A shocking number of movies I’ve watched and books I’ve read over the past year have been riddled with cliches so tired that they hardly count as real plot points anymore. I guess that’s the very definition of a cliche so I shouldn’t be surprised but it still kind of boggles my mind how many storytellers aren’t pushing themselves beyond the obvious.

Here’s a list of cliches I’ve noticed especially in books that need to go:

Starting with dream
Opening a story with a dream sequence that the main character wakes up from (usually a nightmare) where they are drenched in sweat and the dream that they had foreshadows the story to come. Dreams can be cool and foreshadowing can be fun but don’t open with a dream. Keep us in the real world to begin.

Making your main character a writer
Sometimes writers take the “write what you know” advice too far and write themselves into the story. The world has enough “writer” main characters to last several lifetimes. Time to pick a different profession for your main character.

Description in a mirror
The story starts out with the character waking up, over-describing the weather, and then going to the mirror to look at, and then describe themselves in detail. Let us learn about your character along the way. Also, waking up and looking in a mirror is usually not interesting and provides no conflict or tension to a scene.

The prophecy of the chosen one
I can count on one hand the number of fantasy books especially that don’t have a chosen one or some prophecy that plays into the overall storyline. Who are all these people prophesying things and why? It makes no sense. Have your main character rise to the occasion instead of being forced into it based on some lame prophesy or “chosen” status.

Lord of Darkness
Another favorite of fantasy and science fiction stories is the lord of darkness. Some unimaginable evil that isn’t the devil but is just as bad. Horror movies love this one too. Give me an antagonist that is multi-dimensional, who has reasons for why they do things. Now that’s a bad guy I want to read about.

Retired but brought back for one last job
The rugged and burned out guy who wants to be left in peace but is convinced out of his self-imposed (and usually self-righteous) retirement for “one last job” that ends up being the hardest job he ever had. It’s been done to death.

Feeling cold when you’re dying
I used a picture from the movie Pearl Harbor on this post because as much as I wanted that movie to be good, it’s an avalanche of cliches. I threw up my hands in the theater when they dying man exclaims towards the end of the movie, “I’m so cold.” My jaw dropped open. I couldn’t believe the screenwriter had written it. I couldn’t believe it got through the director (well, it was Michael Bay), and finally, I was astounded that the actor actually said it with a straight face. This line only manages to induce cringing when spoken.

There are countless other cliches but these are a few I find especially annoying and yet seem to happen even in books, movies, and TV shows today. They need to go.