Ciao, SEers! Last time, we talked about clichés in horror and how to fix them. This time, we’re going to look at stereotypes in two more genres and ways to turn them around.

Mystery

• Title of the book is “the character in the place (often vantage point)” i.e. The Woman in the Window
  • Solution: Find something more appealing to name your book. Often a word or line in the text will pop.
• Bad guy sees the voyeur investigating what they saw
  • Solution: This is overdone. If you want to have a voyeur, don’t let the villain see the voyeur. Let the voyeur approach the villain. Maybe the voyeur is worse than the villain and blackmails him or becomes inspired by him and becomes a supervillain.
• Washed up grizzled alcoholic detective who lost someone and comes out of retirement to solve the crime even though competent cops can’t
  • Solution:…