I'm sure y'all have seen a TON of cliches.
I love some cliches to be honest but I'm sure some of you guys are tired.
So let's mess around a bit with them
List some cliches and how you would change them to make them more interesting!
Add on to some other people's cliches too! Start a discussion! Make things interesting! Have Fun and Go crazy!
Jul '18
Jul '18
Half-Listener: During Romance Dramas, you have someone who peeks in on their lover talking to someone else. They're eavesdropping and then leave because they believed their lover was cheating or talking badly about them. but wait -- they leave in the middle of the conversation. So they're left working on stupid assumptions. So where's how I'd fix that.
Their lover knows they're being listened in on by their lover, and they let them go on with their assumptions. And once they tell the truth, they leave the nosy-person. After all, if you can't trust your lover without trying to spy on them, that ain't a good relationship.
The nose-parker actually stays to listen to the whole conversation. They listen to see if their lover is either A) an asshole or B) just talking with someone. If it's A -- burst in and then leave them. If it's B -- quietly leave and act like you didn't hear a thing.
Cliche that is usual on soap opera in my country is probably this :
G-g-girls that talk l-like this when they're around a c-c-cute boy or girls WHO JUST ACT LIKE THEY HATE THE BOY BECAUSE THEY ACTUALLY LIKE THE BOY AND EMOTIONS!!!!
Fixes:
Write an actual shy girl, GASP I know! Revolutionary concept! Or if you want to be funny and really throw a wrench in there, give the girl an actual stuttering problem and have the boy think he's making her all awkward and then have her be like "UMMMM, I have a stu-stu-st-st-stuttering problem, you asshole!" LMAO
Just... stop the tsundere trope, it's not the 90s or 2000s anymore, just have people have concrete emotions. I think it's lazy writing to just have this person not like someone to hide their true feelings instead of just having a narrative where person X doesn't like person Y, person Y catches on so they're like "oh awlright so I'm not going to hang around anymore" but then person X realizes they made a mistake and it could be too late to get into the good graces of person Y and gain their affection again.
Another one, and it's used too much in Shojo/BL/GL:
The protagonist ends up with someone who's an asshole and kinda abusive, and no amount of tragic backstory justifies their behavior (all they do is excuse the behavior, rarely having them take the steps to be better)
How to fix this:
A) The protagonist ends up with the secondary romantic interest who is actually a decent person and someone who actually cares about the protagonist's feelings.
B) Either the protagonist or their friends realise that maybe they're not ready for relationships quite yet and that this is not something they need cuz it's clearly unhealthy. Story ends with them learning more about themselves and not staying in this relationship but not being in one either.
So I actually am a sucker for tsunderes. I totally think there's room for tsundere like characters to be made in a way thats more believable and more dynamic. Similar to giving the stuttering character an actual stutter. A more thoughtful and realistic approach is always good!
I'm a fan of most cases of reversing the usual gender roles of cliches. Princess save prince from dragon, etc. Especially if done in a cute way. Or conversely, princess saves princess, prince saves prince.
Also a fan of stories that jump over love triangles in favor for polyamory. 
And calling back to @Jenny-Toons 's first suggestion, I really hate problems that could be solved by even a little half decent communication. That's fine if part of the story is the characters learning to communicate better, but most often it's just needless drama. I did like a story I recently finished on Tapas where a character overheard some unexpected info from their lover, and then confronted him directly afterward so they could discuss it. It managed to hold on to all the drama, without needing everything to be a misunderstanding. They had a legit concern, shared real feelings, came to decisions.
The guy ALWAYS rejects the girl that has feelings for him in anime. Even if, in-universe, the girl is attractive.
I actually mess around with expectations a lot. It's really fun.
At the moment I'm using the "mean boss" trope for a character who is literally an angel. I think there's something really fun about making an angel really mean and petty - people don't really expect that. Normally angels are all benevolent and loyal etc. but mine is a total jerk lol
(he's not just any angel, too - he's a 'dominion' type which means he's a higher tier... usually angel characters are kind of generalised in fiction when in reality there's a whole hierarchy in the old myths)
Lol, we could make a twist for that too. The guy ALWAYS accepts the girls that have feelings for him, so he marries ALL his love interests, ruining all the love triangles in the proccess.
Cliche I absolutely hate: the main character has two love interests who act oh so nice, so she/he can't choose who they like better. But life makes it easier for her/him by showing what an a--hole one of the love interests actually is, and the protagonist ends up with the other. And will you look at that, that person is the love of their life, but they just didn't realize until now.
What I would change: uhn a healthy relationship where the MC ends with someone they choose to, rather than with who was left? And, I dunno, an adult who makes choices because that's what life is about. And turning someone down, can be done in a gentle way if you are both mental-stable. Who knows, the not-love-of-their-life could end up being a friend.
Other cliche I just can't take is the: misundestandings among couples/friends/people that could be easily solved if they just talked to each other for like ten seconds. I'm looking at you rom-coms (and Shakespeare, God!, that man wrote the first rom-coms...).
Cliche: Love at first sight
I never liked this trope, since the name itself suggests that the two characters in question have a really shallow relationship ( at least in the beginning). Like person A will see how charming/attractive person B is and go "wow.... they're AMAZING." and for the rest of the story they are completely obsessed with person B, becoming flustered around them and thinking about them all the time. Come on, you barely even know them.
Cliche: Baguette in a grocery bag
"Oh no!, i forgot to buy my obligatory supermarket baggette!, what will people say in the grocery store!?"
