Writing Cliches to Avoid | SCI-FI 

Woah, boy is this an old video. Thanks for all the new views guys, it means a lot! Just dropping in to say one thing. I should have been clear in this video that some of these things are more appropriately considered 'Tropes' rather than cliches. The good news is that I did a video talking about the important differences ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XCeTv6nFYT4.html

One that really bugs me is single biome planets. You're flying around in your spaceship, and you come across a desert planet, or a forest planet, or an ice planet. And I mean, sure, those exist (well, we've never found a forest planet), but surely anything we'd be able to inhabit would have some variability. There are times when you're not going to see much of a planet, and not for very long, so that makes sense, but don't rely on that too much. If a planet's important, put a bit more effort into it.

If I can relate to a crinkled soda can I can relate to a non-human-looking alien.

When it comes to aliens, the visual appearance of a character (be it human or not) outweighs their personality. It's how we have evolved and how our brains work. We are hard-wired to read expressions and faces and we're so good at that, that we can see faces there where there are none. This is why faceless aliens are scary for us. While it's possible to like an alien species for their personalities we need to be invested in the story. Most people don't want to be bothered and will just move on to the next alien, that's designed to look cute or kind or relatable. Still, there ARE ways to create aliens or monsters that are attractive in one way or another but that takes a lot of time and expertise and a character designer who is familiar with the anatomy of a wide spectrum of animals and who knows some level of psychology. An example for likable monsters are Guillermo del Toro's designs, buuuut they are also human-like.

Oooh yes, the whole “one president per planet” thing always sort of confused me, thanks for calling it out!

I understand the issue of humanoid aliens in TV and films due to budget contraints and effects can just look a bit shit. But in comics and non visual media like books or audio you can literally make your aliens look like ANYTHING.

Holy cow, I've never noticed the crystal thing, so true

I always sigh a little bit when I read Scifi names like "New" London, "New" Paris or "New" Madrid. Peronally I cant wait for a story that takes place in "New New" New York... Get it?

For the first cliche if you ever watch live action sci-fi shows and movie and play sci-fi games you kinda get why the "humanoid aliens" cliche is more of a necessary evil than just pure laziness. When it comes to movie production and especially tv protection, making stuff of quality takes a lot of time and money. If you want a non humanoid alien you have to go with puppets or cg. Puppets take time and definitely money to make, along with hiring puppeteers and a voice actor for the puppet and to upkeep it, and god forbid something happens to that puppet that cost tens of thousands of dollars. And that all just for ONE puppet. To make a good looking puppet and one that can move around, with all that cost its easy to see why a lot of movies and tv switch to cgi, but cgi certainly has a lot of downsides. Having the cgi character fit in with the rest of the live actors still takes up time and money to produce, but certainly avoids the hassle of puppets and a lot of times the cost. Mvoies are getting better with cgi aliens but for tv forget it, that cost way too much to produce on a weekly bases. The best they can do to make up for such a typical humanoid form is to back it up with good lore. So if you want to be a cheapskate or dont have time for puppets and cgi, just slap some paint on an actor, call it an alien and call it day. But see for video games they dont have the problem. Because there's no live action and everything is a model, you can be as crazy as you want for the aliens because they have NONE of the restrictions of a live action movie. Thats why I love the alien designs from Halo and Mass Effect because they look... well... ALIEN! The worse out of them is definitely the asari (lets not kid ourselves, they're basically just meant to be the alien space babes) But overall if you're looking for interesting alien designs, video games are where it's at.

I feel like you just described every plot point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Meth heads are powered by crystals in breaking bad. I think that series could be coincided sci fi.

Just so you know, a crystal in a lightsaber does not power it. It's a focusing crystal. A lightsaber is powered by a power cell.

I don't read much sci-fi either, but I like Ray Bradbury. Most everyone has to read Fahrenheit 451, but The Martian Chronicles are good, too. Highly recommend :)

I kind of hate how futuristic sci-fi cities are almost always dystopian, and how most sci-fi writers who tell stories about advanced AI always have them reach self-awareness and turn on humans. Which, these fall more into the trope category and are still very popular, but I think they're pretty overused. As he said, the difference between trope and cliche can be subjective.

