History Website / TheGrandListOfOverusedScienceFictionCliches

The original list can be found [[http://www.oocities.org/evilsnack/cliche.htm here on oocities.org]].[[labelnote:note]]The list was updated many times and the ''oocities'' version may be an earlier copy salvaged from the ''Internet Archive''.[[/labelnote]] An updated version based on the original list can be read [[http://www.cthreepo.com/writing/cliche/ here at cthreepo.com]].

Those of us who have read or seen a lot of {{science fiction}} have seen certain story elements pop up over and over and over. Some of these elements were [[TropesAreTools actually pretty good ideas]], and [[UnbuiltTrope when handled well make for a pretty entertaining story]], but have become hackneyed from overuse by the unimaginative. Others came into being through the deliberate effort to avoid another cliché. Still other ideas were [[DeadHorseTrope lame from the get-go]], and should have been dismissed from the author's thinking.

[[TropesAreTools Clichés are not in themselves necessarily bad]], but their overuse shows that the writer has forgotten what separates the strong tale from the hollow: "the human heart in conflict with itself," as Faulkner said. Where there is this conflict, the tale stands; where the conflict is absent, the tale falls flat, and in neither case does it matter [[RuleOfCool how many ships get blown up]].

The original list can be found [[http://www.oocities.org/evilsnack/cliche.htm here on oocities.org]]. An updated version based on the original list can be read [[http://www.cthreepo.com/writing/cliche/ here at cthreepo.com]].

Those of us who have read or seen a lot of {{science fiction}} have seen certain story elements pop up over and over and over. Some of these elements were [[TropesAreNotBad actually pretty good ideas]], and [[UnbuiltTrope when handled well make for a pretty entertaining story]], but have become hackneyed from overuse by the unimaginative. Others came into being through the deliberate effort to avoid another cliché. Still other ideas were [[DeadHorseTrope lame from the get-go]], and should have been dismissed from the author's thinking.

[[TropesAreNotBad Clichés are not in themselves necessarily bad]], but their overuse shows that the writer has forgotten what separates the strong tale from the hollow: "the human heart in conflict with itself," as Faulkner said. Where there is this conflict, the tale stands; where the conflict is absent, the tale falls flat, and in neither case does it matter [[RuleOfCool how many ships get blown up]].

An updated version of the original list can be read [[http://www.cthreepo.com/writing/cliche/ here]].