The 17 most clichéd plot devices you must never use in a book or script

Writing fiction is hard, but writing good fiction is harder. And if you want to write good fiction – stories that people like to read and find satisfying – there are some plot devices that are so hackneyed they must never be used again. The short story? Even if you want to use one of these, and you were going to: don’t.

In this blog post:

The most cliched plot devices and twists

1. The woke up and it was all a dream plot device
2. The identical twins twist plot device
3. The time travel plot device
4. The villain comes back to life plot device
5. The girlfriend in a coma plot device
6. The hero comes back to life plot device
7. The main character is a writer plot device
8. Plus ten more!

Let’s start with the worst of the worst.

Woke up and it was all a dream

You’d think this one would go without saying, but apparently not. Because here’s the thing: even if you try the old ‘I woke up and it was all a dream but then I really woke up and it wasn’t!’ you still need to be taken round the back of the chemical shed and shot.

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It was really my twin

This was brilliantly done in that great Christopher Nolan film The Prestige, which means that your attempt will be worse. So don’t try.

The time travel plot device

Here’s the thing. Ever since conquering the mighty Everest that was Back to the Future (1, 2 & 3), this plot device has been steadily marching downhill. Sure, there have been some great moments on the descent. Groundhog Day was a peak of sorts. The Time Traveller’s Wife had a thing going on – and wasn’t Edge of Tomorrow fun? The point here is that by the time you get around to crafting a time-travel book or movie, this plot will be waaaaay past base camp, and heading down towards a flea-market in Kathmandu, to overwork a metaphor…

Okay, so next up:

The Villain is dead BUT ISN’T!

…then they’re dead again. BUT NOT!

Yeah, top tip here writers: smart heroes put a few more rounds into the villain when they’re down, just to make sure.

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Girlfriend in a coma

This technique for tugging the heartstrings was original back in like, 1600AD, when someone first came up with the story of Sleeping Beauty. And no, it’s not a fresh twist if the hero is torn between their unconscious partner and the hot new girl.

I’ll just go investigate this noise (in my nightie)

This one’s mainly for film scriptwriters to be aware of, mostly because it hinges visually on – yup – the nightie. You know the scene. A woman at home alone has just settled in with with some transparent nightwear and a movie when – woops! – someone has knocked over the bins outside. That’s an excellent reason to go wandering around, preferably with the shot cropped tight on her face so you feel like you can’t see what she’s getting into – it’s even better if she starts backing around corners, and so on. Anyway, if Wes Craven is self-aware enough to parody his own work in this genre with the Scream movies, then you can be self-aware enough to stay well away from this tired story standard.

Scream (1996) dir. Wes Craven

YEET pic.twitter.com/9XN0jWrr3x

— space goth coast 2 coast (@G0NEGIRLLL) May 6, 2018

Lovers who can never touch

This one’s something of a sci-fi classic. For some semi-sexist reason, this plot device typically involves a woman who is somehow toxic to touch, such that she drains the life-force or otherwise harms her love-interest. You know, like Syd in Legion, Rogue in X-Men, and that poison frog/parrot couple in Rio 2…

Short story, if you’re thinking of using a plot device that was last used in a children’s animated movie, then maybe it’s lost some of its impact over the years…

Dead hero comes back to life

This one deserves mention as a plot device cliche simply for the way it has ruined all other books and movies. What started with Gandalf, moved on to Dallas, then to Neo in The Matrix, and ended with Jon Snow’s return from the dead (oh come on, you’ve been living under a rock?), has basically ruined every decent fictional death. At this point nothing seems final and at the back of our minds as we read or watch the screen, we’re always thinking ‘but maybe they’ll come back? I mean, if Jon can do it, perhaps Ned Stark will sew his rotten noggin back on for an appearance in the final scene?’

Here’s the thing: Ned losing his head was the best thing to happen to fiction writing in years. And frankly, if you’re still thinking of having your hero die and then return to life, consider this: Jesus. Yup. Mull on that one for a while.

The amnesia plot

New rule: you can only use amnesia in a story if you personally know someone, or have heard recently about a person who has suffered from this disorder. Come to think of it I’ve never heard of a real case of amnesia. Was it made up just so it could be used in Matt Damon movies and soap operas?

The special needs = special abilities plot device

What goes for amnesia, goes double for aspergers and autism. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was excellent, as was the touching autobiography Born on a Blue Day, so let’s just take it that this angle has been done as well as it can be, and give it up. Actually while we’re at it, can we throw tourettes syndrome in here too? You bet your sweet titties we can (see? Cheap laughs from a real disorder).

Anyway, on the subject of characters with aspergers or autism – I think we should admit it’s just an easy way of shoe-horning super-hero powers into the real world, via their supposed savant abilities. Which brings us to…

Teenager develops superpowers

Everyone knows you’re talking about puberty. Stop it. Oh and that whole teen-powers / puberty thematic bundle? It includes teen vampires, Luke Skywalker, and Harry Potter’s firm grip on his broomstick. Expelliarmis!

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Yuk. Anyway: more plot devices that have been done to death:

Built over an Indian graveyard

As in The Shining, Poltergeist, and basically all North American horror.

The “this isn’t fiction – I found these letters / papers / videotapes and decided to publish them” device

This is a venerable technique that dates to possibly the first novel ever written, Pamela, by Samuel Richardson and has extended into modern films like Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project and could probably be put out to pasture, no?

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Main character is a writer

So, so so sick of this. Dear writers, do us all a favour and drape the respectable cloth of literary obfuscation over your pathetic fantasies about what you’d like to happen in your dull life.

Secret societies

Aren’t a secret anymore, as we have the internet. Back of the class Mr Brown.

Premonition in a dream

Hackneyed, plain and simple. And finally:

The bad things happen to character who is too stupid to really understand it plot device

Lenny from Of Mice and Men – go tug on someone else’s heart strings, you big dumb schmuck.

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So those are the more obvious traps. If you can avoid these, then chances are your novel or screenplay will be straying into the shocking realms of originality. And if you’d like to read something genuinely original, jump to Amazon and take a look at Effra, a novel about odd people, London life, and underground rivers.