Suggestions on how to make cliche/parodies more obvious but not boring?

[Soumiyya]

Let me see if I can explain this right because when I tell you this dilemma has been on going for like 2 and a half years LOL

As a webcomic artist I feel like when I draw my stories it's super easy for me to make things so exaggeratedly cliche that people know it's a parody or that its uncanny/there will be a punchline or huge tonal shift, but because I'm new to sharing my novel precursors for them I've never really gotten suggestions outside of my best friend who I let read them (and she is way too nice to me to give critique ).

All of this to say that while I think a good amount of people caught on to the fact that the first few of chapters in my story are suppose to be sort of this almost uncannily stereotypical hero fantasy cliche with a hint or two that it's all a fake set up within this world that only the protagonist and female lead seem to be unaware of, I just personally feel like maybe I'm not making it clear enough.

I feel like maybe the main problem is that I want the readers to be unaware and find out along with the protagonist, however, unlike the protagonist who in his world has 0 awareness of novel tropes, the reader is privy to these cliches so I feel like the story reads boring until the tone shift happens which might cause readers to not even get that far. In webcomics its really easy because they read faster and you can easily condense things to get to that shift or rely on artistic tropes to sort of hint at it, but in writing I feel like you really have to hook a reader in the first few chapters for them to stick around and I'm just not experienced enought to figure out how to make my intention clear enough?

I hope what I'm asking is clear enough, but I think I even confused myself writing this

 

[AstreiaNyx]

I can’t give you advice unless I know what the cliche is. But adding a moment or two where the MC pauses and notices something that doesn’t quite make sense could help hint at something deeper than the cliche you’re setting up.

 

[Soumiyya]

I can’t give you advice unless I know what the cliche is. But adding a moment or two where the MC pauses and notices something that doesn’t quite make sense could help hint at something deeper than the cliche you’re setting up.

It's the really stereotypical hero goes to defeat the demon queen/king trope- the switch up is that the "demon kingdom" is actually a regular kingdom and the hero just doesn't know any better that he's being manipulated by his own country for political reasons his whole life, that he's not actually a hero at all he's just the unfortunate kid the empire chose as their pawn to try and take over that kingdom. You're right though, I do have some small foreshadowing as the hero notices things that aren't aligned with what he grew up knowing, but maybe I need to make them more blatant and stand out ?

 

[Echimera]

Maybe having other characters say or do some things that are just a bit off could work?

• someone has rehearsed his lines a bit to much and just keeps answering way faster than they should since they don't actually have to think about the questions
• someone that, for some reason, has to play two very different roles but keeps almost mixing them up
• someone is too eager to play their role and shows that by rushing though the scenario. Or, they are a child and are so happy to play their role that they keep squealing aver every scene (whenever the door closes after the main characters, there's happy squealing coming from the room)

 

[Soumiyya]

Maybe having other characters say or do some things that are just a bit off could work?

• someone has rehearsed his lines a bit to much and just keeps answering way faster than they should since they don't actually have to think about the questions
• someone that, for some reason, has to play two very different roles but keeps almost mixing them up
• someone is too eager to play their role and shows that by rushing though the scenario. Or, they are a child and are so happy to play their role that they keep squealing aver every scene (whenever the door closes after the main characters, there's happy squealing coming from the room)

Woah wait these are amazing ideas ??? thank you so much! Like suddenly I have a rush of several ways to incorporate this advice- I think I was focusing too much on the protagonist and how he feels internally that I didn't even think to make moments around him that are suspicious more so to the reader even if the protagonist might not pick up on all the of the subtleties.

 

[Zinless]

Truman would be proud

 

[ReiHayashi]

Here's my take on a well-known cliche in one of my chapters:

“Finally, the only-one-bed-left trope has arrived!” Alice exclaimed, clapping her hands together in excitement. “Este, aren’t you glad? We get to share a bed together! And here I was just wondering when the GL and smut tags will finally be relevant…”

Estella tilted her head in confusion. “Yes?”

“Um, I was going to say that this room is originally meant to accommodate two people,” Balian explained hastily, “so there are separate bedchambers with separate beds.”

Alice froze.

“You mean, there’s two beds inside the room?”

“Yes.”

“There’s no need to share a bed?”

“No, there’s no need to.”

“Really?”

