Hey I’m getting into creative writing again! I’m making a list of cliches to avoid. I mostly write mysteries but any genre will do!

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#1

Woman with curly hair & glasses = ugly duckling
“Make-over” (aka straightening hair and wear contacts = boom, immediate bombshell

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Kariali
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Lolbit_TheBetterFuntimeFoxy
Lolbit_TheBetterFuntimeFoxy
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If a blonde means a dumb@$$, and glasses means you’re smart, what would a blondie with glasses be?

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#2

That blondes are popular and dumb as s**t.

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That midget Jo :)
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#3

That in order for a woman to be badass (could be good at fighting, a cop, etc.) she cannot express any smidge of femininity, and must be downright misogynistic to other women.

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QueerAxolotls
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Raccoon panda
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hate this a lot. Part of the problem is that some people equate choosing to be feminine with being weak and choosing to pander to the patriarchy. Sometimes a woman just wants to wear glitter and punch a-holes for a living. Sometimes a man likes to be stylish and emotionally open, too. Emotional openness is a strength. Femininity and masculinity have many interpretations specific to true inner personality. Bonus points if there’s actual reconciliation between the genders leading to friendly cooperation against the bad guys. Romance optional. Feminism is half the picture. Reconciliation and love is the whole picture. Men and women were always made to be partners in egalitarian awesomeness.

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#4

I have a few. Bear with me
Mystery-
Please avoid making a bunch of people in a mansion, be more creative
The murderer has to be an actual surprise, not just the guy who's hated the victim his whole life
Horror-
Don't write about a scary monster who dies in the end, maybe try a ghost that torments the main character
Make it Actually scary!!!!
Romance-
DO NOT make it cheesy and do not make the romance be with the characters old best friend
Try not to make romance the WHOLE plot
Realistic fiction-
I can't believe I'm saying this but- make it Actually realistic
Do not forget the plot of the story, many realistic fiction books stray from the plot completely
Historical fiction-
Just one, please please don't do another one on the titanic. Many other stories need to be told
If you read all this, congrats!!

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Rey
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#5

That every child free person hates kids. I just don't want to lose my free time

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N D
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Kelly c
Kelly c
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'll add that everyone who is straight and child free is child free by choice. Not everyone who wants to be a parent gets to be.

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N D (Submission author)
N D
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Doesn't mean that I can't be happy I don't have any. I've known several women who had multiple miscarriages and I am totally sensitive to the fact.

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#6

That every person who is friends with someone of the gender they are attracted to is attracted to that friend, if both are single at the same time. Some of my most important friendships are with men. That does not mean they or I ever have thought about being anything other than friends.

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#7

1) For historical fiction, actually make it about a historical event. Don’t use it as a setting for your character’s romance plot. I’ve read wayyyyy too many historical fics that just turned into a flat out romance novel. I wanna know what concentration camps were like or what it was like to live during the Irish potato famine or something like that. I do not care about a random person’s love life. That’s a different genre.
2) Mystery. Also get rid of the romance. Seriously, I just want to try to solve the murder. If the detective falls in love, it’s distracting and boring. These people can still have feelings, be human, and be relatable all without romance. Also don’t make the killer a random person you have briefly mentioned in the story. It’s become such a common pattern that I can normally figure it out based on how many times the person was mentioned and nothing else.
3) Dystopian. “The apocalypse has happened and we are all going to die.” Honestly, this could just be me hating on the genre, but it seems like every dystopian novel I’ve ever read it set after an apocalypse and the character is just trying to survive. You don’t need an apocalypse(I think. I might not understand this genre). Just give us a story about a future that is more backward and depressing than our reality. You don’t need a world ending event, just an interesting take on the future.
4) Realistic fiction, cut the high school c**p. There’s no “jock”, no “mean girl”, no “popular kid”. We are all teens just trying to get to adulthood without losing our sanity. And for goodness sake, not all of us want a romantic relationship. I know I’ve complained about the romance a lot, but I have a hard time finding books without any. I want to relate to someone my own age without having to read about their love life. If I wanted romance, I would have picked up romance.

Hope this helped! Happy writing!

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HistoryLover(she/her)
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#8

Pretty much anything racist, sexist, ageist, disabilityphobic, or neurophobic. I’m especially angry with the depiction of autistics as “lacking the spark” and other characters getting no consequences or even are encouraged to treat us poorly. Do you know how many times people have slung the R word at me? That’s because media teaches neurotypical supremacy. That I have a human body, but not a human soul, and thus do not deserve dignity. I’ve been treated like a freak, a defect, a monster, a husk, a pet, a reject, an outcast, an extension of others, a supporting character, a scapegoat, an idiot, a childish person, an angel, a devil, a problem, a pathology, a puzzle, a p**n, a cripple, easy prey, and even my mother somewhat saw me as personal property, because of these tropes. I have a measured IQ of 163 and a lot more psychological self awareness and maturity than most people at my age. I analyze rotten people and intimidate them by showing I understand the lies they tell themselves, and their REAL subconscious beliefs. I see through people like ghosts. It shakes up their feelings of superiority.

