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The hero/heroine who, after escaping the evil bad guys, does something frightfully stupid. Say- instead of calling the cops/army/buddies/etc… runs back in to face the bad guys on his/her own.
Aliens that are just giant bugs, lizards, or anthromorphs. Aliens that are bent on killing off humanity for no good reason at all! I'm not saying that we shouldn't have aliens that want to kill all humans, I'm just saying they need a reason. Maybe they want our planet, or they've viewed our culture and come to the conclusion that we are plausibly dangerous. Relationships that always work out, no matter what. The classic childhood sweetheart deal. In reality people generally have a few crappy relationships before they find true love (if they ever do.) Or they get married to Mr. Wrong and don't find out until years later. The Expository Lump. One character should not tell another character something unless that character doesn’t know it and needs to! A good way to find this is the phrase 'As you know,' If you can put that before anything one character says to another, find another way to say it. Writers who try to write about things that they DO NOT KNOW ABOUT. If you want to describe the inside of a cave, either read up a lot on caves (non-fiction, please) or actually go to a cave! Because even though your uneducated description of what you think the inside of a cave looks like might fool people who haven't been in one, eventually someone who knows better will read your book. This goes for any experience- injuries for example. Don't describe in detail how it feels to break a bone unless you've broken one. One word: Amnesia. |