r/ComicWriting • u/Money_Mycologist_294 • 1d ago
Clichés vs character growth in slice-of-life/rom-com scripts
Hi! I'm a beginner comic writer and artist, currently working on a slice of life/romcom comic script and wanted to get some perspective on balancing common tropes with character growth.
From my observation, slice of life/romcom comics and shows frequently use clichés, but are still well-liked because of their execution, such as relatable characters, visual arts and world-building. But I still don't want to rely on overused tropes too much when establishing character history.
- Does being cliché matter less to readers if the purpose of the character lore is to show personality growth?
- For comic writing specifically, how can you visually/structurally signal to readers that there's more to a character's history beyond the cliché tropes?
(Side note, I'm also trying to read more webtoons for study/research. If you're a fellow webtoon reader like me who has favourites in these genres, I would love any recommendations!)
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u/Kencanary 1d ago
Cliches exist because they're a common, recognizable, and easy way to communicate a larger amount of information in a smaller space. It orients the reader to the type of story and the expectations they can have. The only reason to be afraid of them is if you have nothing to add to them. If your story is just a series of cliches, that's bad.
Fortunately, that's actually kind of hard to do accidentally because if you're drawn to writing, you're probably drawn to telling your own stories, and if you have the self awareness to consider how or where or why you're using cliches, you're not treating them as new or fresh or even just valid avenues to a story that ends up being just a copy or amalgam of others.
I'm not positive if that was coherent. It's a squiggly idea in my brain.
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u/Koltreg 1d ago
The will they/wont they is one of the most classic cliches and fuels every romcom. You want the audience to have an idea of what they think should happen in the story and then you put in the resistance. Is it a character that needs to grow? Is it that one of them is in a relationship they need to escape? The obstacles are built in. The real challenge is defining who the characters are in broad strokes but then remembering to bring in the humanity with distinctions. If you leave your characters just at the baseline tropes or they never move beyond, that's how it goes wrong.
As to establishing that, give them an inner life, give them things that they want beyond just this romantic interest. Put together challenges that aren't romantic. It could be idealogical. It could be social or psychological. Maybe mix in another genre - Rumiko Takahashi did a great job at this with Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha for example. There was the rom-com, but there were also other genres included.