The Next Batch of Anti-Cheese Tips

(Note...once you have a target audience)

Tips for today concerning....




1) Happy scenes that make you puke.
- Regulate the ‘cheer level’ according to what’s going on, but set a limit. The mermaids singing, elves prancing, fireworks blazing, birds flying, random-slapstick-deus-ex-machina acts of goofiness by foil characters gets sickening after a while. Again, recognizing your target audience helps.

2) To name the attack, or not to name the attack?
- Say it yourself in the tone your character would say it. If it’s English words coined together, try choosing ones that aren’t too much of a mouthful or have a nice ring to it. The same goes for non-English names.

3) Boot-worthy dialogue
- Cheese in dialogue mostly revolves around the ones with lots of emotion and drama in it. Be careful when you have to make an angry/sad/love-struck/jovial character speak. Avoid using hyperboles and painfully-obvious dialogue tags that seem like they’re enhancing the feel of what the character is saying, but aren’t.

4) Crap fights
- About time I got here. Fight scenes can be sickeningly sweet – if you know how to manage them. Inserting too much trash-talking, drama, wannabe-witty catchphrases and heroic actions can ruin a perfect action sequence.

5) Love scenes that inspire hate
- Oh, I’ve got a ton for this topic, but one per day will do. Remember, once you’ve chosen your target audience, make sure you stick to their preference. And, unless they crave the uber-dramatic scenes, I’d avoid dialogue bloated with flowery Shakespearian speech (related to Romeo taking half an hour to tell Juliet ‘hi. You’re pretty.’), sex after a fight (I mean, seriously: overworked and frankly, unrealistic), and the ever so corny ‘Sing to the girl from beneath her window’ scene. And that’s just for starters. However, it is possible to make cheese in romance work out. You’ll just have to set up the mood for it. (Check out the scene in 10 things I hate about you where Heath Ledger sings to his lady-love in front of everyone during soccer practice. It’s mega-corny…but it worked out.)

6) When Heroes turn into Half-wits
- The ‘hero speech’ before some great conflict is a risky thing you do. When used with the proper setting, mood, tone and diction, it could turn to some famous quote one day. If not, it could turn into a mozzarella-infested ramble that will make the fans cringe.

7) When Antagonists turn into Addle-pates
- The laugh has got to go. I mean, again, if you use it properly, it WILL work…but the bad guy that does nothing BUT laugh and trash-talk will get on people’s nerves.

8) Next week, I’ll be adding “What characters shouldn’t do in their sleep…”