Rule 2 : It was all a dream

Wait a minute, I hear our singular reader cry, that's what you get taught in school, nobody does that anymore.

Well, that's not completely true. 'It was all a dream' is the bane of every english school teachers life, but why? Sure it's an escape clause for the kids, all they have to do is write those 5 sacred words at the end of their story and they've finished.

More than this the Dream Clause let's down the audience. It is they who have invested their time and emotion in a character and it is we the writer who must fulfil their expectations. But the biggest problem is that the reader will say 'what was the point in me reading that... none of it happened!'.

Rule 2 exists to say don't cheat the audience.

In 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time' Jake Gyllenhall's character Dastan comes into the possession of a dagger with magical time reversing properties. The sand within it's glass handle enables Dastan to reverse the time around him - great! what a fantastic plot device. Every time he's in trouble he can invoke the daggers power and get himself out of a situation.

SPOILER ALERT!!

The problem with the script is that near the end of the film Dastan battles with his nemesis Nizam and 90% of the story we've just watched is undone. Time is reversed and we are suddenly back at the start. 90 minutes of your life just went by.. but it means nothing!

As soon as I invest bum time in a movie, I want to know that those event are happening to our heroes, otherwise why should I care?

It also makes it too easy for the writers, knowing that they can kill anyone, say anything and by page 100 they can take it all back, it never happened. What a cheat.

In conclusion, cheating the audience is just BAD.