Spinpasta Wiki:Site Rules/The Spinoff Clichés

The following is a list of what are generally considered to be overused clichés. That doesn't mean to avoid them at all costs; in fact, some of these are overused because they are highly usable. But if the story you're planning on writing incorporates many of these, that should be a warning sign, as they tend to bring the reader out of the story, and will more than likely interfere with their suspension of disbelief.

And remember: this is a list of actual clichés, not complaints or opinions (no matter how valid they may be). If you have a complaint that isn't about clichés and more about things that generally tick you off in pastas, try making a blog post about it instead.

However, these aren't always to be avoided. If you can work one into a story well, then for God's sake make it.

General Clichés

1. Stories involving the soon-to-be murderous children of cartoonishly abusive parents.
2. Anything starting with the phrase "I know you're not going to believe this," or "I used to be a skeptic, but..."
3. Anything starting with "I used to be normal. . ."
4. The numbers 6, 13, and 666.
5. Falsely believing something is over, and then creepy shit happening again anyway.
6. Using "This actually happened to me" or "This isn't a creepypasta, it really happened!" in an attempt to turn up suspense only kills it. Especially "You have to believe me" or "You won't believe this" is added on. Suspension of disbelief is broken when directly addressed.
7. Pointless violence and excessive gore. Most of the time, it's just a lame attempt at shock value.
8. Making the first word/letter of every paragraph spell out something, usually something along the lines of "DON'T LOOK BEHIND YOU!" This usually makes the reader laugh from such a silly attempt to scare, especially if they're sitting with a wall behind them.
9. Ending the pasta with "YOU'RE NEXT!!!!" What are you, five?!
10. Starting a story with "Don't read this or you'll be cursed," or similar will just make people not read it.
11. Using hyper-realistic eyes or empty sockets or bleeding eyes, it's used too much.
    • While we're at it, describing ANYTHING as "realistic" or "hyper-realistic." (this goes for photos, too.)
12. The Unfaithful Narrator, in which the speaker of the story turns out to be evil, or possessed, or a ghost.
13. "No escape" either written or said constantly. I really wish I could 'escape' all the pastas that use this...
14. Opening the story with "I don't have much time to write this" or 'I'm going to die soon."
15. Computer screens being accosted by horrible images of rape, murder, torture, necrophilia, pedophilia, bestiality and other assorted paraphilias after the protagonist/author plays a creepy game/visits a creepy website/opens files on an 'abandoned computer/hard drive', followed by the computer blue screening, then restarting with one (or more) of those images as the desktop wallpaper, which the author can't get rid of or obscure with other windows.
16. Stories about the HORRIBLE TRUTH of the things you seen in the corner of your eye.
17. There's something behind you!
18. Anything that has to do with evil domestic housecats.
19. Characters with abnormal eyes (especially blood red eyes) and every one hates them because of it.
20. Killer dolls.
21. Fanfics of the sort. We do not accept "Jeff the Killer x Slenderman" articles, or any sort. We are a literature site, not the next Fanfic.net.

General Video Game Clichés

1. Creator or seller of game dying or going insane.
   • (Related) Said creator coming to the house, killing the person playing, and leaving complete gibberish on screen.
2. Classic childhood game with super-violent content added.
3. Destroying the game, but it magically reappears.
   • Extra cliché points if it happens multiple times.
4. Obviously technically impossible stuff, such as games that delete themselves in such a way that you can't recover them, or games with "perfect" copy protection. This includes older games having graphics/sound/visual effects beyond the system's technical limitations.
5. "Hidden" content in popular games (such as Pokémon, that have been gone over with a fine toothed comb a thousand times).
6. The game knows my name (even though I never put it in anywhere/the game has no ability for me to change my characters/save files name).
7. Song generally regarded as "creepy" plays on repeat or backwards (HI, LAVENDER TOWN THEME!).
8. Not being able to turn off/unplug the game console/TV.
9. On the same note, being unable to turn the volume off/down. Extra cliché points if the volume becomes deafeningly loud. (also applies to lost episode pasta.)
10. Trying to relive some childhood nostalgia.
11. This mod was PMed to me personally/found it on a skeezy looking site/found on a random disc and ZOMG IT'S SUPAH CREEPY GUIZ.
12. The game's talking to me, telling me to go away, turn back or something of that sort.
13. Characters begging you (or appearing to beg you) not to go to certain places or do certain things.
14. Random EXE files appearing on your computer or being sent to you by an "anonymous sender".
15. Downloading obviously suspicious ROMs or Hacks because "you desperately need to play."
16. Games that mess with your computer background or desktop icons. Also applies to pastas about video files.
17. Thinking that certain things were just some "minor glitches".
    • It depends on the glitch of course, but if it's actually something that could be written off as a minor glitch then it probably goes without saying anyway.
18. Destroying the cartridge/disc/game card in disgust as an explanation for why you can't provide proof of the game's existence; that's just lazy writing. Also applies to DVDs and VHS tapes in Lost Episode pastas.
19. The person who sold the game (yard, eBay, whatever) begging people to buy it, and for a low price too.
    • Also, the ebay account/yardsale/old creepy game store mysteriously disappears if the narrator tries to check back in.
20. Old cartridges/disks/game cards/flash drives/etc found in garbage cans, desks, the ground, and has names scribbled on with Sharpie or carved into the plastic itself.
21. Ending the pasta by vowing that you'll never play the game ever again.
22. A plush toy, usually bloody, of the antagonist, appearing suddenly at the end of the story. Also applies to Lost Episode pastas.
23. As your character gets hurt/maimed in the game, you get hurt in real life. Related cliché: dying in the game makes you die for real.
24. The character you play as looks exactly like you or someone close to you.
25. Going to the mirror to see that the person there is not yourself, especially if the person in the mirror is a supernatural entity.
26. Starting the story with "Have you ever heard of *insert game title*?"

