Some tropes, scenes, and character reactions are so prevalent in TV series, movies, and novels that they transcend genres.

They are everywhere, and I’m not sure anyone likes them or needs them.

These are not complete deal-breakers. If the thing you are watching or reading is satisfactory in other ways, you can let this go. But it’s tiresome to see them over and over again.

Read on and see if you agree.

– Characters who say “Speak English” to the tech geek; The Geek that babbles on forever

I first met my babbling geek in Marshall in the JJ Abrams hit Alias. That is my favorite show of all time (at least when we speak of the first 3 seasons), and I love that show with all my heart.

And because Marshall is my first babbling geek, I was fine watching him.

You know how the scene goes. Usually appearing in stories with sci-fi elements or action genres with spies using tons of gadgets, there is this brilliant geek. He/she is super nice and friendly. He talks more than you and your best friends combined, and he gives way too many details and uses so much jargon that he’s often told to speak English and/or cut it short.

For once, I want to see a well-adjusted, jargon-free geek who is not that excited about the gadgets. Like, where is this person? Please recommend me the fiction with this kind of geek.

Iron Man sort of side-steps this because he is also a handsome rich playboy, but he and Bruce Banner are in heaven together in Avengers: two handsome geeks geeking away and potentially boring the hell out of Thor, Captain America, and other non-techy folk.

Actually, more than the geek geeking out, my problem is the character who tells them to speak English.

We get it. You are cool. You don’t have time. You don’t care about the process. Maybe use another line next time.

– Feeling something intense? The Character throws up.

Has your character got anxiety? Stress? Disgust?

Have they drunk too much?

Or maybe you just want to make the audience laugh.

Great, but please don’t make your character shit their pants for comedy.

And please don’t make your character throw up for every time something major happens.

Seen dead bodies? Had a major traumatic moment? Got seasick? Got too drunk? Food poisoning?

I mean granted, I’ll give you food poisoning and too much alcohol, but you don’t have to show the contents of the stomach to me. The sound is enough.

I have gastritis. I have felt sick in the stomach too many times, and I’ve been hospitalized due to food poisoning. I have a sensitive stomach, folks.

Now, I am not that sensitive an audience.

I’ll watch murder mysteries and serial killer thrillers for breakfast, but please, stop making your characters throw up.

And if they have to, can you please just give the sound and avoid the visuals spilling out?

In case my advice has you feeling blocked, here are some other things that happen to your body when you are anxious/afraid/disgusted/hungover:

– lack of appetite/ too much appetite

– migraine/headache

– lack of sleep/insomnia/sleep full of nightmares and unintended breaks

– depression

– anger

-withdrawal from the world

– frequent colds (because your immune system gets weaker)

– breaking out in pimples/hives/cold sores

The human body does more than throw up as an intense reaction, is all I’m saying.

Also, how is everyone super fine after throwing up? But that’s another thing entirely.

– Tough guy/gal who strips off the IV and checks out of the hospital before the doctor drops by.

Ah yes. Who needs doctors and meds when (checks her notes) you were admitted to a hospital after a major trauma/accident/attack/fall?

The next scene usually is the character falling down/fainting or going about his/her way as if nothing happened two minutes ago, and is tougher and stronger than ever. In a Mission Impossible movie, I will allow it because we accept the masks. What is a little hospital escape?

But if you are putting this character behavior in the story, give me a person who at least acknowledges this is stupid. Or maybe tell us doing this is the only option:

Maybe they can’t afford the treatment, or maybe someone is coming to the hospital to murder them. Then by all means. Escape to survive.

But don’t do it just to make your character look though. If they have full medical insurance, supporting family nearby and they are fairly intelligent folk, this move makes them look horrible. Not cool, brave or tough.

– Character says “Hello?” to a potential intruder/murderer/creep/psycho

Ah, yes. The inexplicable urge of thriller movie/TV characters to greet their murderers. How quaint.

Come on! Why would you anyone do this? The answer from the other person is never going to be. “Oh, I’m here to kidnap you. I’m answering so that you definitely know where I am and you can get a better chance to run.”

