Touche Cliche ― The Book of Cliches

-plot cliches

08. plot cliches

No, I'm not going to add an accent on 'cliche'. 

Anywho, every story boils down to two things: character and plot. Mess them up and you're fucked. I've done character in the last few chapters, but now it's time for the plot. Let's jump in, also graphic content, should've put that before I swore, but whatever. By the way, this is going to be really short so I gotta put filler in the intro.

➵ A STUPID PLOT;

This is shite because it is so easily fixable. A plot should consist of an inherent problem, climax (no, not that one) and resolution. This plot, however, does have a problem, but it's half-assed and petty; there's no climax because the problem is so damn stupid that there cannot be a highpoint; and the resolution is dragged out because the problem is so easily resolved that a story cannot be harvested from it. 

See, by a problem being bad, your whole story is fucked which leaves it up to the characters being stellar and carrying the story on their shoulders. Which, let's be honest, is going to be really hard when you have your characters following a shitty plot. 

➵ THE PLOT MUST GO ON;

Uh, this makes my head hurts. This leads on from the first point: this is when the characters will act stupid to get the plot moving along. I've read books where supposed 'geniuses' act like two-year-olds to move the plot along. 

Why not just have a character act in a way that supports their IQ and have the plot accommodate for that?

THE SCENARIO;

Let's say you're writing a thriller and the main character, a genius, and her son are being chased by a serial killer around an abandoned chain of warehouses, your initial plan is to have the main character send out her son to turn on one of the generators to distract the killer before hiding in one of the crates. Stop you right there, don't do it. 

THE PROBLEM;

First, what kind of mother does that? Second, if she's a genius, then she must take in consideration that the son might not be fast enough to switch on the generator - trust me, those levers are rusty as all hell and a bitch to move - then find a crate, take of its lid, slip inside, curl into the fetal position and then cover his head with the lid without being caught by the murderer or attracting their attention. 

THE FIX; 

What you could do is have her stick with her son and decisively move around, taking off their shoes as to make as little noise as possible before searching for a weapon: a wrench or crowbar will do fine. Alternatively, you could have them take off their shoes, but try and find a way out of the warehouse before phoning the emergency services. 

[That's it, people, I'm too lazy to continue so I'm leaving you on that. Do you guys want to know what I'm gonna do tomorrow? No? Doesn't matter, I'm going to be doing a Q&A that nobody asked for and a chillout session with me talking about how I started writing because filler is always good.]

WORD COUNT; 536

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED; Tue, 26 Jun at 8: 25pm