The Gay Cliche

[Tanuki Racoon]

I would like a list of what you all feel are the typical "Gay Cliche" bits in stories (you know "Gay Fiction").

You know. Nothing complicated, but just a list. No commentary necessary.

1. The monster Dick

2. Looks like an adonis

3. Ran into someone in front of a school locker, knocking him over.

Etc.

[Adam Donaldson Powell]

Haven't you heard ? Retro cliches are "in" again ... and the raunchier and the more tacky the better ! The trick is to present them as everyday banalities -- without reaction, and (as you so appropriately put it) without commentary.

Sort of like the ultimate existentialism where the "bad" is so ordinary that it is exciting to be boring.

[Tanuki Racoon]

Thanks for your comments but I'm just trying to get a list of what most people perceive as cliches in gay writing.

[Nickolas James]

1. Gay teen runs away or is kicked out, finds older gay man to live with who has no interest in sex with the boy, but only wants to be supportive and caring.

2. Gay kid runs away or is kicked out, moves in with bf's family and there's no objection from the parents whatsoever

3. Gay protagonist is always the hero, never the villian.

4. Everyone in the story has protection free sex and no one catches any diseases, even though they all have a belly full of cum that's entered them from both ends by at least 10 different people.

[Jason Rimbaud]

How about gay teen's family dies leaving him a small fortune...

Or gay teen's father moves away and leaves him alone in the house

Or how two gay teens, both very young, have sex like porn stars...seven or eight times in a few hours

Off the top of my head, I'm sure I could think of more.

Jason

[Tanuki Racoon]

Yes, quite a good collection so far. Your cooperation in this exercise will be "rewarded" at some point.

[colinian]

Gay teen has crush on apparently uber-straight jock, is asked by teacher to tutor said jock, jock turns out to be gay and has sex with gay teen.

Gay teen is outed, almost all of his/her friends are 100% supportive.

Gay teen is kidnapped and abused by an adult pervert.

Gay teen is in a horrific automobile accident and is given the will to live when his crush visits him in the hospital and says he's gay too and loves gay teen.

Colin

[Trab]

Pants tent with excitement.

Gay teen finds anyone at all, in a sea of fish that nobody knows are straight or otherwise.

Teens are gay, or straight, but never bi, or transgendered.

Every gay likes to eat cum and/or suck dick.

Every clergyman hates gays and preaches that hatred under the guise of 'love of Jesus'.

Every gay seems to be uber talented at something; nobody is normal/ordinary.

Gays seem to have sex and carnal knowledge by the time they are 12 or 13.

[Cole Parker]

Damn! You guys just shot down all the plot lines I was considering.

Well, maybe not.

C

[Tanuki Racoon]

Pants tent with excitement.

Cliche??? I have this problem all the time :)

[The Pecman]

Hey, Wibby! You ever read my "Gay Writing Tips" in this section? That, plus Nick Archer's list, covers just about everything you can think of.

I think it's OK to start with a cliche provided you put a spin on it and either justify the cliche or at least make it unique. For example, I did write a story with a kid who had a "monster cock," but in this case, it made him miserable because it made him the object of derision in the locker room. (It didn't help that he was the shortest kid in class, non-athletic, and so on.) The point of the story wasn't his endowment; that became second to the romantic coming-of-age story that unfolds.

I've also used the "rich kid" cliche, but at least not the howler where the kid's parents conveniently drop dead, making him the heir to millions. And in my case, the kid winds up in jail and stands to lose everything. Eventually, we realize the kid's wealth has little or nothing to do with the story; it's more about accepting who you are and being willing to make sacrifices at key moments in your life.

I think it helps to be aware that the cliches exist, just so the writer can say, "well, instead of doing this, I'll do that instead." As far as I'm concerned, if you can always keep the reader guessing (and wanting to read more), you've done your job.

[Tanuki Racoon]

Hey, Wibby! You ever read my "Gay Writing Tips" in this section? That, plus Nick Archer's list, covers just about everything you can think of.

I do recollect such a think. Not that you'd want to be helpful and put a link to it or anything. ::grumbles discontentedly::

[The Pecman]

I do recollect such a think. Not that you'd want to be helpful and put a link to it or anything.

Right here:

http://www.awesomedude.com/adboard/index.php?showtopic=9

Still as true today when I wrote it -- incredibly -- four years ago. Nothing has changed today. If anything, I think there are more cliches and more bad writing on Nifty than ever before, mainly because new writers don't take the time and trouble to try to learn their craft... not only how to write, but how to avoid these awful cliches.

