‘Tis the Season for Bad Writing

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By Ryan Stephens

Tired tropes and cashed out clichés stick out strongly, especially this time of year.  References from holidays past run rampant but these played out phrases give the holidays that special feeling. However, these clichés should be forgotten because it only enforces lazy writing, eliminates any potential new ideas, and a lack of new ideas means boring holidays.

First, the holidays should inspire some great writing. Great movies, advertising, and music during this time should come out quite frequently. However, a majority of these play on old tropes or clichés. Very rarely does a release exceed films that came out previously. In the last twenty years, studios released plenty of films but none even come close to the classics, such as A Christmas Story, It’s A Wonderful Life, or Die Hard. To prove this point, think of a Christmas movie made in the last twenty years and try to describe its plot. The tropes perpetuated by the classics led to an over-reliance on them. Holiday stories feel boring and stale, rarely do they make the audience feel any real emotion, and studios push them out for a quick Holiday buck.

With that knowledge of mind, the utilization of weak writing leads to new ideas being hindered. Relating to the last claim made in the previous paragraph, movie studios make these movies with money as their motive. As a result, the creative process takes the back seat and the jobs of writers become more formulaic than usual. Some could argue that movies released this time will never achieve the level of critical acclaim that movies like Citizen Kane and The Shawshank Redemption. However, the possible reception of a movie should never come into play because it creates an illusion of a level of perfection that few movies reach. Ultimately, writers need the ability to work creatively so classics can sprout up.

Lastly, the perpetuation of bad writing and a lack of creativity that comes as a result means the Holidays will become more boring. Opponents will argue that a never changing Christmas will give people something to look forward to. However, a non-changing idea, event, or place goes against human instinct. Humans crave change but not too much change. Changing up recycled clichés will benefit us in the long run and will give people something else to look forward to during the holidays.

For the holidays to remain unique, the generic “Ho, Ho, Ho’s”, “naughty or nice’s”, and “Tis the season’s” need to go away. Because it continues bad writing, hinders creativity, and leads to lazy holidays, the continuation of boring clichés will end up harming holidays. Cost efficiency and simplicity should never come up in the creative process and if it does, the artistic potential of a product declines as their presence increases. Those reasons alone should provide enough justification to end these lazy practices.

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