65 Cliches In Writing To Avoid Like The Plague

"Love at first sight. Unless you plan on doing it for comedy, or using it in a genuinely different or interesting way with full knowing what the trope is, DON'T USE IT. Love doesn't work that way. Love is slow and gradual. When it's gradual, there's more anticipation, and it makes things interesting. But only if we aren't totally sure if they are falling in love in the first place.

This is worse in movies where there is the "love" music while the girl turns around with light shining around her, while the guy's jaw drops in awe. It just makes me want to thump my head into my table."

"Don't introduce only people and things associated with a character that will be taken away or threatened.

Like if you've got a hero and you want them to suffer a loss of a spouse, then the spouse can't be the only thing they care about. For characters to feel fully formed, you have to establish a life for them. That's connection is built."

christian2pt0 said:
"The best villains have (some) good traits. An entirely evil being is insanely boring, if they are going to be a recurring character in the plot."

DefinitelyNotALion replied:
"If you're writing a villain, remember that most people -- including evil people -- act according to what they think is right. Almost everyone's a good guy in their own minds. That's what makes a villain interesting as a character in their own right, and gives them depth to carry a story forward: they've got an entire mythology of their own where you, the reader, are wrong about your plot and character judgments.

The exception is those "just to watch it burn" villains who are written as foils to the protagonist. Which is fine if you A) don't want to subject your hero to scrutiny, or B) are running an antihero who the reader already has some doubts about, morally. Good villains blur the reader's assumptions."

"A villain with redeeming qualities does not always deserve a redemption arc. If they did awful stuff then it needs to be addressed, not forgotten."

"Excessively flowery language. That's something I've struggled with because thought every detail needed a little embellishment. Reading overly-pretty, metaphor-filled work is just a headache."

"Scene transitions where the character wakes up after being knocked out in the previous scene.

If your protagonist is knocked out a half-dozen times in the course of your story, it had better end at the traumatic brain injury clinic."

"Self insertion. Or at least ego stroking self insertion."

"In my freshman English class at community college, I wrote an "original" story about a kid whose dad dies of cancer, but on his deathbed, he makes his son promise that he'll win the basketball championship. Which he does by sinking the game-winning shot at the last second. And then he looks up and sees his dad's face in the sky.

Since I've been working as a writer for 20 years now, it's egregiously cringe-worthy."

abrynne said:
"Grey eyes.
In a hero, heroine, villain, it doesn't matter. If the number of pairs of grey eyes described in novels truly represented the world's population, they would be as common as grass. Let your character have brown eyes, for crying out loud! It doesn't make them any less interesting!"

Yelesa replied:
"I think red hair is even more overused. Especially in fantasy."

"I tend to avoid stories with "Chosen Ones", I like it when the hero is an anybody who puts the work in."

"Finding a million ways to avoid using the word “said”. If your characters can’t express themselves without you tacking a gratuitous external verb onto their every line then you’re not taking enough care in crafting your dialogue."

"Having the last page of your book be 'And then I woke up.' Followed by a size 78 font 'The End.'"

"Trying to be edgy and super original, your story ends up being boring or it will feel like it's trying to hard. People want something new but we like familiarity. There is a reason there are so many damsal in distress, boy-meets-girl, bad or absentee parent, super power etc., stories. It's because they are believable and/or relatable. Don't flat out copy another work but it's okay to take inspiration from real life or other stories you've read or shows/movies you have watched. The point at the end of it is to create something people are going to enjoy and, if you want to make a career out of it, want more of."

"'One thing led to another.' It’s lazy writing. It is your job as the author to tell me exactly how one thing led to another."

"Don't make your protagonist the sole arbiter of the plot, make him the leader or have an ensemble cast with just one persons viewpoint to follow. It makes it more relatable.

On that note also try to avoid always making the antagonist an unspeakable evil out to destroy the world. Make them relatable or at the very least understandable."

"The creature was so horrifying to look at, I cannot even put it into words. Using devices like this do not replace a good description, instead they show laziness and a lack of inspiration. A vivid description draws the reader so much farther into the story."

"Don't write like you plug a thesaurus every day before breakfast. If you're talking about one thing so often that you feel the need to change it up with synonyms, that's a problem with your flow and pacing."

IvyWill37 said:
"The chosen one trope. I hate that."

jansencheng replied:
"The key to having a good chosen one character is that being chosen isn't their whole character, and they're able to act independently of their quest. If it's just "you're going to save the world", and them they just do, yeah, that's boring, but the trope can be used very effectively. Some good examples I can think of, Aang from the Last Airbender and Harry Potter. They're both "chosen" ones, born with a destiny they had no control over, but they're still interesting characters, with plenty of flaws and character quirks. They even question whether they're actually fit to fill in the role that was cosmically assigned to them."

"I'm not a writer but saying 'we aren't so different you and i' pisses me off."

jameseglavin4 said:
"Dunno if it’s a cliché but it sure is bad writing: describing things by using superlatives from a character’s perspective.

'He looked down upon the most beautiful valley he had ever seen.'

Well OK, I know he’s an easily impressed yokel but wtf does the valley actually look like?"

Ameisen replied:
"The formerly blind child looked upon the most beautiful chair he had ever seen. Upon closer inspection, it was a ferret."