BTW, both of my novels have had major, prominant bisexual characters, and I'm glad this is one thing I avoided.* I don't consider myself to be bisexual, but my best friend is, and I've often said (and will always feel) that anybody can have sex with just about anybody else under the right circumstances. I bet it happens a lot more often in the real world than anybody would believe in fiction.

___________________

* my current novel will have a bisexual character in a future chapter, but not for some time.

[Tanuki Racoon]

I've often said (and will always feel) that anybody can have sex with just about anybody else under the right circumstances. I bet it happens a lot more often in the real world than anybody would believe in fiction.

Thanks for the URL.

And I must agree with your sentiment. I don't believe 10% of the population is gay. I bet than number is a lot closer to 2 or 3% at most. I do believe that the number of bisexual people is probably MUCH higher. I bet close to 20% of people would, given the circumstances, "be curious" :)

* my current novel will have a bisexual character in a future chapter, but not for some time.

Write faster.

[Graeme]

I'm sure I added a reply to this thread yesterday, but it appears to have not posted successfully *shrugs*

1. Gay teen moves to a new school/area and one of the first people he meets turns out to be gay (usually closeted) and becomes his boyfriend.

The other items I came up with have already been listed.

[Tanuki Racoon]

I'm sure I added a reply to this thread yesterday, but it appears to have not posted successfully *shrugs*

After much discussion among the staff, we've installed Norton Anti-Australian* and it deletes random posts from down-under. We apologise for any inconvenience to any non-Australian. The rest of you lot, just suck it up :D

* From the makers of NAR (Norton Anti-Raccoon)

[DesDownunder]

I'm sure I added a reply to this thread yesterday, but it appears to have not posted successfully *shrugs*

1. Gay teen moves to a new school/area and one of the first people he meets turns out to be gay (usually closeted) and becomes his boyfriend.

The other items I came up with have already been listed.

Yes I thought you had posted also, Graeme.

hmm.

The cliche itself is not so much a problem for me; it's the way it is written into the story that I find annoying.

So sorry Wibby, but I end up listing cliches with conditions.

Cliches can be overcome if the author would ask themselves, "Okay, that is a cliche situation, phrase or character. What can I do to make it different? How can I express the cliche differently?" Of course you may well find that someone else has done the same thing. The important thing is that you make the cliche your own for the story.

In no particular order:

1. Evil stepfather or mother with no saving graces. (Or in generic terms: two dimensional characters.)

2. The number of orgasms in a sexual encounter exceed the ability of the human body to sustain life, let alone interest in sex.

3. The listing of characters physical features as if they were filling out a chat-room profile.

4. Green eyes. Whatever happened to pale blue/grey eyes? Were they locked up by the fashion police?

5. SMS text abbreviations in the main body of text.

6. The church with the minister who hates gays.

7. The church with the minister who accepts gays.

8. The church with the minister who hates gays and then has rough sex with them. (Include other social institutions in this item.)

9. The gay high school boy who has a girl as his best friend. (Include, girl hates/forgives him when she finds out he is gay.)

10. The hero gets sufficient money from a lottery win, or dead relative's estate, that does away with any money worries for the rest of the story if not eternity.

I feel obliged to add that this list is far from extensive. Cliches are everywhere. Sometimes they can even be used effectively for good purpose in a story.

I also would say that I don't find stories without many heterosexual characters a worry. It is quite possible for a gay guy to live his life around his gay friends and acquaintances without being concerned with straight people, except on payday unless of course you have won that lottery.

The problem really becomes apparent however when like No. 1, straights are represented two dimensionally:

11. Straight characters are either for or against gays. (Many of them haven't even considered it.)

12. Policemen who are cruising for sex instead of patrolling for crime.

13. He moans, they moaned, I moan. (Why does no one groan anymore?)

14. Eyes that you can drown in.

There are several cliched words that I find particularly annoying and are dead give aways of the quality of the story you are reading.

Keeping it to relatively sanitary language I will mention but one:

15. Boy-pussy. (There are lots more where this comes from.)

But by far the single source of my disliked cliches in any story or film are those that have been adopted by the author from watching too much day-time TV soap opera. Particularly where the author is unaware of their influence.

These are second-rate cliches. (Is there such a thing as a first-rate cliche?) They have infiltrated the writings of so many authors, that I despair we can ever recover from their effect. I have heard the neighbours arguing at night, repeating the cliches from these soap operas (including gay references) that one of them heard during the day.