“Yes…”

Alice looked like her soul had just withered away at that very moment. “Dear readers, I promise I’ll make it up to you next time…”

I'm sure some webcomics do this too, but basically you can let certain characters break the 4th wall and have some fun with the readers

 

[Soumiyya]

Here's my take on a well-known cliche in one of my chapters:

I'm sure some webcomics do this too, but basically you can let certain characters break the 4th wall and have some fun with the readers

thank you! Not only is this example helpful, but now you got me invested and in need of a good reading session of your novel I adore this type of humor

 

[Empress_Omnii]

Here's my take on a well-known cliche in one of my chapters:

I'm sure some webcomics do this too, but basically you can let certain characters break the 4th wall and have some fun with the readers

Your story definitely seems fun. But I must inquire how skipable is your smut?
I don't enjoy reading it, but the story might be worth trying regardless. (I'll still read through smut, I just rather not)

 

[ReiHayashi]

thank you! Not only is this example helpful, but now you got me invested and in need of a good reading session of your novel I adore this type of humor

Tysm! It's the reason why I put a 'Comedy' tag for my story

Your story definitely seems fun. But I must inquire how skipable is your smut?
I don't enjoy reading it, but the story might be worth trying regardless. (I'll still read through smut, I just rather not)

There's zero smut so far LMAO it's kinda of a running gag at this point (it's a slow burn )

 

[Empress_Omnii]

There's zero smut so far LMAO it's kinda of a running gag at this point (it's a slow burn )

Really!? The only reason I didn't l try it when it first came out was wariness of the tag...

 

[ReiHayashi]

Really!? The only reason I didn't l try it when it first came out was wariness of the tag...

Not to say that there will be no smut in the entire story, but I'm still a noob when it comes to writing sex stuff so I've been procrastinating (shh...)

 

[Empress_Omnii]

Not to say that there will be no smut in the entire story, but I'm still a noob when it comes to writing sex stuff so I've been procrastinating (shh...)

Unless you plan on making sexual content really common, I don't think smut is the right tag. It is intended for heavily erotic works, not everything with sexual content

 

[ReiHayashi]

Unless you plan on making sexual content really common, I don't think smut is the right tag. It is intended for heavily erotic works, not everything with sexual content

oh sheet i didn't know that...

 

[K_Jira]

I think the best way is to use the supporting characters. If it's comedy, maybe they can use kind of like a tsukkomi or comment on something that doesn't make any sense in their world but makes a lot of sense for the readers. Like, semi-breaking the fourth wall? If it's not comedy, describing the mismatch between the hero's knowledge and reality can also work and maybe show that the supporting characters seem as if they know something he doesn't / knows more than they let on / have knowledge from their previous scenario(?) runs but they're hiding it from him.

There's a lot you can play around with since the setting itself is fun. You can try doing it as you did with your webtoon, though I imagine that will require a lot of description. From there, you can tweak around to see how you can make it work.

 

[laccoff_mawning]

I don't think cliche is really about the larger parts of the story- It's more about the smaller details or lack of details.

For example, a woman transmigrating into a villianess? That's not the part that's cliche. The part that's cliche is where she wakes up in a four-poster bed with a bunch of servants wailing about her health after she tripped, then for her to apologise and all the servants gasp in shock that she apologised.

One is "setting", one is "you ripped this off all the other stories that have this identical scene in them, didn't you?"

 

[StoneInky]

Let me see if I can explain this right because when I tell you this dilemma has been on going for like 2 and a half years LOL

As a webcomic artist I feel like when I draw my stories it's super easy for me to make things so exaggeratedly cliche that people know it's a parody or that its uncanny/there will be a punchline or huge tonal shift, but because I'm new to sharing my novel precursors for them I've never really gotten suggestions outside of my best friend who I let read them (and she is way too nice to me to give critique ).

All of this to say that while I think a good amount of people caught on to the fact that the first few of chapters in my story are suppose to be sort of this almost uncannily stereotypical hero fantasy cliche with a hint or two that it's all a fake set up within this world that only the protagonist and female lead seem to be unaware of, I just personally feel like maybe I'm not making it clear enough.

I feel like maybe the main problem is that I want the readers to be unaware and find out along with the protagonist, however, unlike the protagonist who in his world has 0 awareness of novel tropes, the reader is privy to these cliches so I feel like the story reads boring until the tone shift happens which might cause readers to not even get that far. In webcomics its really easy because they read faster and you can easily condense things to get to that shift or rely on artistic tropes to sort of hint at it, but in writing I feel like you really have to hook a reader in the first few chapters for them to stick around and I'm just not experienced enought to figure out how to make my intention clear enough?

I hope what I'm asking is clear enough, but I think I even confused myself writing this

Maybe hint at it in the synopsis? And I agree with lanccoff_mawning. Make sure the cliches are used just as settings. And they are interesting, without just being boring cliches.