: Re: Trying to avoid being cliché Has opening a story with something like "I hurtled to my death", "I had destroyed the earth", or other outlandish statements like these become cliché? And if so,

@Carla500

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Depending on the tone of your book, you can make that work for you by making subsequent text sarcastic, funny, meta, or the intro to a flashback.

I had destroyed the earth. Okay, it was just a bit of dirt in a test tube. And I didn't really destroy it; I just washed it down the drain. Fine, I was cleaning up after my lab partner. Yes, she ditched me. Again.

I hurtled to my death. This one would probably hurt a bit more than the last three; Reichenbach Falls was taller than the roof of the hospital. Still, there was nothing for it but to wait until I hit, regenerated, and woke up at the beginning of the next story. What pastiche writers lacked in originality they certainly made up for in persistence.

I had destroyed the earth. At last. A ragged cheer rose from the survivors behind me, growing and swelling until the air was so thick with hosannas and applause and shouts of relief that I thought I might go deaf. And if you think that sounds strange, you should hear how I got here.

"I have destroyed the earth! And now I will go on to wipe out the sun! And the —" Gorbo's ranting was cut short by a quick blast from Captain Amazing's laser pistol. "I hate it when they brag," she grumbled.

And so on. If you can't rewrite the cliché, subvert it.

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