Things You Should Try to Avoid Doing as an Author

Clichés

Cliches (This is a list of cliches. You should always avoid these cliches!);

Note; Some of these cliches are used regularly in popular books. This does not mean you should sell your soul to cliches just so you can get popular! That is the wrong approach to writing. 

Where do I start? 

Well let's start with a definition of the word cliche. I think that's a good place to start, don't you? 

This is the definition Google gives me;

Definition for cliche:

Web definitions: 

platitude: a trite or obvious remark.

Not only are cliches obvious things, they are overused. And frankly very boring. I really shouldn't need to tell all of you to be original, but here I am doing just that!

Cliche Openings to Avoid;

Once upon a time... 

Really? Once upon a time? How many times have you seen that over the years? Too many to count? Me too!

If this extremely cliche opening is in any of your stories that is not at least 100 years old then I can see myself yawning from the first page onwards. This is probably the biggest cliche you have ever seen. Avoid this opening line at all costs. Open your fairytale with a new one liner, be original. (I am going to be overusing the phrase be original. It's going to sound like a cliche!)

It was a dark and stormy night...

This used to build tension. "Oh no! A dark and stormy night! There must be an axe killer about!" Now this line has been overused (Do people not understand the meaning of copyright? Geez!) way too much! Sure "it was a dark and stormy night" sets the scene for a bit of horror, but if you write horror and you use that as your first line then it's not going to draw your writers in. They - like me - will just think you have another cliche horror story where the under dressed dumb blonde bitch gets killed. (No offense to blondes. That just seems to be the colour of hair they use. I happen to know some smart blondes, so I'm not calling you dumb!)

Alarm o clocks... 

If one more person in the world opens a story or book with "Beep! Beep! Beep! My alarm o clock screetched!"  then I will personally buy all of the alarm o clocks in the world and throw them at the wall. One by one. Then how is your main character going to get one? Oh and if they already own one, I'll steal it. 

Now most people (me included) don't like alarm o clocks. Not in the morning. Not in movies. And not in books. (If you like the sound of an alarm o clock you're crazy.) So I don't really want to read about another alarm o clock going off. I don't want your character to wake up right at the begining of your story. That is not a way to start a story. And it is certainly not original!

I don't want an alarm o clock in the middle of your story either. It is just as bad!

The mirror apperance;

I have mentioned this one before in my chapter about Prologues and First Chapters. "Looking in the mirror at my big brown eyes and my long blonde hair and..."  Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Do I really need to know what the character looks like straight off the bat? Does anybody really look in the mirror for that long? If you can have a "mirror scene opening" that is original and not of someone just looking in the mirror. That's cool. But just don't open with the cliche and boring mirror appearence.