CIMG4238 Flint and Modesitt at the World Fantasy Convention 2006 panel on cliches in fantasy

CIMG4238 Eric Flint (left) and L. E. Modesitt on the It’s Not A Cliché… Yet panel at the World Fantasy Convention 2006

Read more about the “It’s Not A Cliché… Yet” panel in my blog post.

What it was about:

• The plight of famous authors, such as Shakespeare and J. R. R. Tolkien: creating imagery so powerful that it captures public imagination for centuries, inspiring thousands of imitators, has an ironic consequence.
• What fantasy cliche annoys writers and editors the most?
• Is it always necessary to try to avoid cliches? Can they be used deliberately?
• When is cliche not a cliche, but a useful shorthand? As much as cliches are ridiculed, don’t readers — and by extension, editors — secretly want them?

World Fantasy Convention 2006 took place in Austin, Texas, November 2-5, 2006.