Pokémon Clichés

1. Pokémon with abandonment issues.
2. Pokémon dying instead of fainting when you defeat them in battle.
3. Anything to deal with Lavender Town Syndrome.
4. Vengeful/jealous Pokémon from a previous generation or save file.
5. Distorted/demonic-sounding Pokémon cries.
6. The Natures, descriptions, and/or status of your Pokémon changing to creepy stuff like "Vengeful", "Dead", "Cursed", and "HATE".
7. A legendary you just obtained, especially an event-only one, becoming jealous of the rest of your team and murdering them one by one. This seems to happen a lot with shinies and starters, too.
8. When being traded a Pokémon, the person you got it from is begging you to accept it or claims there's something not quite right about it.
9. Pikachu's and Eeveeluiton's (especially Umbreon and Espeon) are extremely overused.
10. Unown either appearing or being in your party since the start of your game, spelling a "creepy" message.
11. A Pokémon you used to like or that you don't use very much tears apart other Pokémon and attaches bits of them to itself to make you like them. It's really getting overused now.
    • (insert Pokémon here) used CURSE!
12. Pokémon using the Mail System to communicate with the trainer, it got old, and fast.
13. "Pokémon don't die....Do they?" It's used too often and yeah, they die.
14. Pokémon that are zombified/mutilated.
15. Mutilated/bloody overworld sprites of NPCs and/or the player character.

Lost Episode Clichés

1. Got it on a website that doesn't exist anymore and nobody else in the universe has a copy.
2. Like with video game pastas, obtaining the episode from a garage or yard sale or just laying on the ground.
3. "I was an intern" - SHUT THE FUCK UP. How many times have I heard that? Originally from Squidward's Suicide, but used in others like Pearl.avi. Try and make it something else, since normally interns don't get to see that stuff.
4. A spike in the suicide rate of the target audience after it was aired (also applies to video games).
5. Content that could obviously never get past the FCC or any channels Standards and Practices board ending up being broadcast.
6. Posting the story and/or video up on a website, only for it to get deleted in minutes.
7. Most of the episode being distorted or static, and the viewer can only see <insert character here> killing <insert character here> or aforementioned "hyper-realistic" imagery.
8. With older shows, showing or mentioning a culturally-significant event or item that hadn't yet happened when the episode was made, like 9/11 or an iPad showing up in a show made in 1983. Popularized by Happy Appy, but originally used in Seinfeld Lost Episode.
9. Zalgofied cartoon characters.
10. One character, usually a protagonist, killing all the other characters.
11. Actors, directors, or animators being arrested, killed, committing suicide or sent to a mental asylum after the episode airs.
12. Finding a random flashdrive only to find out it has a haunted .avi or .wmv
13. Warning the reader to never watch the tape if he/she finds it somehow.
14. The episode only being shown in a remote area.
15. Unrelated clips placed in an episode, usually relating to graphic violence or other disturbing content (i.e. clip of IRL murder in the middle of a lost Spongebob tape)
16. Ending the pasta by vowing that you'll never watch the show ever again.

MLP Clichés

Note: We do not accept MLP Pastas anymore. But keep these in mind when you are posting them offsite.

1. Having Rainbow Dash or the Cutie Mark Crusaders be the victim.
2. Having Pinkie Pie be the killer to these victims.

Theory Clichés

1. Saying that all the main characters are ghosts that haunt the place where the show usually takes place, and explaining how they all died along with what year they died in.
2. Saying that the show/video game was all in a character's imagination, or that they were hallucinating, on drugs, comatose, or mentally ill.
3. In series with a fantasy setting or any other setting with fantastic creatures, saying that it takes place after a nuclear apocalypse (i.e. Mutant Future).
4. The protagonist being in Hell or Purgatory, everything in the series being a reflection of their sins. This one wore out its welcome quickly, too. (You'll notice a pattern emerging here.)
5. Lack of evidence to back-up your theories. Not a cliché, just sayin'.