Joelle Anthony's 25 YA Cliches List

Joelle Anthony has re-posted her excellent list of the 25 Things Most Overused in Middle Grade and YA Fiction.

Some highlights:

#25 – Vegetarian teens with unsympathetic meat-eating parents

#24 – Shy or withdrawn characters that take refuge in the school’s art room/ compassionate art teachers

Joelle Anthony

#23 – A token black friend among a group of white friends – usually it’s a girl, and she’s always gorgeous

#22 – A tiny scar through the eyebrow, sometimes accompanied by an embarrassing story

-- and so on. I think it's important to note that you're free to use any of these cliches if we we feel you must. But knowing it's a cliche at least gives you two things-- a chance to be sure of the choice and put some spin on it, and a chance to toss the cliche and try something else.

By the way, the #2 item-- best friends with red hair? Guilty.