I am reading the latest Stephanie Plum book at the moment and I'm at the point where the bad guy makes his predicted appearance in her flat and explains the reasons why he turned to the dark side of the force and happily describes how he killed so and so and whatshisname for a couple of bucks or something.
It is such a massive cliche. If I was a super villian I would not waste time explaining myself to my nemesis. Oh no. I would just hit them with a broom or whatever else I had handy and let the scuffles begin. I would not be interested in explaining myself. Yes, I suppose, I might want to boast a little, that's understandable...but in reality, really, wouldn't the baddie and the goodie just run at each other and smack each other up without having a nice chat first?
Cliches are a big pet peeve of mine. It is lazy writing. It makes your stories predictable. I knew who the bad guy was in Smokin' Seventeen almost from the beginning. But then again the Stephanie Plum books run on a formula that is very predictable (but hey, it works and people like it) so picking out the baddie was not a hard one for me.
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