This in itself confirms Oscar Wilde's theory that "life imitates art."

I think however Oscar hadn't realised that 'art' could sink so low into the abyss of the cliche.

[DesDownunder]

After much discussion among the staff, we've installed Norton Anti-Australian* and it deletes random posts from down-under. We apologise for any inconvenience to any non-Australian. The rest of you lot, just suck it up :D

* From the makers of NAR (Norton Anti-Raccoon)

If it is anything like Norton Anti-Virus, we are in deep doo-doo.

[The Pecman]

Cliches can be overcome if the author would ask themselves, "Okay, that is a cliche situation, phrase or character. What can I do to make it different? How can I express the cliche differently?"

Great message, Des. And I agree 100% with this sentiment.

It's hard to stop sliding down the slippery slope of cliches. I think Nick Archer once deliberately wrote a short story that had every single cliche in it -- new kid moves to town, alarm clock goes off, kid's late for school, he runs into a handsome athlete in the hallway, immediately falls in love, the athlete is secretly gay, the kid's parents suddenly die and leave him a fortune, everybody accepts the kid being gay, and on and on and on. Puke city.

I spot cliches in my own writing all the time, and -- from the distance of a couple of years -- they really make me wince. One of them is the "lead character criticizes his appearance in the mirror" bit. Very lame. Every major book on writing warns against this. This is at least better than the lead character describing himself to the reader, which is usually enough to make me bail on the story immediately.

The other is the "best friend is secretly gay," and I plead guilty to doing that twice as well. In my case, I made the best friend bisexual, just trying to shake things up. And I went out of my way to justify it, so it didn't come totally from left field.

It takes a lot of courage and effort to avoid the cliche, but it can be done. I'm always glad to read a story where I go, "wow! I wasn't expecting that -- I gotta see where this thing is headed." You can't ask for more than that.

[Bruin Fisher]

My pet hate is the Eager Mouth.

Why in a sex scene does everyone have an 'eager mouth'? And what does a mouth look like when it's eager? Eager for what? If ever I'm eager, the source of that eagerness is my brain, not my mouth or any other body part.

I'm sure sometimes a participant sucks or licks something eagerly, but there are other more useful adverbs and adjectives to help the reader know what's going on and what it feels like.

Bruin

[R.J.]

I usually don't read this kind of thread because it makes me paranoid of my own writing. But I was bored, and I shouldn't have been. Anyway, most of stuff listed here are stuff I saw on some of the stories I like. But anyway, list on.

[DesDownunder]

I usually don't read this kind of thread because it makes me paranoid of my own writing. But I was bored, and I shouldn't have been. Anyway, most of stuff listed here are stuff I saw on some of the stories I like. But anyway, list on.

Don't worry about it Rad, We read the stories too. How do you think we know about the cliches?

Sometimes I think we secretly like some of the cliches. I'll let you guess which ones they might be.

[Tanuki Racoon]

Again, thanks for your efforts in this thread. The fruits of your labours will be either rewarded or punished depending on your views.

[The Pecman]

I usually don't read this kind of thread because it makes me paranoid of my own writing. But I was bored, and I shouldn't have been. Anyway, most of stuff listed here are stuff I saw on some of the stories I like.

Again, I agree with Des (and I'll have to stop that, or people will get suspicious).

All of us who write have been there, Rad, so don't get paranoid on us. Damn nearly one of these cliches is in my own stories, to a greater or lesser degree, but usually I was aware of it when it happened (not that that's necessarily a great excuse). But I tried to deflect the cliche as best I could by at least presenting it in a new context, or bending it as hard as I could.

There are very few things that cause me to hit the Exit button when reading online fiction. One of them is Nick's "let me introduce myself" cliche. Another one is the "teenagers immediately having sex with the intensity of a Falcon video porn star." Another is changing points of view (1st to 3rd, or 1st person to a different 1st person), which we've debated before here. Even then, if the writing grabs my interest, I might press forward.

I gotta say, though, it's been weeks (maybe months) since I've seen anything interesting on Nifty. There's some good new stuff here on AD, but Nifty has really slid down lately.

[DesDownunder]

At the risk of having The Pecman (and others) telling me it as an awful piece of writing, I refer you to my short story, "A Baby's Blog"

I dashed this off in a hurry for AD's April Fools' Day 2007, collection.

It was supposed to be a satire on blogging and immature story writing.

It is full of twisted cliches in bad taste.

Don't forget to let me know how much you detest it.