Dear Neurophobes, please don’t fall for the belief that because you are “normal” and “superior” you know what’s best for me better than me. Or that you are oh so smart that nobody has the knowledge and experience to quickly know your game and play their hand. BRA-VO! You are so smart, aren’t you? I am not someone’s narcissistic supply. I’d rather be authentically loved, but I often have to settle for the fun of making someone’s hair stand on its edge when prideful people p*** me off. Bitter pill to swallow, isn’t it? You are the gambler, and I applaud your manipulative a*s; you are great at it. Always scheming to get what you want; you make it very exhilarating to play. I feel alive! But the casino doesn’t gamble, or even place a bet on anything, or even try to manipulate it’s chances, to win more often than you. It simply owns the table you’re playing at. GOOD GAME!!!

And as for non-supremist people, please, keep being good people. Keep being allies to each other. Good people take the edge off my cynicism when it gets to be too much. They remind me to refrain from a wicked cause.

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PopscotchM
PopscotchM
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes! this! I'm not bullied too much, And when I do they aren't very good at it (I don't CARE that nobody likes me, I don't like anyone back!), but I would honestly prefer it if they didn't do it in the first place. Just, seriously? The main differences (that I show) are my terrible social skills, and the fact that i get really passionate and worked up about some things! So why does that make me the subject of bullying?

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#9

Token rep. Don't make a gay character, make a character who happens to also be gay. Also avoid making their queermess/ethnicity/etc a side note that's only mentioned so you can technically have representation. Being a minority is neither the majority of one's personality nor something that never affects them. I see both of these waaaay too much. I'd recommend having a side or main character who's identity/etc come up as minor plot points occasionally, flavoring more often, or part of a larger plot point.

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crowspectre (he/they)
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BeepBeepBoopBoop
BeepBeepBoopBoop
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

sorta like The Prom on Netflix. The whole story is the fact that they aren't allowed to go to the school's prom because they're gay, but somehow it's not their whole personalities. I love that movie it made me cry on a plane lol

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#10

Tough, cool late-teens guy falling for self-centered, whiney, "plain" MC girl who is fifteen and has super powers. Yuck. Just stop.

Trying to give female characters depth by having them be sexually mistreated in the past. Yes, it can be done well, but more often than not it's not handled properly and we just end up feeling that being mistreated is somehow "cool" and makes girls more tough and attractive somehow.

Love interests being the most boring thing on the planet while the MC and best friend side-character have real chemistry but the author already made up their mind.

The cliche "love-triangle" haters. You just haven't seen it really done well.

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Lil Miss Hobbit
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#11

I’ll start. For detective fiction:
No one tries to kill the detective
The most obvious suspect is innocent
Who killed the a-hole?
Victim leaving a cryptic clue
The detective is basically just super observant
And the end where everyone is called into a room and the detective gives a big long speech about how he knows who did it and the killer is revealed.
And finally; it was the butler 😂

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Abbigail
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Red Panda
Red Panda
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I kinda like the long speech at the end, it’s kinda like an answer sheet so you can see the answer and how to solve the mystery. Unless they’ve already explained it in parts, I think the explanation is great.

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#12

Don't pull a KoTLC and make the MC INCREDIBLY overpowered unless it's a bad thing, like One Punch Man. I like KoTLC but I hate Sophie.

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donnie supremacy (she/her)
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#13

That all furries absolutely HAVE to be going to hell, are a cult, and have large rings of pedophiles among them.

The furry Fandom is one of the most accepting and supportive organizations in the world. Most people are just too stuck to previous prejudices that they can't accept the new ideas.

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Nevada McKinney
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Nevada McKinney (Submission author)
Nevada McKinney
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I thought this was posting about things we hate lol 😅 My actual least favorite cliches/tropes are that feminine males are automatically gay.

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#14

That some people are pure evil and will undermine others without their own gain. Not that many people on this world are stupid at manipulating, so no one is purely ‘good’ or ‘evil’. Also, when I am writing, I particularly hate the main characters to be brainwashed to believe they are ‘good’ and directly confront the antagonist as ‘evil’. It makes them look stupid. They have to have real, selfish motives, or it would make the story seem bland. But this is coming from a messed-up sci-fi writer who always create a strangely righteous or easy to dislike main character who is irritatingly perfect. Then you make another seemingly unimportant, completely tool-like character who gradually appears more over the plot, who seems ‘evil’ or ‘weird’ to the main character but is just normally creepy looking or giving off that uncomfortable vibe. (My favorite one I wrote about is a teen girl who is introverted, and she always helps everyone but she gets picked on by the annoying main character. It was sad.) Yup. I’m beyond messed up

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HelluvaHedgehogAlien
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#15

Good girl wants to turn in her goody-goody attitude and lose her v card to the bad boy just in time for him to turn sensitive.

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Mrs.King0315
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#16

Every horse book/TV show where the horse isn't the main character. Bratty teenage girl who's lived in the city her whole life has a magical connection with an "untamable" horse. The barn where the horse lives is in financial trouble. There's a mean rich girl who's also blonde. There's a hot stablehand. Drama drama drama heartwarming conclusion. As a lifelong equestrian, all I can say is YUCK.

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foofoofloofy
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#17

While this can be hit or miss, but depending on the author, I’m not the biggest fan of the “Romeo & Juliet” trope. It’s been way overused and if it’s not done correctly, it’s just boring.

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Cypress
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#18

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