How to Write a Good Story

Strange Horizons: Stories we've seen too often (II)

h. In the future, an official government permit is required in order to do some particular ordinary thing, but the specific thing a permit is required for isn't (usually) revealed until the end of the story.

i. Characters speculate (usually jokingly): "What if X were true of the universe?" (For example: "What if the universe is a simulation?") At the end, something happens that implies that X is true.

j. Characters in the story (usually in the far future and/or on an alien planet) use phrases that are phonetic re-spellings or variations of modern English words or phrases, such as "Hyoo Manz" or "Pleja Legions," which the reader isn't intended to notice; in the end, a surprise twist reveals that there's a connection to 20th/21st-century English speakers.

10. Someone calls technical support; wacky hijinx ensue.

a. Someone calls technical support for a magical item.

b. Someone calls technical support for a piece of advanced technology.

c. The title of the story is 1-800-SOMETHING-CUTE.

11. Scientist uses himself or herself as test subject.

12. Evil unethical doctor performs medical experiments on unsuspecting patient.

13. In the future, criminals are punished much more harshly than they are today.

a. In the future, the punishment always fits the crime.

b. The author is apparently unaware of the American constitutional amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment, and so postulates that in the future, American punishment will be extra-cruel in some unusual way.

14. White protagonist is given wise and mystical advice by Holy Simple Native Folk.

15. Story is based in whole or part on a D&D game or world.

a. A party of D&D characters (usually including a fighter, a magic-user, and a thief, one of whom is a half-elf and one a dwarf) enters a dungeon (or the wilderness, or a town, or a tavern) and fights monsters (usually including orcs).

b. Story is the origin story of a D&D character, culminating in their hooking up with a party of adventurers.

c. A group of real-world humans who like roleplaying find themselves transported to D&D world.

16. An alien or an AI/robot/android observes and comments on the peculiar habits of humans, for allegedly comic effect.

a. The alien or AI is fluent in English and completely familiar with various English idioms, but is completely unfamiliar with human biology and/or with such concepts as sex or violence and/or with certain specific extremely common English words (such as "cat").

b. The alien or AI takes everything literally.

c. Instead of an alien or AI, it's people in the future commenting on the ridiculous things (usually including internal combustion engines) that people used to use in the unenlightened past.

17. Space travel is wonderful and will solve all our problems. [We agree that space travel is pretty cool, but we'd rather that weren't the whole point of the story.]

18. Man has an awful, shrewish wife; in the end he gets revenge on her, by (for example) killing her or leaving her.

a. Man is entirely blameless, innocent, mild-mannered, and unobjectionable, and he kills his awful, shrewish wife entirely by accident, possibly in self-defense, so it's okay.