Twisting Cliches to Make Them Unique (Guest Post by Sunayna Prasad)

When writing their stories, authors must perform research to ensure that their content is factual and believable. While audiences might accept certain tropes, regardless of how often they are used, some find their use overdone and consider them to be clichés, which leads to dissatisfaction. While I performed research on the fantasy story I was writing, I discovered the many common tropes and character types that displease much of the audience of that genre, for example dragons, elves, and orcs.

Of course, authors using cliches such as these can still be successful. Audiences have different tastes, no matter what genre they most enjoy. Some may favor these character types, while others may be tired of them. What this means is that when a writer performs research on their topic, they should know their audience as well as possible.

In the earlier days of writing the first installment of my book series, I did a lot of research on how to write fantasy for children, who are my audience. Not only did I learn what tropes people consider to be overdone, but I also brainstormed an idea to give my content and characters a twist—create my own magical creatures.

Although my stories are mainly set in modern-day America, a large portion of the first novel in the series takes place on a made-up enchanted island in Fiji. Because Fiji is relatively near Australia, many of the fantastical animals were inspired by Australian wildlife. For example, one creature in my novel is a fusion of a rainbow lorikeet and a kangaroo, while another is a dingo that can change colors. Through such worldbuilding, I could build more original ideas or change clichés into original ideas.

Despite the fact that I wanted to avoid or change cliches, there was one trope in the second installment of the series that was originally a stereotypical antagonist—a skeleton. In my early drafts, I depicted him as a purely wicked being who carries a scythe. However, as I learned more about developing characters, such as giving good and bad traits to both the protagonists and antagonists, my portrayal of the skeleton changed. He is now a depressed character who loathes his appearance and wants to be human; however, because nobody understands him, people fear him.

The strategy of twisting clichés not only applies to fantasy; it can work with any genre. For example, suppose you are writing a book about a girl attending a new school who is picked on by the popular crew. Instead of making the popular girls stereotypical, they could be given physical flaws so that they are not perfectly beautiful. Another idea could be to make something embarrassing happen to them.

Whatever genre you write in or audience you target, remember to research everything necessary for your topic and premise. If you find that you are using tropes that your potential readers are sick of, you can give them a twist. Just remember to show your story to an editor and listen to their feedback on whether the approach works for your story.

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