I said it once, I’ll say it again. Space cows. Where they at Edit: space cow poop as a fuel source. Another reason space cows are a good idea. Space cows space cows space cows that are intelligent please

Can you do another of Sci-Fi cliches? There's so many subgenre cliches that you can touch upon. This is an amazing (and informative) backbone for what Sci-Fi is hindered by, but I would love further exploration into it.

Humanoid aliens aren't necessarily a bad thing. If it's true that the reason we've never met aliens is because we're the first intelligent life to rise; then you could follow that line of thought to say that since we're the most advanced intelligence to form then its possible that the humanoid form is the most efficient form for intelligent life.

This has helped me a LOT for my writing project

i read a lot of science fiction, and I write a tidbit... but my least favorite thing in all science fiction is single biom planets. ...that's... that's not how planetary science works! Oh this planet with a hyper advanced civilization on it is a jungle world! And the planet where out protagonist grew up is a desert planet with no plants, but it definitely has oxygen. So stupid.

The only time that an Earth-President was well done, I think, was in Futurama.

so basically avoid every aspect of star trek and star wars

The thing that ticks me off the most about humanoid aliens is that given what we know of evolution by natural selection, we have no reason to believe that intelligent life has to look anything like us. Different aliens would love on planets with varying gravity and they'd be all sorts of different sizes and densities. They'd need to have limbs that can effectively manipulate the environment whether they are hands or tentacles or potentially even telekinesis. They're not going to be kryptonians that look identicle to us. They're not going to be twi'leks that look like blue humans with skin for hair. Where this would work, and would work VERY well, is in a sci fi setting where humans have been living on different planets for millions of years. That's how you naturally get aliens looking like green humans or humans with gills, etc etc

: I'm adding this to prevent someone copying my idea. Hearing gems power tech and its cliche, Me: Damn... As in alot of my Sci-Fi story is related to a mineral which crashed on the planet of and was native to another and it helped quickly. But its relevant only really at the of the story. The substance is a which can be into a .

I absolutely hate it when things go faster than the speed of light. It's not just because it doesn't make sense if you know the physics behind it But it's also just an overused way of dealing with astronomical distances, and I'd like to see more variety in the approaches to this problem.

As a sci-fi reader, I read almost exclusively sci-fi and a little bit of fantasy. Here are some thoughts. There is one inherent problem with unlimited power, and this is the word unlimited. The good sci-fi is always more concerned with limitations than possibilities. Limitations allow you to create drama which is easy for a reader to understand. The fleet can't reach a destination in time, because of limitations created by speed and distance. The warning about invasion can't be spread fast enough because there is no FTL comm. Limitations force you to be creative. Otherwise, any kind of world-building without limitations devolves into an arbitrary mess (see MCU).

I feel like the reason why near-human aliens are so common is due to film, where having characters with different body structures, wholly alien features, or even more aberrant biology might require a lot more special effects, which drives up the cost/budget. While green skin is achievable with a bit of makeup. It's a simple fix for books and other purely textual forms since describing strange creatures doesn't cost extra, and it's up to the artist/writer/s for comics format since weird biology might need weird details, but doesn't need to be especially harder than drawing humanoid forms.

After watching your cliche to avoid videos about this and fantasy I'm kind of happy that I didn't fall into a trope/cliche. Thank you for these videos!!

I like SyFy movies, but the SyFy books are beyond me.

One of my favorite cliches is humanoid aliens. It's nice and pulpy.

The relatable alien: "Our worlds are in peril, Mrtbdh'rhkg. We have to stand together." *Click-clack, beep* "Is that a yes? Universal translator would be such a cliche to use."

The crystal and the bar thing sure happens in a lot of sci-fi stories or books. Also the humanoid aliens just Idk aren’t so mysterious or something...Anyway, thanks mate! I needed this. I’m planning to write my own sci-fi book, so this sure helped me to avoid these cliches.

Is it weird that i really love alot of these tropes and cliches, maybe its just because i like alot of old sci fi that people consider bad

I’m 13 and I’m writing my own comedy sci fi cartoon that I want to make when I’m older. Inspiration from family guy, futurama, and stuff like that. This is helpful, I mean that too. I can’t wait to get back to writing.

