Pitfalls List
Please try to avoid the following in your workshop pieces. Each one is very difficult to pull it off,
and many are uncreative to a certain degree.
WHAT (subject matters, themes, and ideas)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
A dream or nightmare where one wakes up at the end
Any dialogue with God demanding relief from suffering
Writer’s block as a subject (“I’m staring at a blank page…”)
Angels, especially of the guardian variety
Giving life lessons to a “You”
Puppeteer or puppet master
HOW (techniques and specifics)
1. Clichéd expressions like “a broken heart” or “cold as ice”
2. Tears of joy, tears of sadness, tears in general
3. Sweating, drops of perspiration, damp palms, any sort of seepage from pores
4. The phrase “Tick-tock, tick-tock”
5. The phrase “Inhale, exhale”
6. Dancing as a metaphor (“The wind danced” or “The butterfly danced in the air”)
7. Excessive alliteration (“The blue bowl of bubbling broth”)
8. Excessive adjectives (“The large yellow shaggy dog on the tall wet green grass”)
9. Excessive gerunds (“He was yawning, listening, thinking, wondering, doodling…”)
10. End-rhyming (Internal rhyming is fine)
11. Any of these words: pain, soul, abyss, engulf, drown (unless someone is actually drowning)
12. Archaic language (thine, doth, beseech)
13. Onomatopoeia followed by an exclamation point (Kaboom! Splash!)
14. Nostrils when describing a smell (“The scent of lilac filled my nostrils”)
15. Describing eyes as “orbs”
16. Describing a toilet as “porcelain bowl” or “porcelain thrown”
17. Alarm clock beginnings (“I wake up in the morning and climb out of bed…”)
18. A kiss that doesn’t involve two people (no kissing the ground, a tree, a stuffed animal)
19. Hugging or embracing
20. A sick child or a healthy child described as “adorable” or “cute” or “cuddly” or “sad-eyed”
21. A rainbow in the sky
22. A falling star
23. Any natural cataclysm interpreted as divine action from God
24. Night or darkness as a source of fear
25. Puppies or kittens (Dogs and cats are acceptable)
26. Metaphors that compare life to any spectator sport
27. “Untitled” (Please, title your pieces)
28. A shoebox or drawer that contains either of the following: old love letters, pressed flowers,
faded photographs, or high school rings
29. A surprise Hollywood ending (It was all a dream! or The narrator is dead! or other twist)
30.
Poems centered
in the middle
of the page