This is my second post on what to avoid while writing exciting thrillers. You can read the first one here.

As is customary (and necessary) with these kinds of posts, let’s get my thriller credentials out of the way.

I’m a not thriller writer yet. I’ve been however reading and watching thrillers for as long as I can remember. It’s one of my favorite genres, and over the years, I’ve developed an acute sense of what works, what is too tired, and what really shouldn’t be attempted for the good of the writer and the audience.

Let’s go over four pet peeves of mine, why/how they came to be so, and what can you do about it if you want to include them in your story.

And please remember, while readers and watchers come with all kinds of tastes and preferences, if there is one person in your audience that hates one thing, there’s a big chance there are many more people who agree.

• The “They were dead all along!” ending.

Ah, yes.

This type of ending is nostalgic and takes me all the way back to 1999 – a simpler time. When your audiences (including me) hadn’t seen this ending a bunch of times before and welcomed the twist.

I welcomed it so much that it elevated the whole movie for me. Also, my bad for attempting the see the movie on the small screen. Still, watching this movie was a better experience due to this surprise ending.

You seriously need to watch it (affiliate link) if you like supernatural stuff featuring ghosts.

Then, 2 years later, another mystery/thriller/horror came out. Also featuring ghosts.

I honestly enjoyed this one (aff. link) as a whole more than the first one. Maybe because I watched it on a bigger screen, with the lights out, at home alone with a friend where we were on the sixth floor. The wind noise could get to such spooky levels that you could shoot a Paranormal Activity there without paying for sound effects.

Then the ending was…yes, they were dead all along. And… I didn’t mind. It made sense. It didn’t take away from the experience. It worked for the movie.

But this kind of ending is not the happily ever after romantic comedy overs expect and welcome. You can’t keep writing thriller after thriller with this ending and then be surprised when the audiences hate you for it.

7 years after the second movie I mentioned, a romantic mystery thriller came out. Solid actors. Interesting story. Likable characters. And then the ending…. oh, yes, you guessed it…They were dead all along.

Now, there is no law or rule that says you can’t use this ending. But it’s no longer a surprising, impressive twist.

It disappoints the reader/watcher.

Seek out the films I talked about above. See if your ending brings something different to the table.

Chances are, your audiences will prefer a more used but less “memorable” ending. Because while you want to be remembered, you’d rather be remembered for having entertained them.

• Memory loss.

Ah, memory loss…

Where would most genres be without characters that suffered from some sort of temporary or permanent amnesia?

Like most things, earlier ones in the market are going to receive a better welcome. Especially if one of the earlier ones was so original in its storytelling and the screenplay.

I love the film Memento (aff.link). The story is told chronologically backward, with the ending being the beginning. And the answer to whodunnit is also just…amazing.

Memento tells the story of Leonard, a man with short-term memory loss trying to find out who killed his wife. But due to his condition, he can’t trust anyone, including himself. And this makes for a very compelling watch.

But Memento is an exception for me.

I usually get bored. If I read memory loss in the description, I put down the book. I don’t pick the film. I debate whether to continue the series.

Don’t get me wrong. Memory loss is horrible, and if it happened to someone I knew, I’d do everything I could do to help them and be there for them.

However, I don’t have the energy and enthusiasm to do that for fictional characters.

Because I have seen them so often.

While as a writer you need to put your characters through hell and make them suffer through/deal with different sorts of conflict, memory loss should be handled with care.

Is it making your story more thrilling or less thrilling?

Is it making it more or less predictable? You don’t want your audiences bored. And when it comes to predictability, they don’t want to be able to predict certain things.

How much has your audience seen this kind of memory loss in this kind of situation with this kind of character? (Be careful before you say never. They probably have.)

• The protagonist has an identical twin!

I don’t have anything against twins or twin characters in fiction.

My complaint is about certain tropes.

Are your twins so radically different in personality, maybe to the point if one is a good cop and the other is a vicious criminal?

Is one twin happily married with kids living in suburbia while the other can’t stay sober, hold down a job/keep a relationship, or a job?

Do they dress as different as Marilyn Manson in make-up and a Jonas Brother?

These twins, because they are basically night and day, usually have a falling out. They don’t keep in contact.

Oh, and often, they have managed to keep it a secret from anyone that they have a twin.

Yet somehow, despite all the extreme differences, when push comes to shove, they can replace each other just like that and no one notices. (Eye roll.)

I’ve had identical twin friends, and even when they dressed alike, and their personalities were pretty similar, they were still clearly distinguishable from each other.

Despite the shared genes, these are separate people with separate identities. And the more time they spend apart, the more difficult it’d be to imitate each other flawlessly.

This is such a common plot device in so many genres, but I see it most often with thrillers.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t write about identical twins. They are fascinating. But you should know what came before you.

Bring something fresher to the table. Go to where authors haven’t traveled to so often.

Your biggest twist probably shouldn’t be “Hah, he had a twin! That explains it.” Because that is probably what the audiences guessed first and wished you wouldn’t go there.

Now, if you’ve conducted market research and found out that thrillers with twins are selling insane numbers, then fine. I guess it is what the market wants.

But be sure.

• Split Personality Disorder (especially as the source of crimes/big plot twist/twist ending)

Audiences, especially those who deal with mental health issues and/or those who are sensitive about mental health in general (and yes, this is a big audience in numbers) are a bit sick of seeing people with mental health issues being the criminal and/or villain.

And certain mental illnesses fascinate writers more than others.

The movie Split (Amazon aff. link) takes a bit of a pass from me because James McAvoy is a phenomenal actor. And also because we know what we are going to watch going in.

His split personality is not the big twist. While there are some issues in the film, the diagnosis is not it.

If you are giving your villain mental illness(es), be very careful. Get help from sensitivity readers. Use trigger warnings.

And make sure you’re not pulling a variant of “they were dead all along” but in the form of “oh, one of their many personalities is the murderer!”

Some people love that twist. However, even people who loved that twist the first time might not enjoy it over and over.

Friendly Reminder

You don’t have to take my advice. You don’t really need to take anyone’s advice when it comes to your story. But it’s always a good idea to stop and consider.

How does your target audience feel about this?

And it’s always possible to combine several seemingly unrelated or not-so-fresh ideas and come up with something interesting.

As much as I have complained about memory loss, protagonists who were revealed to be dead, and twin replacement tropes, it doesn’t mean there are no stories left to tell here.

Hell, if one of your twins had complete memory loss, the other replaced him/her but then they are revealed to be dead all along? If you can coherently pull this off, send me the link to your book. I’ll take a look!

It might be pushing it to give them a split personality disorder on the top of everything, though…:)

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What about you? What thriller tropes and twists are you sick of? Let me know!