Eye roll.

There are a billion things an anxious/scared/suspicious character can do and say if they suspect someone is where they shouldn’t be.

Sending greetings isn’t one of them.

And while there are necessary cliches in all genres, shouting hello to villains doesn’t qualify as such.

– Character 1 has a secret and wants to spill it. Character 2 doesn’t let them speak on numerous occasions. Character 2  gets pissed when they find out and say “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Another huge pet peeve of mine.

Characters with secrets are good story fodder. They cause wonderfully complicated conflicts. They threaten happy endings.

What’s not great, however, is the handling of the secret this way.

Here’s the situation as you read in the potentially too long subheading:

Character 1 has a secret. They want to come clean. But for some reason, character 2 doesn’t let them. Either they are too worried or too happy or too horny.

Character 1 is stopped a few times. And then when they finally get the chance to fess up or the secret comes out another way, character 2 is upset. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Maybe because you never let them?

The revelation of a secret will always create conflict, but maybe we can handle it without the character 2 getting in the way of it too many times?

Because often, character 2 gets also upset the secret has been kept from them for too long when they’ve actively contributed to the length of the time the secret has been kept.

Not a huge deal, but maybe don’t make the secret-learner annoying.

– The character who never learns. Never. Ever. Ever.

One of my favorite crime thriller dramas now has fans fast-forwarding scenes with the female protagonist because she is a gold-medalist at never learning.

Now, if this was real life, her consequences would probably be not that big. We all make mistakes and we keep making them, especially the small ones. Because let’s be honest,  it is hard to change.

It’s hard to go against our own nature. And in the grand scheme of things, you can forgive yourself because how much does it really affect you when you constantly give in to something like bedtime revenge procrastination?

Here’s what’s happens during my revenge bedtime procrastination:

– I look at cute animals and funny memes.

– I receive the news from funny people like Trevor Noah so I’m informed but not depressed.

– I rewatch favorite scenes from films and TV series. And while they entertain me, they also make me a better writer.

– My dreams are super vivid and entertaining, with a more or less logical plot.

So yeah, my quality of sleep is affected a bit, but in the grand scheme of things, I am fine. Because, and I can’t stress this enough, I don’t live in a horror movie or a thriller.

Back to this crime drama/thriller character that I referred to: She has been driving us crazy because she constantly puts herself in mortal danger, risks her career and those she loves, screws up relationships and then gets super sad and upset.

Then all you can do is mentally do the disappointed sports fan meme.

It’s hard to root for, like, and emphasize with a character when everything is her fault and she damn well knows it.

This is one of the reasons I might not return to the show for its second season, even though I was one of its biggest fans for a while.

This is one example, but I can bet you can think of many characters like this. They create their own hell. They are not irrational or stupid once or twice. They are like this all the time.

How many characters, books, shows, and movies have you given up on because of this kind of character?

It’s one big annoying loop. Don’t do this to your characters, or your audience.

When the stakes are everything, let them learn. Let them get a little smarter.

Yes, characters shouldn’t be perfect. But their flaws should know some bounds.

– The character is smart only because everyone else is stupid, naïve, or both.

Smart characters are awesome. They are always up to something interesting. They fascinate, inform and entertain. But before you write your smart character, check if they are really smart.

Because sometimes a character’s “clever” ideas and plans are only working because other people are just too naïve or stupid. Then this just alienates the audience.

Of course, there are exceptions. But if your story is set in a cutthroat world, the people at the top didn’t get there by being idiots. Maybe one was super lucky or privileged, but it can’t be all the characters. And let’s face it, even if you are lucky and/or privileged, staying at the top takes effort and brains.

Twists are wonderful. So are evil villains.

But it really is more fun if the smart character is truly smart, and is not getting away with murder because everyone else doesn’t have a working brain cell between them.

**

So far, these are the tropes that I see often that make the stories fail or live up to their standards. Or at the very least, they give out a Deja Vu vibe so strong that the viewer & reader starts fantasizing what would happen if they got a penny every time they saw the same thing…

Do you agree with these? What are the most annoying and repetitive tropes and other things for you?