Wanted: Clichés in Scripts

Yesterday I posted the Definitive List of Cliché Dialogue to which we added several more examples. Today I’d like to start a crowdsourcing initiative: Compile a list of cliché beats/scenes in scripts. This was inspired by an email exchange with Franklin Leonard who wrote this:

The idea hit me after this Facebook post from Ross Putnam:

I’m officially done with the post-trauma shower scene in which a character tries to violently ‘rub the stressful day’ off of them. Let’s go ahead and hang that one’s jersey up in the rafters.

Here are some other suggestions via Kate Hagen (@thathagengrrl), Director of Community at the Black List collected from Black List script readers:

1. Any introduction of a female character with the word ‘gorgeous,’ ‘attractive,’ or other such descriptor. Example: KATE (20s), no makeup, tattered jeans, hair a mess — the kind of girl who has no idea she’s the most beautiful woman in the room.

The girl who’s so-hot-and-doesn’t-even-know-it pops up in at LEAST half of the scripts I’ve ever read. Also, generally describing any character (male or female!) as attractive is just redundant! They will always cast attractive actors unless otherwise specified!

2. That “research montage” that so many detective/crime thrillers have, wherein the protagonist pastes hundreds of photos/articles/notes on his/her wall, then stands there and stares at them like a mental patient for days on end. No more wall collages, please! Find a more creative way to show that they’re putting the pieces together!

3. The generic ending of any romantic comedy script where the story jumps to a few months later and the girlfriend/wife is “surprisingly” pregnant.

4.CHARACTER appears in doorway, looking flustered.

CHARACTER
“You’re gonna want to take a look at this…”

OTHER CHARACTERS stand, alarmed, immediately follow.

5. The “opening tease” is way overused, and rarely used effectively. Instead of promising a conflict that we care about in the tease, lots of scripts just show some exciting event — a car crash, a character getting fired, a character getting arrested — without any context. Then eventually we catch up to the scene and it’s really anti-climactic. (A lot of scripts also show a tease that isn’t even exciting, like a character we don’t know who’s looking really exasperated.)

6. Another one — tons of scripts (especially rom-coms) start with the lead character getting dumped then fired, or fired then dumped. It’s maybe THE go-to way to show a “down-on-their-luck” character.

7. Opening scenes of the main character waking up (particularly in a messy bedroom with the alarm clock blaring).

8. Creature stalking the humans having sex usually to expose a female character, watching before mutilating them

9. It’s hard to explain this one and I’m not sure if it’s too unspecific to list, but I see a lot (and get really peeved at) seeing overly florid descriptions that actually make no sense in English, i.e. a void of stars glowing (if it’s a void, then it’s an empty space), inhaling terror (what is this?), in that ethereal nothingness where chaos breathes, etc. Meant to evoke something, but is not accurate English or just bizarre. Better to say it simply and clearly!

10. Main character steps to the lectern with his note cards, but then decides to speak from the heart and tosses the cards.

11. The main character is a struggling screenwriter living in Los Angeles with an unconventional day job.

12. Having voiceover narration in a teen comedy — double points if the narrator makes reference to how cliche it is to have a narrator or makes mention of Ferris Bueller and/or Mean Girls

13. Female characters who only exist to have sex with the male protagonist.

14. The scene where men complain about their love lives in their neighborhood bar while the tough but relatable female bartender pours them free drinks, because she’s not like other girls. She gets it.

15. Dialogue containing a “swipe right” or a “hashtag” joke.

Again these suggestions come from professional script readers, so if they rise to the level of cliché, we have to assume these readers are seeing these examples a lot.

How about you? If you are in the habit of reading scripts — which you should be! — are there some beats/scenes which are so common and overused to feel like clichés to you?

If you have some suggestions, please head to comments and post there.

Consider this an exercise in education to inspire us to rise above the cliché and aim for originality.

UPDATE: In comments, Amanda Pendolino, who has read and analyzed a gazillion scripts, was kind enough to add this list in comments:

1. Lame jokes about Twitter, Facebook, Tinder, etc.

2. Characters who seem to have a lot of opinions about screenwriting/the entertainment industry even though it has nothing to do with their job or the plot

3. Scripts ABOUT the entertainment industry

4. Unreliable narrators who might have a mental illness

5. Teenagers in high school English class who discuss a novel and say the exact theme of the movie out loud

6. Character who loses cell phone service at the exact convenient moment

7. Character who makes a big “what I learned” speech in act three (not inherently bad, but can it be funny? Different somehow?)

8. Woman who’s “beautiful but doesn’t know it”

9. Characters who all have blonde hair and blue or green eyes (you really hate diversity casting, huh?). But beyond that, is hair color and eye color really the most revealing thing you could choose to tell us?

10. Women who are described as “sexy,” “lithe,” have large busts, etc. even though men are not described physically and it’s not an erotic thriller or anything like that

11. Flashbacks that illustrate what’s just been said without adding anything new or advancing their own story

12. Character who goes into the bathroom and splashes water on his/her face

13. Bad dates at restaurants or bad date montages (not saying you can’t ever do this — but make it NEW please)

14. Character who is an aspiring writer or artist of some kind

15. Characters who make endless pop culture references (a few are okay and I love HAPPY ENDINGS as much as the next person, but do your favorite movies/shows contain pop culture references or original dialogue?)

16. Characters who make pop culture references from TV shows that went off the air 20 years before they were born

17. Female characters who are all younger than their co-workers and romantic partners

18. Character who goes home to dysfunctional wealthy family for reunion or holiday

19. Scenes that are unnecessarily set in strip clubs

20. Strippers with hearts of gold who need to be rescued

21. Multiple women who sleep with the main character even though he has no attractive qualities

22. Precocious kids who say the darndest things

23. Precious kids with wisdom beyond their years

24. Someone who goes on a reality show

25. Limited-scope biopic about A) someone boring or B) a boring part of a cool person’s life

26. Rape scene that exists to affect the victim’s boyfriend (we never explore the victim’s emotional experience)

27. Script about a white character experiencing a person of color’s world, a male character experiencing a woman’s world, a straight character experiencing an LGBT world, etc. (Are you telling the right person’s story?)

28. Online gambling (i.e., people staring at screens as the main plot)

29. Hackers who can immediately hack into anything

30. Teenage characters who can only attend expensive private colleges

31. Storylines about getting your kid into a competitive private preschool or school

32. Character who twirls their wedding ring to show us they’re unsure about their marriage/thinking of cheating

33. Character who has an embarrassing video go viral

Takeaway: This doesn’t mean you can’t explore any of these in your stories, however in order to rise above the level of cliché, you have to bring something and different to these elements, and write them at depth.

You may follow Amanda on Twitter: @amandapendo.

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