Round Up: Week Seven

Round Up: Week Seven

Prompt: As a writer, the number one thing we are told is “AVOID CLICHES AT ALL COSTS.” So this week, we’re writing with cliches. But--plot twist!--you have to earn your cliche. Does this mean it’s literal? Does this mean it’s figurative? Does this mean it has to prove a point and ends up as a terrible pun, as commonly happens in the comic strip Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis? IT DOESN’T MATTER! Just earn it.

Amanda

When I first read the prompt, I couldn’t think of any cliche worth writing a story about. So I went online and started going through lists of common cliches, but I didn’t feel much like browsing past the ‘a’ part of the list. So I picked a cliche I’ve liked since I was little for comedic potential- an apple a day keeps the doctor away. The night I wrote the story, I was trying to forget a super stressful event and felt at my wits end, so I created Alice. She may or may not be actually crazy, but she is certainly crazy fun. George is a pretty hopeless doctor, but in a small town, there aren’t many options and doctors are in high demand. Except in this town, where he can spend every day trying to get Alice to go to the hospital. Really, after a few days it was more about the game and outsmarting Alice than actually helping her get help… which is why he fails dramatically.

Bonus Fact: The title of my story is the scientific name for apples

Bonus Fact Two: Alice was already named when I discovered Alice is a kind of apple, which makes it so much better

MY VOTE: Kylie

Korrin

For my cliche I decided to go classic.  What is the most cliche cliche around? “The early bird gets the worm.” For those of you who are still going through your high school and college years, you know that ain’t neva gonna happen.  However, that is what all of our mother’s tried to tell us when they wanted us to finally get out of bed at 10:00 a.m.  They made it seem like you could accomplish anything if you got up early enough.  Even vanquish your life-long nemesis.  

I thought it would be very comical to have the story be literal.  It is told from the birds perspective.  There is a very crafty worm who is obviously a bully because how dare he not want to get eaten. Jerk.

I wrote it short on purpose. Half because I thought short would be a good way to tell the story, the bird’s last thoughts before he goes to bed on the eve of his victory, and half because I didn’t really feel like writing a lot today. I just watched the season finale of The Flash and am not super happy right now.  Anyway, that’s my view on it.

MY VOTE: Amanda

Kylie

Oh, cliches. Aren’t you always the most fun?

Another rough week of “I want to do this idea! Kylie, do this idea! Why isn’t this working? I JUST WANT TO FORCE YOU TO USE THIS IDEA STOP BEING A JERK!” Luckily, my mom had just seen a post about where different cliches come from, and she gave me my inspiration. So I changed to “dead ringer,” which I thought would give me a lovely horror story. Instead, I got this kindly police officer who still can’t get over the family notifications. If this isn’t how the police actually work, then oops yolo sorry not sorry (for now). I watch a lot of Law and Order, but other than that, I’m pretty clueless as to how the police actually work. Anyways, I’m actually very pleased with how this turned out. This is another piece I’d definitely consider taking to a large workshop.

MY VOTE: Amanda

Next week’s prompt:

There is a certain musical artist named Taylor Swift (don’t worry if you haven’t heard of her, it will be okay) who posted a video for her song “Bad Blood” about a month ago. This video features several bada** girls fighting and being awesome. Your task is to write a story about one of these girls- their origin story, an epic fight with their nemesis, a mission they were sent on, whatever. Just pick one of the strong female characters and use her as your lead.