How to Write an Original Story: 5 Writing Clichés to Avoid

An original story is a unique narrative or fresh interpretation of a familiar concept. Original stories haven’t been attempted before (or tried in your specific way). They are devoid of clichés, overly familiar phrases and stereotypes, and overused tropes, which are a common motif or pattern in a work of art. In the context of fiction, character tropes refer to common attributes or even entire stock characters. While all writing is influenced in some way by the work that precedes it, using too many tropes and derivative storylines may be viewed as a sign of lazy or uninspired writing.

It may feel easier to rely on familiar literary tropes, but clichés can make a storyline feel bland or predictable. Here is a list of common writing clichés to avoid when crafting your own original story:

1. 1. The chosen one: Some stories, especially those in the young-adult fantasy genre, center around a chosen one—only one hero who can save the world (and often reluctantly). Plots that center this trope can be predictable because of how frequently it is used in various genres. The audience or readers may already know that the protagonist will eventually step up and be the hero the people need.
2. 2. The dream revelation: Ending a story with a character waking up and realizing it was all a dream can leave the audience with feelings of dissatisfaction. This twist ending can make the journey feel pointless because there’s no real development or consequences for the characters. The audience needs a reason to invest their time in the story.
3. 3. The love triangle: The love triangle cliché—where one character falls in love with two people and has to choose between them—is prevalent in the romance genre. Lovers entangled in a perpetual will-they-won’t-they situation can become repetitive, leading to little satisfaction when a character decides who they want.
4. 4. The magical supporting character: In some stories, one common character trope is when writers use a Black supporting character as a literary device to provide the main character (often white) with guidance or sage wisdom. To counter this, write in characters of color who contribute to the plot or narrative in a meaningful, three-dimensional way. When outlining your novel or developing your plot, remember to include diverse characters that exist without playing into cultural bias, perceived stereotypes, or commonly held beliefs within society about a character’s culture or identity based on their ethnicity.
5. 5. Overused literary devices: Certain turns of phrase may come to mind easily when writing descriptions or dialogue, but there’s a reason for that: they’re usually overdone. Try not to overload your text with similes or gimmicky phrases. Spend time finding new ways to describe common or familiar things and avoid relying on unoriginal figures of speech.

A good story can paint a vivid image with words in many creative ways. Whether you’re a screenwriter drafting a pilot script or an author writing a children’s literature series, it’s essential to know how to keep your ideas fresh and exciting:

1. 1. Use your life as inspiration. Your life is unique, as are your specific experiences. Use elements from your own life to inform specific story components like the setting, subject matter, or backstories of the main characters. Draw inspiration for a character in your short story from your own best friend, or base the quirky character in your fiction novel on a memorable neighbor. Your own life is rife with material, so mine it for inspiration.
2. 2. Plan your character development. While you don’t have to stick to your original plan, creating a road map of growth and conflict for your characters can help you insert unique tidbits into their story and prevent you from falling into literary traps (like writing yourself into a corner and taking an easy way out).
3. 3. Outline your main plot points. Writing without a direction or guidance can be frustrating and lead to cutting corners under pressure or time constraints. Outlining the crucial moments of your story can give you a solid skeleton to build upon, rather than forcing you to scramble for ideas that may have already been told before. Learn how to outline a novel in our complete guide.
4. 4. Change the context. According to the theory of intertextuality, all works of literature are a derivation or have been influenced by a previous work of literature. However, each of those works of literature has a nearly infinite number of ways to combine various story elements. For instance, you can take a famous period piece or fairy tale and set it in contemporary New York or swap the genders and backstories of historical figures of the past. Writers can morph stories into fresh narratives by taking a familiar structure and refurbishing it with new parts. Borrowing structure from another writer’s work is not the same as plagiarizing, which is directly copying a literary work—it is adapting a concept into a different form to tell a new story.
5. 5. Cross genres. Whether writing romance, comedy, or romantic comedy, leave room to break out of your genre’s mold and surprise the reader. Consider adding an incredibly dark moment into your comedy script or a refreshingly funny moment into a romantic scene. Keep the reader on their toes by infusing your voice into your genre and incorporating a variety of different elements—but stay believable. Suddenly including an alien abduction into a work of historical fiction will likely make the work feel ridiculous rather than original.

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