So here’s a small list of cliches to avoid when writing up that romance bit of your novel, whether it’s on the front plan or on the sidelines eating cheetos.
Evil other woman: attacks heroine for getting too close to the hero. Also, always there to contrast the “good” heroine because readers can’t tell who’s good or bad unless you deliberately put a character that embodies it. A+.
Evil mother: usually the rich one that opposes the relationship (for my K-Drama fans, think every damn chaebol drama out there I’m looking at you Boys Over Flowers)
City woman ends up in the country, meets very hunky tanned muscled country boy who can’t stand city girls because they’re too pristine (contrast Hannah Montana the movie and Under The Tuscan Sun (the good example is the latter))
Virginal naive heroine gets paired with the male slut and relationship expert. Male also leaves behind is womanizer ways to be with this naive virginal woman. Because she changed him. Somehow. ?????
Matched up via will of a dead relative (a personal favourite. don’t do it.)
Misunderstandings that can be resolved in 1 minute. I didn’t sleep with her, pinky swear.
Bad boy no redeeming qualities + good girl, no personality = ???????????????????????? a pile of horse shit that’s what bad boys are called bad for a reason. would you eat bad eggs? no. they’re bad for you, they’re rotten. goodbye.
Heroine can’t form a sentence in front of hot guy and blurts out the randomest thing like “OATMEAL” and runs away. It aint cute honey just don’t talk to him. Awkward conversation is acceptable.
Nothing consensual (ulless of course you’re going for that, but don’t GLORIFY IT FOR FUCKS SAKE) which means no surprise kiss, or sleeping kiss.
glasses make a woman automatically ugly and she needs an entire chapter dedicated to a makeover. but when men wear glasses all women become hoes
mysteriously your hero is always at the right place at the right time to swoop in and save the heroine. that doesn’t happen in real life. how many times was i stuck in the rain without an umbrella? WHERE WAS MY KDRAMA LEAD WHEN I NEEDED HIM MOST- ahem
perfect guy falls for boring girl (low self esteem, struggling) Disclaimer: i’m not saying that because you have a low self esteem and are struggling in life that you’re boring. but it seems that authors put it that way, and they also can’t write for their life that someone is struggling. There’s a difference between a complex validly struggling character and the boring struggling character.
Love at firs sight: y’all. Unless it’s unexpected and the greatest example is this: remember in Princess Diaries, Mia had this thing for that backstreet looking boy with the blond hair and tanned skin that hung with the cliche blonde bitch (collective sigh) and he was perfect in her eyes and she was always day dreaming but once she got her makeover, he was a huge dick? Like major ew?
Heroine’s issues are magically solved by the hero. Depression? What depression? I can watch him take his shirt off to chop wood every morning and hot damn do I need a bath. Poverty? What poverty? Father in jail? What? DID YOU SEE THOSE PECKS????
“I DON’T NEED A MAN TO SAVE ME- Oh hey let’s get together after I clearly tossed you to the side like a sack of potatoes”
The man always runs his fingers through his hair. At every occasion. Happy? Fingers to hair. Sad? Fingers through hair. Angry? How is his hair still silky and bouncy and not at all greasy.
Ah so having a thin waist, big boobs, and being a virgin is the recipe for low self esteem? Even after the author clearly describes you in ways that would never make you as plain as you put yourself to be? What’s your secret, need me some of that.
Only the hero sees how beautiful she is, what about the others around her?
This honestly made me angry, but y’all feel free to add your own cliches!!