That last one is hilarious. You'd think by now that aliens would learn not to "connect" (?) themselves to the boss, knowing that's the main target

U forgot dodging laser shot or hi - tech body armored soldier pinned down after getting one shot

These videos are so good

The humanoid aliens (green skinned humans) is also partially from budget and time. When you're making a TV show and you only have a week to make an episode and only have so much money for costumes, well...paint 'em green and slap a wig on 'em. Cheaper than making a costume with external rigging like the Xenomorph.

I disagree personally with the "One leader" being a cliche. Statistically, the VAST majority of human governments throughout history have been autocratic in some form or another. A single individual who seizes or inherits power is a phenomenon which happens so often, it hardly seems unlikely in the rest of the universe. Implementing alien psychology can explain how the society advanced and reached for the stars, and interesting philosophies can unfold when given that kind of diversity. Should you fight your own battles, or should something protect and watch over you? Would you rather be tied down by a dictator, or by stifling and inefficient bureaucracy? Do the common people know what's best for them? Are the people willing to risk oppression for the promise of a benevolent ruler? Or would they rather risk the shortcomings of democracy in exchange for something more stable?

6:20 Actually even in our own human history whenever civilizations encountered each other it was very common for the leader of the more affluent region to be given the title of head of the entire region (by the outsiders) despite not being so. A comparison would indeed be if an alien ship came down today, they would go straight to the american president and amongst themselves call him/her the "leader of earth" despite knowing that he's not actually the recognized leader of the entire planet. But they would still call him that whilst talking amongst themselves because that is the leader with the most influence today while they ignore the leaders of all the other nations. You can find examples of just this exact thing happening throughout human history in fact.

I agree that the humanoid aliens thing is a bit overdone, but there are a couple of good reasons for that. 1. There is a theory in evolutionary science that the human body, in terms of its overall shape and set of functions, is optimized for our level of self-awareness, communication, and intelligence. Thus, any species that we'd interact with would have a fair chance of looking like us. 2. Creatures that look more human are easier to relate to, as you said.

Even in a fantasy sense, using crystals for power is a trope and, in terms of screenplay, a convenience. In my main, it's possible to imbue crystals with magic for storage or extra-magical use. It's just convenient given that crystals are pieces of earth and, if you have earth magic, they are an easily explained wrinkle for the plot. I've also seen them used as a storage device for information like on that episode of Sliders and for the spaceships on Stargate. They can be used to focus light for lasers, as well. There's a lot of play available when using crystals. In screenplay, they are also a convenient McGuffin that is easily shaped, created, and colored. The bar scene is also convenient. There's no suspension of disbelief. It's a bar. There's alcohol and food. If it's a bar that is popular, most if not all of the big-name characters are going to meet there. As such, the likelihood of an important character showing up there is significant. Don't introduce your protagonist there, but a seedy or rebellious deuteragonist is well suited to be introduced there.

The best looking aliens are the lovecraftian aliens. Just look at the Yuggoth fungi, the elder things, and the great race of Yith.

1 - When approaching a planet, spaceship remains pointed towards it and fires its thrusters at full power... as if it wanted to crash into it. 2 - Particle beam weapons that go pew-pew - instead of a silent ( and constant ? ) beam. Put your ear to a lazer pointer, it doesn't go "pew-pew". 3 - Speaking of which: Photons travel at light speed and advanced machines would have superhuman reflexes and accuracy, so why do robots miss when they fire lazers ? Ever ? 4 - Spaceships that have a spinning section ( to simulate gravity ) and a static section - rather than just spinning the whole damn thing.

the Rowdy space bar part is in guardians of the galaxy

Sci-Fi Writers: Single biome planets and one dimensional species, la la la, la la. Me: Still waiting on that big Sci-Fi Fantasy Hybrid saga...

