LOL Yeah, I am/was guilty of quite a few of those!
And yeah, I have used most of these cliches too. Even the ones I say I don't like LOL. I've done the best friends, the childhood best friends (slight difference there), the abused chick, the bus crash, the car crash, the plane crash, the cancer story, the kidnapping story, the stalker story, the Brian heart problems story (there's one no one has mentioned yet - though that one is not so popular anymore either), the love child after a one night stand, the drug abuse fic, the long lost fictional sibling (sort of - in reverse), the stranded on a deserted island fic (almost), the vampire fic, the ghost fic, the angel fic, the suicide attempt fic, the transplant fic, the sick child fic, the star-crossed lovers fic, the NSync-are-the-bad-guys fic, the girl group fic...
I am a walking cliche.
Accurate!
As for ways I've tried to actively subvert a cliche...
Probably the biggest one in suspense is of course the stalker or kidnapper, Always directed at Nick and I am guilty of writing a few storylines with this plot as well lmao *hangs head in shame*
I wrote a story where Nick and Brian didn't know they had been kidnapped.
The biggest cliche I have noticed in medical type dramas is the failure of the sick person (again usually Nick lol) to tell anyone he's sick until it's too late.
I'm guilty of using this one twice with Nick, but in my last "Nick has a disease" story, he went straight home from the doctor's office and told Lauren the truth. Yay Nick!
- the use of Frick and Frack
As a Frick & Frack girl, I'm sure I used to use these nicknames a lot, but I have made an effort to cut back. I have an unofficial "Frick & Frack" quota in my stories now. It's not a hard and fast number, but I only allow Brian and Nick to use those nicknames in certain situations. They can use them if they're being cheesy on purpose, or they can use them in life or death situations when they're begging each other to hang on or stay away from the light or whatever, LOL. Just not too many times; once or twice is most effective. I have the same rule for Howie calling Nick "Nicky." I will use it occasionally to be cute, and I will definitely bust it out to try to make readers cry, but only sparingly.
I will leave you with this, which cracked me up! LMAO
But seriously, if there's a bus crash that leads ultimately to Nick falling in love with a forest ranger then being diagnosed with cancer caused by tanning bed exposure and too much sex then a week later he finds out some chick he slept with had his child... write something else.
Well that just killed my next story idea, thanks a lot! *deletes Swollen, Faceless chance encounter with Mare the gorgeous, pregnant best friend of Nick the kidnapped forest ranger* <-- the title was too long anyways. lol