We've come to the end of Writing Cliché

Before I bid you adieu, let's cover the key moments in a cliché happy ending. Some of these were covered in earlier chapters but in case you're skimming and skipping, here are some tips:

💯Your MC must always be a sex goddess by the end of the story. She can pretty much be a sex therapist at this point... or have an Only Fans account.

💯Your MC must end the story with a hot stud. She cannot be single. A single woman is a terrible thing.

Even if you're writing dark romance and your male lead abused, kidnapped, or defiled her, your MC cannot end the story single. She's suffered countless horrific experiences by the hands of a man but she must end up in the arms of another person no matter what. If you have to dump in a scene where she picks up a stranger off the street and marries him, all in the final chapter, DO IT.

💯Babies are optional for your endings but try to make it happen.

💯For triangles, she must end up with the hotter of the two guys. Hotness counts above all else.

💯For forbidden stories, come up with a caveat so they're not actually related or make sure enough time passes so there's a divorce or she graduates or she comes of age.

💯For stories where the male lead is possessive/jealous/overprotective, make sure her tolerance increases so that he only has to stop beating people up. Otherwise, he still has anger management problems, is still possessive/jealous/overprotective... but less.

Final Thoughts

At the core of so many of these tales is one version of a Disney movie or another. Most of them are based on Beauty and the Beast.

The men are pompous, grumpy, short-tempered princes while the young women love books, always do the right thing, and see beyond the beast in him. It's only the love of the young woman and his love in return that could break the witch's curse at the end, just like in many of these stories. Despite being kidnapped and abused for months, Belle easily retains her fortitude and goodness, just like in many of these stories. She's unphased.

And so, if that worked so well for a company like Disney, that thrives on clichés, why can't it work for every other romance over the last 10 years?

Being unique in your storytelling, breaking the rules and thinking outside of the box?

Don't do that.

Write stories that appease your readers. When they read your stories, they should feel like they're curled up in their favorite spot on the couch with their favorite socks on and their favorite mug an arm's length away, about to embark on an adventure far far away in a land that looks exactly like their town, featuring characters they've read already, doing sexual things they've seen a dozen times in a dozen other stories. 

Write Cliché.