Okay. 1. It is commonly believed that the more a species evolves the more likely it is to walk up right and have a more simplistic frame. The creator of star trek claimed to have "channeled" this information from what we call aliens. 2. Crystals as a power source is over used in fantasy more than sci-fi. Obviously it doesn't belong in this video. 3. It would take a global effort to become a space dwelling race wich obviously would have to be run by a global government or system. You just got beef with sci-fi bro. Admit it lol

New subscriber (today), really enjoying your videos. Have you done a self-publishing vs. Amazon (or similar) vs. traditional route of getting a agent & getting your manuscript published that way?

Oh god that last one though irritates the crap out of me. Bees have a hive mind and do you know what happens when you kill their queen? They replace her and sting the hell out of you. Thanks for the good video. Keep writing, my friend.

1) Unless human immigrate to another pla,net and later, their physionomy change. Spoke is a human looking alien, who hapenned to be an hybrid. Thought Vulcan used to have a DNA similar to human. The difference that they have pointy ears and thick eyebrown. 2) For me, Brain is the best power. If it is the crystal the power source, it will be for placebo effect. Much like rock on a therapy seance. 3) I agree! We have multiple place! How about school? Or being adopted? 4) Like earth, they are multiple presidents as there are multiples cultures and multiple country. This should hapenned on other planet. 5) A worst way to end to show how the opponent is stupid and didn't think of anything. We won't stupid foes in battle! I didn't notice the French flag at the background! Puis-je l'avoir, s'il vous plaît? Well, Science-fiction requiere a lot of scientific knowledge and philosophy. They are many thing that the author cannot escape such as divergence of philosophy, creating multiple society and controlling themself to survive and not ending the species.

This whole video is obviously directed at me personally 😂

This seems to be more space fantasy cliches over actual science fiction cliches

My only problem with the list is that #4 is basically a requirement if the Sci-Fi world you build expands to more than two planets. You say to look at our world as a basis for what a planetary government would look like but we fail to see how goddamn slow our system of allied governments are. In the US alone it can take up to several years for a single law to be passed and that doesn't even cover that actual transition of a law into the public awareness and function. Laws and shifts of political power within the US take time as and applying that to what is going to be a large, planet spanning government isn't going to be terrible. If it takes the leaders of one planet up to a decade to decide on certain laws and executive decision how long do think it would take for a system of planets to do so. The reason why the 'One Leader Per Planet' deal is done a lot in Sci-Fi is so that audiences are given quick and easy understandings on how those governments work as well as showing that the world's governments are flexible enough to move forward at the speed of a relatively healthy snail.

"Crystals power everything" But there's uranium?

I do agree with that ''one president per planet'' is kinda cliche, but I guess that would depend on the amount of technology. It takes about 6 hours for me to go by airplane to the US from Northern Europe (different countries/continents and different types of leadership - Say in a solar system, with highly developed technology and access to wormholes, hyperspeed or whatever, maybe it wouldn't take much more time to get from one planet to another, maybe they are the same people that simply migrated to a nearby planet? And also I think it would depend on the planets geological set up. Say the entire planet is largely water and ice with one or two landmasses the size of Australia, well that would basically be as large as Russia so it could possibly work with having just one leader. But yea, this is taking all those things into account. If you are going to have a large planet with a lot of inhabitants that would probably not be very realistic.

Convergent evolution is not necessarily a trope. Birds will look like birds and fish like fish on other worlds because form follows function. It is very possible sentient beings tend to have a huminiod shape...

1. No sound in space2. No sound in space3. No sound in space

welp i'm subbing cause this was a good quality video, I've been looking for ideas for a space smuggler story that isn't star wars type but star wars type at the same time. So thank you, you helped me start so now I need to just get through righting chapter one lel. So far I titled chapter one The Score.

Firefly kinda broke the cliche. But wouldn't sound in space be muffled? Of course some people would think the sound is messed up. Plus I don't mind the alien cantina. Edit; the 'power crystal' also appears in fantasy. Arcane and a cancelled game called The Grinder.

