Sometimes It's Better Not to Be Original

 This entry is sure to be as popular as a sweater made out of pubic hair.  First it's about writing.  Second it involves a movie I watched on Rifftrax.  Third I'm going to use some sports metaphors.  And fourth I led with a tasteless joke.  But I need one more entry before the A to Z Challenge so I'm just gonna do it anyway.

So I bought one of the newer Rifftrax movies, this 1995 kung-fu disasterpiece called For Life or Death.  The basic premise was actually pretty marketable.  This kung-fu master is in LA and after fighting bad guys, transfers his consciousness into a white homeless guy.  So you think the movie is going to be like Robocop, Darkman, The Crow, or Chance of a Lifetime where there's a guy who dies (or almost so) and miraculously comes back to life to take revenge with his new power--or her new power in the case of the last one.  It's kind of a cliché at this point but it's a solid cliché, especially for a low-budget kung-fu movie in the 90s.

Unfortunately the movie makes a couple of bad decisions to steer away from the standard tropes.  A bad guy kills the homeless guy for...reasons and then the good guy transfers his consciousness into the homeless guy for...reasons.  At first I thought the kung-fu guy did it because the bad guys had sort of a psychic link with him and transferring to the homeless guy might break that.  Then he can come back and kill them all without them suspecting anything, right?  Well, no, because somehow the bad guys know he's in the homeless guy.  And then a lot of confusing bullshit happens and the whole thing becomes a mess when it could have been pretty straightforward if they'd just tried to be a little less original.

Writers are of course told to avoid clichés, and yet that's not strictly true.  Cliché phrases can be especially annoying if overused.  Cliché plots are often less so to most people.  I mean look how many times the one I've referenced has been used.  Or how many Marvel movies have the same basic Iron Man-type plot.  But hey, we've seen with more recent Marvel movies what happens when they get away from that, right?  Just like that crappy kung-fu movie they end up making a mess; a much more expensive mess.

In sports there's the idea of "take what they give you."  In football, if a defense is jamming up the line of scrimmage to stop the run then you throw the ball.  If the defense is focused on defending the deep pass then you throw the ball short or run.  If all the receivers are covered but no one is watching the quarterback, he might decide to take off running.

It's true in other sports as well.  If a pitcher is throwing inside then the batter might adjust his stance and swing.  Or the same if the pitcher is working the outside corner.  If the pitcher throws mostly fastballs then you look to hit one of those.  In basketball the defense might be protecting the 3-point shot or trying to keep the offense from going inside for a layup or dunk.  Even in golf there's the idea that you don't necessarily want to just hit the ball as hard as you can all the time; sometimes the golfer will hit it a lot softer to avoid a sand or water trap.  Or instead of trying a really long putt, the golfer might just try to get the ball somewhat close to the hole to make it easy to get in two shots.

And no one but an idiot would criticize a team or athlete in any of those situations.  It would just be dumb to keep running the ball if the other team is defending that--unless you're just trying to run out the clock.  It'd be dumb for a golfer to mash the ball right into the water instead of hitting it a little softer to stay on the green.

Sometimes writers (and filmmakers) need to just take what the story gives you.  I can appreciate creativity or at least trying to be less like a cliché.  Like how Batman v Superman tried not to be a Marvel movie.  The result was not great but I appreciated the attempt.  Most of the time, though, it just winds up a mess that would have been better off with less attempting to be original.  Not that original is necessarily bad; it's just a lot harder to do properly.

Next time you worry about your plot being cliché, just tell yourself that you're taking what the story is giving you.  As long as you're not directly plagiarizing like "AI" then the story will still be your story.  I mean Chance of a Lifetime uses the same basic story as those movies I mentioned and yet it is definitely its own thing and most people liked it.  So what if it uses a cliché plot?

Playing it safe isn't always such a bad idea--especially when you're trying to sell books.  I suppose I could mention that sometimes when I've gotten away from the usual gender swap-type story it most of the time doesn't go that well.  The audience wants what it wants and they vote with their dollars.  You want those dollars then give them what they want.  Now wait for the comments to not come rolling in.