells and beacons and Gollum with worms
Creatures that fly with the Nazgul on their wings--
These are a few of my favorite cliches.

Shield maidens in white dresses with swords at their sashes,
Arrows that barely scratch my nose and eyelashes
Silver white beards of wise old men who soon die--
These are a few of my favorite cliches.

When the Dark Lord rises, when the prophecy rhymes, when the hero's an orphan,
I simply remember my favorite cliches, and then I don't feel so bad (about my own writing)!

And now for a proper list of my favorite fantasy cliches.

1. Stock characters

Almost every single fantasy story contains an old man/wizard/wise person who imparts crucial information to the young hero, usually an orphan. Said young hero discovers he has magic powers or is the "chosen one," a fact that no one has told him all his life, and that the villains have only just discovered. Add in a handful of warrior maidens and a dragon or two, and you've got a regular soup of cliches. If you really need any examples of this, just look to Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.


2. Prophecies or curses

Speaking of the "chosen one," any prophecy or curse of any size or shape definitely counts as cliche. Particularly if the hero is the only person that the prophecy could refer to. And if the stakes are "the end of the world as we know it." So if you're dying to make your story as cliche as possible, please, please, insert one of these. I promise it'll increase the cliche-factor by ten. Don't believe me? Ask the dishes! (Reference to Beauty and the Beast, which by the way contains a prophetic curse.)

3. Medieval setting

Despite the constant use of Medieval costumes and weapons in fantasy stories, the hygiene and medicine of fantasy stories seem to be pretty modern. Because, really, where's the plague? Furthermore, there's always a journey that takes days or weeks to get to the destination, usually by walking or riding the same horse for days on end. Honestly, how do characters in these stories manage to get anything done when they must be dead tired from traveling all the time? Walking kills your feet, kills the horses, and can't be done constantly. I'm looking at you, Lord of the Rings.


4. Good versus Evil

So your hero is battling a "Dark Lord" or the "forces of evil" or must go through the "Dark Forest" and battle an army of ugly evil orcs? Wow, how original. But let me ask a question: why should darkness be the enemy just because it's dark? Couldn't that be construed as a bit racist? And why should the whole race of elves (or dwarves, or men) be good and beautiful while orcs (or other villainous force) are always evil and ugly? The real world has good ugly humans and bad beautiful humans. Why should fantasy be any different?


5. Unrealistic fighting

Hero learns swordplay in about a week and is suddenly a master at weapons of any kind, able to confront expert enemies who've had years of training to perfect their technique. Also, arrows never, ever run out, armor is feather-light, and shields are hardly ever necessary. Oh, and while we're on the subject, all wounds seem to be either a minor scratch or life-threatening. Don't heroes ever get paralyzed, or suffer brain damage, or have to amputate their arms?

That said, of course, these particular cliches are only cliches because they've been used very effectively in some of the greatest fantasy stories of all time, from Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter and Beauty and the Beast. So should you really always avoid using cliches?

Well, on the one hand, if you purposefully try to avoid all cliches ever, you're just going to give yourself a horrible headache while you try to think of original plot devices and methods of transportation. On the other hand, you do want to think very carefully before inserting a cliche into your story.

If you do use a cliche, make it humorous and obvious, as Patricia C. Wrede does in her hilarious Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Or try turning it on its head, as Gail Carson Levine did in her amazing novel Ella Enchanted. Recognize the cliches in your writing--and run with them! Use them for your own benefit. It's the best way to write!


Have you read any books or seen any movies with cliches? Any cliche-breaking stories you'd love to share? What about in your own writing--love them? Hate them? Avoid them like the plague?

Food & Fantasy

I love food. Cranberry scones, lemon sorbet, apple pie, Japanese hiyashi-chuka noodles, fresh-baked bread, thin crust pizza...food can be so delicious and amazing!

Then again, sometimes it's more weird than wonderful--bird's nests, shark fin soup, grubs, fried crickets, and more. As fantasy writers and readers, we can be alert to using all of the mighty powers of food for many different purposes.

That's what today's blog post is about: food and fantasy.

1. Everyday-subsistence food
Your story may be a fantasy, but your characters do need to eat. (Unless they are some sort of non-eating-elemental-beings, in which case they probably need energy like moonbeams rather than food.)

Think carefully about what the ordinary people in your story eat on a daily basis. Do they have wheat and corn and potatoes, as in our world? Is there a ready supply of meat? Or are they vegetarians (like me)? Are there any types of daily foods that are unique to your world--special fruits, for example, or maybe a type of vegetable that your main character hates?

If your characters travel over the course of your story, be sure to have them sample different cuisines along the way. There's no better way to add realism to your story than by describing the different sorts of foods your characters encounter along the way!

A few words of warning: while food is an interesting detail that adds texture to your story, don't let it be unnecessarily prominent. Don't just mention food for the sake of mentioning food. Whenever you mention food, make it part of the conflict: the main character doesn't want to offend her host, but she hates eating zinzer roots; some village children are falling sick because of malnutrition; your crew of hearty sailors have scurvy or are running short of food. You get the picture. Make food interesting, important, and maybe dangerous.

2. Special-occasion food
In our world, food is so often tied to celebrations. Think of Thanksgiving dinner. What would it be without turkey and cranberry sauce and stuffing? Then there's Easter, which is practically synonymous with eggs. Or what about Chinese New Year--you have your springrolls, your pineapple tarts, your lo hei/yusheng. Food is an inescapable part of celebrating.