Been watching your vids for a while and I have no idea why I hadn't subscribed. SUBSCRIBED! ;^D

1. I generally agree about the bar cliche, but that one is bigger than sci fi. This is one of many areas where Le Carre shines in spy novels. There are bar scenes, but he seems to prefer to involve athletics in the beginning of spy stories. 2. The monolithic government. I think the reason sci fi has planets governed by one political power isn't just to simplify the narrative. I'll give the expananse as an example. The colonization of space requires that the planet exist as a stable social whole, or the tensions we see between mars and earth would be multiplied as multiple sub-earth factions jockey for control. It seems that some type of planetary unification is necessary for a species to become truly spacefaring. I'll agree sub-factions can make a planet more interesting, but there are logics to why worlds unify this way. 3. Defeating the main enemy defeats the entire army. Back to general agreement, it's frequently not great, but it has its own logic by forcing the heroes to find an achilles heel, and multiply the effect that they are known to be the heroes of the universe. I'd steer clear if possible, but it's a very accessible way to accomplish these two things.

The alien bar is a funny thing. See, I agree that it is WAY overused. However, we, as human writers, only have human history to pull from when creating things in the science fiction or space opera genre. Across all cultures in human history, there have been two fairly universal things: the social imbibing of alcohol (and other drugs) and religious practices of some kind. People tend to get more uncomfortable when you bring religion into the setting (unless it's the "religion is evil" statement, for some reason), so it makes sense to go the other way and lean into our historical need to inebriate ourselves. There's a very interesting book called "Drunk" that looks at historical evidence and suggests that agriculture might have originally developed as a means to create alcohol for consumption. Even the common myth that humans drank alcohol because it was the best way to purify water is debunked, because in China they were boiling their water and making tea from VERY early on, yet they still developed alcohol and it became a major part of the society.

This was so helpful!

I have a general concept, argument/theme, characters, but always have trouble choosing the main plots conflict.. does the military (in my story) encounter cyborgs? Aliens? Something supernatural? A parasite? Some sort of disease? Perhaps even alternative versions of themselves (the humans who discover the “thing”) I can dream up a million different scenarios and never know which is right…

Thank you so much cam I need this!!!!

I'm just starting to create my universe and I had already thought of crystals as a source of energy... hahaha thanks for the advice

Humanoid aliens are unrealistic, but they can serve a variety of purposes in a story. In a film, humanoids can be played by actors in makeup rather than spending a bunch of extra time and money on CGI or practical effects in creating giant dinosaur aliens. And in games, intelligent species need to be similar in size to the human characters to have meaningful interactions or act as shopkeepers, for example. And when you consider that many alien stories are actually about some contemporary issue on earth, such as colonialism or climate change, it makes sense to make your aliens seem more human to therefore make them more relatable. The movie Avatar (the one with the blue aliens, not the airbender) might not have been as successful if the creators had gone for extreme realism and made all the aliens into ugly eldritch monsters.

okay, so will it be good if I make that aliens have mainly humanoid shape but they barely have anything in common with humans? For example, one of the characters is well... she has everything of a cute and even strikingly beautiful woman... but nope, its an insect with booba. And humanoid shape. The differences are all the elements: soft skin is not there, we have chitinous shell which maybe can be close to chainmail, but mostly its all monolithic, mouth is lipless too - u will be cut each time she kisses you, I guess, - her eyes can work differently... its a human, but as seen by those who experienced stroke: resembles something, but I cannot say what exactly it is

Having aliens be humanoid with human like civilizations and societies is something that bothers me a lot, but you just can't help it.

I'm somewhat confused about why you think a trope and a cliche are the same thing, because they're really not. A trope is a pattern in fiction, for whatever that entails, and a cliche is a trope that consistently lacks originality, and is done over and over again the same way each time. a trope isn't bad, it's completely unavoidable to write a trope, at least to some extent.

When you did "the internet" part, I knew you were an inteligent man.😂💯

A problem arises with the phrase, is that the definition can be stretched thin to the point that anything that's ever been in anything else technically counts.

I'd just say do not use "tropes" and "clichés" interchangeably, they're not the same thing. Tropes are conventions or elements that you use as building blocks to create your story. Clichés are tropes that are overused and/or outdated. So all clichés are tropes, but not all tropes are clichés.

Fast forward through opening fluff to 2:20 for start of content :)

This is not me being defensive, but rather me just extrapolating. With most aliens being humanoid, my argument would be that if humans are the most evolved species on Earth, wouldn't the most evolved species on any other planet be humanoid as well, just adapted to the differing gravities, temperatures, etc.?

