Okay so you’ve read my last post on clichés but you’ve decided to you’re going to listen to your well meaning friend, your fellow writer, or that nasty little voice inside your head I told you to ignore. You’ve always heard that clichés are wrong and gosh darn it you’re going to write something original. In fact you’re going to blow everyone away.
Well I have something to tell you, you’re going fail horribly.
‘But Fireheart!’ you protest, ‘my story will be original! I’m going to set it on a moon of Jupiter, in a society based on Japan, my mentor will be a green haired dwarf, the evil overlord will have fallen into the position by accident and the hero will be a gimp.’ I have only one thing to say to you, oh intrepid writer, the only reason anyone is going to read your story is for laughs. If it's meant to be serious- expect mocking. Even worse the originality is still superficial, it still has stable fantasy clichés: a mentor, evil overlord, hero. You could then change it so the story is about the gimp’s new job. But again unless you’re righting comedy… Of course you could just keep trying to change everything so that it’s original, but in the end it will be a story no one would probably want to read. If it’s even comprehensible.
The thing is if that’s your solution to clichés then you’ve missed the point. I know it's in fad right now to stay that nothing it original (which this hypothetical story seems to prove), that everything has been done before. And in a way that’s true, but in the most important way it’s not. Maybe the themes have been done, maybe there’s been a main character almost exactly like yours somewhere, but your life experiences, who you are can’t be replicated. It’s in your view of the story, how you decide to bring those themes to life and combine the elements together that the potential for originality arrives.
It’s not that you can’t use elements that aren’t common; in fact most people would encourage you too. A dwarf mentor could be interesting; a hero who's a gimp could be a very engaging story, but just like with clichés, using them won’t guarantee that your story will be good or even original. To write a good story you can’t be so concerned with being original, with avoiding clichés, that you forget the most important thing – story itself. As I said in the last post, it’s the act of letting yourself follow the characters, story and themes that lead to originality and the best chance for a good story.
It is a good idea, however, to expose yourself to lots of different genres as it expands your plot vocabulary. Also, if you feel your first idea seems too cliché especially in context with your other ideas, try your second, third or even four idea. This is where having a large plot vocabulary will come in handy.
As a useful resource check out TVTropes - it's the dictionary of plot elements.
Good luck plotting!
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