So in your fantasy world, when you have celebrations of the new year or for a coronation or for the king's birthday or for the Harvest Festival, be sure to concoct some special and essential foods to celebrate.

3. Food with special properties
Think of all the examples: Snow White's poisoned apple. The elves' lembas bread from Lord of the Rings. The Weasley twins' nosebleed nougats and canary creams from Harry Potter. We're writing fantasy stories, so we really can let our imagination run wild with our foods. Make your foods poisonous, deceiving to the eye (maybe it looks like sugar and tastes like coal), bestow strength on the eater, make the eater turn into a canary, make the eater invisible...the possibilities are endless.

If you're really interested in the possibilities of magical food in fantasy, study J.K. Rowling's use of candies and foods in Harry Potter. Food is one of the many things that makes Rowling's stories come to life in readers' heads.


A note on presentation: in some cultures, like Japan, the arrangement of the food is crucial. The food is meant not just to be useful but to be beautiful. The colors are chosen to create harmony on the plate; the foods are arranged in special shapes and positions. In such cultures, food can be an art form in and of itself. You could write an entire book about a girl determined to succeed as a food artist but prevented by the traditional heirarchy of her fantasy world. My point here is, don't just think about food as a detail or sustenance for your character. Make the food and the presentation of the food woven seamlessly into the fabric of your fantasy culture.


All this talk about food is making me hungry! Good thing it's almost lunchtime. Let me know if you've made up any foods for your fantasy world, or if you have any cool examples to share of uses of food in the stories you've read.

Accessories in Fantasy

Recently, one of my readers read the Fashion in Fantasy series on the blog last year and commented that something seemed to be missing. After a bit of thought, it came to me: I'd barely begun to scratch the surface of one of the most essential elements in a fantasy story--the accessories.

Don't look so surprised. After all, what self-respecting fantasy story doesn't contain at least one necklace-with-amazing-powers or a turban filled with a dark presence or a scarlet cloak rippling in the chill winter breeze? Clearly, in the realm of Faerie, even ordinary objects and accessories have the potential to become extraordinary. We, as fantasy writers and readers, should exploit that potential.

So let's explore accessories in fantasy in more depth. First, let's take a quick look at all sorts of objects and accessories, and, second, how you can use them in your story.

The types of accessories are virtually endless, but let me list some here to get you thinking. There is jewelry, from a necklace to a single gemstone or a golden ring. There is headwear, like crowns, tiaras, turbans, fedoras, and all sorts of hats. There are handbags (what self-respecting girl, after all, even in a fantasy world, wants to be without her trusty purse?). And, too, there are all sorts of shoes--glass slippers, seven-league boots, the latest chic Jimmy Choo heels.... It could be a rusty old key or broken eyeglasses or a small handmirror. There are lots more ideas--more may come to your mind as we continue. Above all, make sure that the accessories you choose are uniquely suited to the world of your story.

Next, let's think about the uses for these objects.

• Flair: Some objects may not have any fantastic powers but may simply add to their personality or their signature "flair." Examples: Little Red Riding Hood's red riding hood; Sherlock Holmes in his tweed suit with a magnifying glass
• Love: As a symbol of love and trust, accessories can be unparalleled. Even in the "real world" we use rings and jewels to convey how precious our loved ones are. Example: Aragorn and Arwen's jeweled necklace from Lord of the Rings
• Family Heirlooms: Again, as in the real world, the objects that have the most meaning to us are often the ones passed down from generation to generation. (Of course, such objects may very well have powers beyond simply surface value.) Using such objects would give a bit of the backstory behind your characters and what they value in their lives. Example: Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, inherited from his father
• Historical Item: This type of object can be used to expand your storyworld and give insights into the background of your tale. History is important because it affects the present. (This type of item can, of course, be combined with some sort of power as well.) Example: Aragorn's crown of Gondor from Lord of the Rings
• Contains a Secret Message: Such uses for accessories abound in many of the best stories. After all, who would think to look for a message in the engraving of great-grandaddy's spectacles or in Aunt Marge's scarf? Examples: Madame Defarge in Dickens' Tale of Two Cities was most adept at hiding information in her knitting; the broken eyeglasses in the first Transformers movie contained coordinates to a hidden object
• Contains Magical Powers: This, of course, is the quintessential use of an accessory in fantasy. Whether it confers invisibility, superspeed, control over the elements, or more, an object in a fantasy novel can be a great repository of magical power. Examples: seven-league boots; magic mirror
• Contains Evil or a Curse: This, too, is a common (but important) use of artifacts in fantasy. A curse can lie unsuspected in a normal-looking object, posing a threat to all who draw near. Or, worse, an object may contain an evil being that the hero must conquer. Examples: JK Rowling in the Harry Potter series has done an excellent job in hiding evil in the most unexpected places--under a turban, in the first book, and inside a cursed necklace in the sixth; Also, Frodo's ring contains a definite evil, I'd say.

As you can see, the use of accessories in fantasy is a crucial art to master, and one that gives fantasy writers many possible tools to help or hinder the heroes along their quests. Comment below and let me know if you remember any particular accessories from fantasy stories you've read, or if you have special accessories in your story that are meaningful in any way.