People who widely read and are prolific readers probably have read them all before. These people skip books that have one of the items below.

As a writer, I've once read something that inspired me to execute the same plot devices as the ones that I just read, thinking that they'd be effective in my writing. However, upon submission, my editors did not like it and told me to revise the whole thing because, like most widely read people, they've read them all. I mean, sure it could delight casual readers or at least it will be their reason to continue reading, but for most people, these will fall flat.

Here are the top 5 plot devices crimes that I think writers should avoid using in their writing.

1. Plot twists. We've all seen the "I see dead people" plot twists before, and several times already. We saw it from a mile back and know exactly what will happen. Stories marketing themselves with a "plot twist" usually have the entire plot constructed around this twist. It's either something that has been done before (to prevent the former) or something completely out of whack that created a plot hole on its own. It sells your story short. Every time I would see reviews or blurbs mentioning a "plot twist", I'd place the book back on its shelf and move on. There are many better devices and executions out there than this outdated, ironically predictable, and easily done plot twist. You can only do something in multiple ways. It is guaranteed that other writers have done them all already. If your readers had read them before yours, yours would not be memorable.

2. It's all just a dream. I did this when writing a short story, and all my editor said was, "What's the point of reading this then?" According to him, a story is where a character changes at the end of it. It could be anything - physically, philosophically, their personality. There always has to be a change. If your character's going to wake up knowing all the ordeals he “went” through were just a dream, then they wouldn't change - because there's no real consequence if they stayed the same. We've seen this in movies before - the pivotal action scene all happening in a vision and it would leave us feeling unsatisfied. It feels like we've been scammed. It's not real, therefore there's nothing to it. Your character can go on with their life knowing that they're safe from harm and can continue on their merry way of sameness. So, what’s the point of making the readers go through the entire journey if your character isn’t going to change anyway?

3. Shock factor. If what you're writing isn't splatterpunk horror, then don't. I think it's a cheap way to get people to share excerpts online, to show how shocking and disturbing this scene is. An unnecessary shock factor creates buzz around a book. “If you want to know more about it then buy this book” - it's a marketing ploy. Sure, your books will get more sales, but once the readers who purchased your book because of the shock factor realize it's something that is out of place and that it falls flat, it'll leave not only a buyer's regret from your reader, but it will also leave a bad review.

4. Killing everyone's favorite character. This, however, is something I would often see done on TV series where the studio will have a sense of who everyone's favorite character is and would kill them off whenever they need to revive the hype around it. Sometimes, writers would have a sense of who will be the most likable based on the tropes effective in a particular genre. This, along with the shock factor, is like a sudden spike of dopamine. The rest of the time the story will try to reach that level of the spike once again which, more often than not, makes a crazy roller coaster of a plot that's tough to tie neatly and satisfactorily at the end.

5. Putting your character through an unnecessary amount of ordeal. I've seen Tumblr posts about this, like "my character's reaction when I made them walk through hell" or "I don't feel well. Time to torture my main character". This falls greatly under intentionality. Are the challenges your character goes through integral to the story you're trying to tell, or do you just feel like making your character go through hell because you feel pleasure from it? If it's the latter, maybe you should seek help. Writing opens up a writer's innermost world, from biases to mental health state to trauma, even one's perspective to a certain political ideology. If you're not aware of the state you're in and are transferring all these internal climates to your character, maybe you assess yourself first before continuing.

These things can be remedied in two ways: intentionality and mastering the rules before breaking them.

First is mastering the rules. Read. Read a lot. Read widely. And analyze them all. A casual reader would go through the entire reading experience like a tourist: there to enjoy the trip. As a writer, your job is to analyze the material and the life of the author, when it was written, and how they are as a whole. You need to understand the decisions and reasons why those literary decisions were made, and how you can apply them to your writing. See how I said apply. You need to master these established rules of successfully published works first before you can go about breaking them - and I mean practically, not theoretically. Imitate, integrate, innovate. You cannot go around breaking the rules when you haven't executed them mastered first.

Next is intentionality. We writers don't write under a whim, we write with structure. If you plan to write for others, there needs to be a structure. If the items above are unmet, then maybe it's safe to say that you write for yourself. The literary decisions you make for your piece should be met with intentionality, with the goal of your character arc in mind. The dangers of writing on a whim can be at best, a plot hole, and at worst, an unpublishable piece of writing.

With that being said, I do think the rules on this list can be broken too. There are many imaginative and creative writers out there who can perform these things in revolutionary and unexpected ways. Again, our creative development should revolve around imitation, integration, then innovation.

Plot Crimes Writers Do in Fiction Writing

4/14/2025