The clichés of wattpad

D. Avoiding clichés in writing

How to Avoid Cliches in Fantasy Writing

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You are eager to begin writing, but don't want your story full of the same old boring material. Follow these instructions, and you are on your way to creating a compelling fantasy.

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1.)Avoiding cliches can be very difficult. Remember, having one or two of the cliches below is perfectly fine especially if they're important to your story and will affect it if you change them. Just try not to have way too many cliches, or no one will want to read your story and you'll eventually forget about it.

2.)Make your main character have a realistic family. As a general "rule", female characters will only have a father and male characters will only have a mother. Try to make things a little bit different. If you do so, your characters will have more interesting backgrounds.

3.)Don't make your characters stereotypes. A lot of female characters have a bossy, rude, and know-it-all personality, and that should be avoided. Another stereotypical female character (usually the main character) is the useless wallflower. The best friend is usually perfect, pretty/handsome, dates a lot of girls/guys, etc. in order to better compare the main character to them- which doesn't really work, so avoid this. Create likeable, realistic characters that people will like. You should also avoid damsels in distress: You want to create independent yet likable female characters who are good role models and don't have to rely on a guy to save/help them. "Mary Sues" are very annoying: give your characters some flaws and don't make them happy even though their lives are miserable. Try your best with male characters too: Don't make them fall in love with the heroine "at first sight" or be an orphan with a miserable life going to a private school where he is bullied and has no friends until something unexpected happens and he discovers he's a hero. When writing descriptions, avoid using sentences like "the heroine had silky and sparkly onyx hair that bounced perfectly", those can be really annoying to read.

4.) Read. This might seem like the exact opposite of what you should do, but it will teach you what common set-ups to avoid. Make a list of your most disliked cliches if it helps.

5.) Also before you post a story, let it sit for a day. You'll be so surprised at how bad it really is.

6.)Create your own creatures. Fairies, goblins, dwarves, elves in medieval-like worlds are very overused, and so are main boy characters who come from Earth and end up on a fantasy world for no apparent reason. If you are making a story about a normal person ending up in a fantasy world, try to make it more realistic. Don't just make him/her "just appear there" or "fall through a portal".

7.)Make your characters have varied ages. Most fantasy characters are around 11-16 years old. It's okay to make them young teens, but try to make supporting characters who have different ages.

8.)Design your own weapon. Swords, guns, and rods are common in fantasy. Designing your own weapons should be fun and different.

9.) Avoid "the chosen one". Once again, you want realistic, exciting, and three-dimensional characters. The more interesting your characters are, the more they will be liked. "The chosen one" can make a story boring because you know that only one hero will save the world from evil and nothing else change it.

10.)If you're going to add romance, don't make it sappy and full of drama. Stay away from the male character saving the heroine and doing anything for her after only knowing her for five seconds. Make it cute and realistic. The two characters who are in love should get to know each other before anything happens and they shouldn't fall in love just because you wanted them to. For example, you can't have them arguing nonstop for three chapters and then just make them kiss out of nowhere because you wanted your story to have romance. You want it to seem like it's happening in real life, even if it's fantasy, and creating boring and one-dimensional romances will make things worse.

11.)The "villain father" should be avoided.

12.)Villains can look normal too. Most stories have either extremely good looking or bad looking villains. Try to mix things up a little bit

13.)Little kids are stronger than heroes?. Don't, just don't create an annoying little kid who is always chasing the main characters around, asking to "join their group", challenging them to battles, and beating the main hero in nearly every one of them. Those types of characters will be disliked and will make your story annoying.

14.)The "sad character". There will always be a goth/depressed character who has no friends but learns how to interact with people in the end of the story. Will usually be a guy with dark, long hair and no friends or a 18-year-old girl with a miserable life who is a leader of a group as is trying to act "tough". Just don't.

15.)The "helpless princess". Will not help the heroes whatsoever and will do nothing except for waiting to be rescued

16.)Legends and prophecies always becoming true no matter what. That would NEVER happen in real life, whether you were in a fantasy world or not.

17.)Fake deaths. This is extremely common: a main character, usually the main heroine who the hero is in love with, will appear to be dead but then turn out to be alive but very hurt.

18.)The main villain is finally dead...not. Another "death" cliche: The main character seems to finally kill the villain/a monster, and when all the characters are happy and celebrating, the villain/monster comes back to life.

19.)It happened a thousand years ago... . The main villain will always be "sealed away" a thousand/hundred years ago by a mysterious hero who simply disappeared, and will come back years later to attempt to destroy the land again. Second hero will usually be related to the first hero.

20.)Incompetent useless adults (aka "and I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids.")...Oftentimes the young tween or teen protagonists implausibly outsmart adults. This is common in children's adventure stories where it would venture too far outside of G-rated territory to have the adult villains behave in a realistic way towards those who interfere with their plans, even if they are just kids. And realistically, most villains in stories like these, who are a convincing threat should not have qualms over harming or murdering even children. The only way to get around this is to have the adult villains as ridiculously incompetent whether they be pirates, assassins, or evil nobles, sorcerers or henchmen. Also, it's the only way to tell a story about young, inexperienced adventurers without the story being over fairly quickly. However, if you do this, it doesn't actually make your kid heroes seem more smart or more clever, it rather questions how much of a threat their enemies really are in the first place. If older, more experienced adults could be outsmarted by kids, then in all likelihood, they probably would have failed on their own to accomplish whatever it was they were setting out to do.

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I'll be working in 'tips' tonight cx