Are clones an overused trope?

[ckatt]

I wrote a story recently that had a clone as a central character. I had it critiqued on the OWW and a few of the reviewers said that the story wouldn't go anywhere because clones are cliche. I'm aware that there are a lot of clone stories out there and maybe my story isn't doing something new enough but one reviewer said basically "You are wasting your talent writing about clones." I've never encountered this kind of thing before.
Aliens, time travel, space ships, sentient AI, these are the staples of science fiction.
Are clones not on that list? Are people sick of clones?

 

[Dave]

I've no idea about your story so I cannot comment on that. However, an individual is a result/function of both their genetic make-up and their environment. Identical Twins are clones, yet I've never met pairs of identical twins with the same personality, and to underline that, they even have different fingerprints. So, any story that purports to say that clones are all alike is nonsense. Those cliché stories that create a clone of Hitler, without any of Hitler's upbringing, education and experiences are even worse. Worst of all, are the stories that fast age clones so they become the same age as the original subject. How does that work? As a cliché the idea of someone taking the place of someone else is far older than the idea of cloning. It's at least Shakespearean, if not earlier.

However, there are stories that use clones correctly. Without putting much thought into this, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is a perfectly fine example. The TV series Orphan Black played upon the differences between the clones and while it did become rather unbelievable towards the end, I think it didn't cross any of my lines.

 

[alexvss]

Which trope is not overused? You have to twist the trope in a way that only you could have done it.

I liked the clones in Invincible. A villain, who is a cientist, always has a clone of himself, but the twist that the clone always thinks he's the original. That means we never know who the original is (even the one that appeared first in the story may be a clone), and they do that in a funny way.

 

[ckatt]

So, any story that purports to say that clones are all alike is nonsense.

Yes, I concur with that.
My story is about a man raising a child that is a clone of himself. But I'm not looking for feedback on my story. I just found it odd that more than a few readers said: "good story, great characters" a few even lauded the fact my clone was not as you describe in the cliché Hitler stories.
Anyway, I'm not losing any sleep over it. Might just be a coincidence that a couple of clone haters happened to read my story. It just made me very curious, since I had more than one person telling me "great story, too bad it's about clones."

 

[psikeyhackr]

Maybe there is an excess of bad clone stories because the authors do something dumb with clone technology. FTL is a heavily used trope but if the story is bad I doubt that it is because of the FTL.

 

[tinkerdan]

I think it's how integral to the plot that the clone might be.
I too wrote a clone centered story.
However, I tried to step out of the usual tropes I'd seen with clones.
In my story it is integral to the story that she is a clone and how she was created fits into vital parts of the major threads in the plot.
However, the story is about so much more than just clones and I don't think the clone part holds sway over the whole story.

No one so far has complained about the clone part. A few other complaints--but definitely not about there being clones.

As far as wasting talent, I have to think that person might have had something else in mind, because if you write well it doesn't matter what you write about; although it does make a difference if what you write about is not marketable and you are out to make money.

Cloning is a real thing; not so much cloning of humans. But the reasons for delay in human cloning brings so many rich ideas to the table that the real threat is whether your subject might be too controversial.

Or maybe not controversial enough.

 

[ckatt]

As far as wasting talent, I have to think that person might have had something else in mind,

Could be. I probably wouldn't think twice about it except I had a few reviews back to back saying some version of this.

 

[Juliana]

I'm reading Victories Greater Than Death, which is a brand new book release by Charlie Jane Anders, and the main character is a clone, so honestly, I'd say same rule for any trope: if well done and with a fresh twist, anything goes!

 

[Parson]

I think the whole "it's cliché" is more about personal taste than about stories. If you write a great story it's clichéness is unimportant. I would guess that the idea of "guy meets girl and they fall in love" would have to be as cliché as it gets and yet there are probably 100's of well read and well respected books that are cliché in that manner every year.

So, if you've got a good clone story. Go for it. The story is the main thing.

 

[Biskit]

If we worried about tropes and cliches, we probably wouldn't write anything. If it's a good story, then it's a good story, and if it just happens to be about clones that shouldn't matter.

My story is about a man raising a child that is a clone of himself.

Which reminds me, I wrote a clone flash piece for BlogBattle a while back - a man (probably - I'm not sure I ever specified the gender*) using a fast commercial cloning service to clone himself in the aftermath of a bad relationship break-up with the previous clone that he did in the aftermath of a bad relationship break-up with the previous-but-one clone...
People seemed to find it entertaining.


(* From a conversation with the Biskitetta - it's got to be a man because you need a Y chromosome to be that much of an ****hole.)

 

[Dave]

to clone himself in the aftermath of a bad relationship break-up with the previous clone that he did in the aftermath of a bad relationship break-up with the previous-but-one clone...

One needs to learn to love oneself

 

[farntfar]

I have several friends called Lintilla who insist that we need to keep talking about these issues.

 

[Dave]

I have several friends called Lintilla

Only "several"? What happened to the other 578,000,000,000?

 

[farntfar]

Well I didn't want to boast.

 

[paranoid marvin]

As has been mentioned clones, like doppelgangers, twins, disguise, look-a-likes, impersonators etc etc have always been - and will continue to be - the source of stories. I think that it is how they are used in the story that determines if it is a cliche or not.

I don't think the danger is that the story may be poorer, but if it comes to publishing then if there are lots of clone related stories around it is surely going to be more difficult to get your story noticed.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Makes me laugh...

Consider: Relentless vampire and zombie IPs made for nearly the past two decades. Clones not so much.

Anyone who tells you your idea is not original is probably a very poor adviser and too subjective (or perhaps they just lack imagination). As in all things, it's the execution.

Even if it was, things come and go in cycles, so your book will be available the next time clones are all the rage.

 

[BlueDragonSapphire]

I wrote a story recently that had a clone as a central character. I had it critiqued on the OWW and a few of the reviewers said that the story wouldn't go anywhere because clones are cliche. I'm aware that there are a lot of clone stories out there and maybe my story isn't doing something new enough but one reviewer said basically "You are wasting your talent writing about clones." I've never encountered this kind of thing before.
Aliens, time travel, space ships, sentient AI, these are the staples of science fiction.
Are clones not on that list? Are people sick of clones?

I don't think writing about Clones are bad, there are so many novels and books that have ideas and facts similar to each other, a murder mystery can be considered an overused topic but people still write amazing stories with that as the main concept, so write what you want, if you feel inspired to write something about a Clone/Clones go ahead!
There is a fan base for everything in 2021 so no matter what you write about I think you'll have a huge amount of people routing for it!
I personally like the idea of a story involving Clones, I don't think I've ever read something like that before so it sounds interesting!
Good Luck!

 

[DrStrangelove]

I believe clones can still be an interesting topic as long as you do not go full George Lucas. There is alot of ethical and philosophical potential in the topic, and a lot of rules you can establish for the cloning process and cloned population.

You can for example explore biological determinism, with cloned people developing the same traits, character and goals, or explore social factors that shape different clones into completely separate people. You could go the Borg way, with the cloned population initially hooked into some central mainframe, a hivemind or what-not, and then explore what happens when they become free and self-governing.