[Scarecrow28]

Are including secretive organizations and groups in FICTIONAl writing considered to be a cliche? I know both Dan Brown and James Rollins have often included this mysterious groups in their works and they are generally regarded as good writers. This "group" I am including in my story is totally fictional, but I have done enough research so that it sounds fairly plausible. Keep in mind that I'm and action-adventure writer so painstaking realism is not a necessary element. I'm putting a lot of effort into this novel and don't want to ruin it just because of a few "newbie" mistakes. Thanks!

[Minuteman]

Slightly, but your not going to write an action adventure without some cliches. Pick which cliches' your willing to explore and deal with them straightfoward and you should be fine. Just don't use too many cliches'.
IMO, you can use cliches' if they serve a purpose, don't use too many and you give them some depth of character. To a very real extent, nothing is "original".

[Scarecrow28]

Yeah, I should have expected some cliche's to occur. I've tried to ignore them, but this one is pretty pivotal to the plotline, so I guess I'll keep. I'm doing my best to limit the number I'll be including and I believe this is really the only noticeable one. I'm doing my best to keep this original, but thats virtually impossible these days. No matter how creative you are, somebody, somewhere has already used the idea.

I'm also working pretty hard on giving the character some depth, which is pretty unusual in the action-adventure genre. He's not going to be some invincible, perfect being thats virtually impossible to relate to.

[Clyde in CO]

just don't call your secret group 'inver brass'

[Londo Mollari]

Call them...

Anonymous. :-D

[Scarecrow28]

Originally Posted by Londo Mollari

Call them...

Anonymous. :-D

That'll work great.