You forgot about technobable

You must make profile of the government of a story especially it's laws for it to be consistent

I'm cool with human aliens like in Battlestar Galactica 04 or star trek/wars

what if there was bar scene, but the charecters find out the bar is serving people. they end up killing the owner

Well, aliens can look however you want, but they'd probably follow basic evolutionary rules. For example, what's the evolutionary advantage of having 4 arms, or having green skin? If you can explain that reasonably go for it. Aliens like... i don't know... Jabba the Hutt, they need to look like that for some reason.

It's a little frustrating that you don't offer much in the way of alternatives. Like, what would be some alternatives to introducing the rowdy mercenary at a bar? You could have him at a sporting event, but then whoever goes to meet him needs a ticket, while you don't need to pay a dime to enter a bar. You could show him on the in-setting equivalent of a bus, but that's just boring. Seriously, no suggested alternatives whatsoever?

some sci-fi are using 'crystallized energy' which is contained high amount of energy per space, like a kind of battery.

A good way to get around humanoid aliens is animating, take Rick and Morty, they go around the galaxy and you find multi-headed aliens, dust aliens, heck, even weird like blob things sometimes, just have fun and make some weird characters.

in raymond fiests magician series, the aliens are split off from their homeworld, and they retreat into a highly defensible position. then after diplomacy, they end up living in peace with the others, as a vassal state.

I once had a dream where spider aliens were invading and since no one understood what they were saying, no one understood that they were looking for their stolen young and some trigger happy idiots started a war

I'm more interested in writing human aliens like from star wars, stargate, battlestar galactica

Working on a novella of sorts and all I can say is thank you

Titan ae showed that pretty well. I didnt see many humanoids come to think of it. Everybody had their own look. Even the drej

What I'm writing about is a story where in the year 2325 there's this Martian ex soldier who lived in peace for a while but then is pulled back to the life of war where he once ran from, there's no alien or fantasy crap since I keep it as realistic as possible in the technical parts and parts of military doctrine

Single biome, leader, culture, ethnicity and language planets. Maybe have a bit more diversity, especially with language

So, after some 100 years of Sci-Fi everything is a trope? So what? IF there are aliens maybe the physics of the Universe can only produce humanoids. The Aliens will be as sick to death with the idea as we seem to be. As Page Nomad says, fuck-it, I'm happy with tropes as long as it's not too like another one I've read.

Talking about Non-Humanoid Aliens....I always felt sorry for the Horta on Star Trek "Devil in the dark" (original series 1960's). It was just a single mom...only trying to protect her silicon eggs for Pete's Sake!!!

... maybe... when you blow up the mothership gets blown up... what if SOME died?

There is that theory that if we were to encounter other forms of intelligent life, they’d look similar to us, so the humanoid trope isn’t a problem, especially since fantasy giants are usually very large humans and fantasy vampires are usually pale humans with fangs. The biological differences should be obvious, of course, but giving them two arms and two legs can work if you make an effort to make your entire sci fi world have creative racial, animal, and robot designs vary. Look at Doctor Who, for instance. Some aliens are almost completely human in every way while others look so otherworldly that they’re barely comparable to humans.

The last one is the worst of the bunch. As for the "president of Earth" one, I think it makes sense, after first contact, that an advanced species would have a unified government, even if its function is restricted to interactions with other planets/species

Using LED O rings, they are so distracting especially for close up head shots where your eyes are just Android like

I personally prefer aliens that don't look like humans, because aliens who say look like Cthulu nightmares like they are made of tentacles or have an insectoid appearance can be just as interesting, aliens who look non human are often bepicted as being scary and I think that can be a bit racist, I'd say an easy fix would be if one of your human characters has learning disabilities and is the only one that can really relate to the alien

bro what's up with your pupils edit: not trying to be rude, but your pupils are very intriguing for some reason

The first cliché can be said about fantasy too, still not an argument for avoiding the cliché.

No. Know it or don't give advice for it. Hearing what people say is much different from knowing your source material

I read sci fi and I honestly don't think any of these are that bad.