Drowning in Cliches

Sometimes I watch the same television shows everyone else is watching, and I read the same books, and I watch those trailers Disney+ is pumping out by the dozen, and I can’t escape the feeling that every story feels the same.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying popular media. Often, I like it too. Yet at the same time there’s this grouchy, frustrated writer inside of me who feels like I’m buried in an avalanche of boring cliches.

Like the “strong” female character who’s sole character trait is believing in herself when “the world” (ie: three people) tell her that she can’t do what she wants to do.

Or the smooth-edged nonsense of an action movie where beautiful actors alternate quips with stunts, quips with stunts, quips with stunts until any semblence of story or personality is washed away.

I’m frustrated, not because these things exist, but because I feel like the more of them I consume, the more my brain becomes pudding. I’ve become Zach Braff in Idiocracy, cackling in my chair while I load up the next episode of “Ow! My Balls.”

Perhaps I’m frustrated with myself? 😏 That seems likely.

No worries. I can set the cliches aside, and I can go in search of deeper, weirder, less predictable stories. They’re out there. Somewhere…

Also, fuck it! Isn’t this half the reason I became a writer? If it doesn’t exist, make it.