I'M SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING. Like I said before, I'm still really busy, and time is annoying. Don't worry, I will explain myself. So first of all, I've had a ton of homework lately, and my class has a sort of class pet(s) thing and I'm literally the only one who gives a fudge about them so I have to stay after school to take care of them, and I have a classmate that's in the hospital right now, so I had to fold a lot of these origami cranes. (It's a Japanese thing) and I have to pick up my sister at 5:30,, and that means that I have to leave the house at 5:00, and by the time I get home it's already 4:00. And I need to do my homework and fold the cranes. So yeah. I've been extremely busy, and I swear to the fandom that I will post this today. Even if I means that I have to stay up till 3:00 AM.

AND I WILL PROBABLY MAKE UP FOR LOST CHAPTERS THIS WEEKEND BC I HAVE MONDAY OFF.

If you are someone to warn your readers before they start to read your book that it's going to be cliché, the first part does not apply to you. Same goes if you really like writing cliché.

Again, this will be another romance related chapter.

So yes, I did write a chapter like this before, but I decided that there was a few very important things missing.

For example:

DON'T MAKE YOUR STORY TOO CLICHÉ

Don't you dare make your story cliché. Why? Because your readers will already know exactly what's going to happen. And what's the fun in that? You can predict exactly what's going to happen next, and there's no fun in that. It will be boring, and your readers wouldn't be as invested in the book, and there wouldn't contain as much of your blood, sweat, and tears. And your readers can tell if there is or not. So work hard on not making it cliché. Kill some characters. Have a question lingering in the air after you finish, so if you decide to write a sequel, your readers will be swarming it.

Okay, I'm going to give you a few hints on clichés that you should definitely avoid, and the tropes that are adorably cliché but will not take a toll on the story. And what not to do with those tropes.

But I'm also going to be listing clichés that are beloved by literally everyone, and how you can twist it into a trope that doesn't give away your story.

So. Don't do the following.

Bad boy and good girl. 

Look, I'm sick of reading about arrogant, rude, sarcastic, spoiled, rich, teenage boys with black hair and blue eyes who are secretly sweethearts.

And I'm sick of short girls also with blue eyes, strait A's, no friends, gorgeous faces, with not even a wisp of an idea of a reputation.

This is what those books go like:

Girl: Wakes up

goes to school

talks about her tragic past

bumps into notorious bad boy

admires his glorious blue eyes

coincidentally gets into same class

is forced to spend more time together

slowly grows closer

confessions

kiss

uncovers gigantic game changing secret that destroys their relationship

both ignoring each other

make up, make out

The end. Happily ever after.

I dare you to pick at random ten badboyxgoodgirl books and I guarantee that five out of ten of those books will follow that. Three of those might be discontinued. 

Now, the other two are what I want to be talking about now.

Those might have a twist to the cliché bad boy and good girl trope. 

Maybe the girl used to be a total badass. battling depression. Anxiety. Cancer. Something you don't want to have.

Maybe the boy is adopted and really loves his adopted parents. Maybe he has an artistic talent. Painting, writing, plays a saxophone, a piano, whatever. (Just please don't make him sing especially amazingly. It's way more common than you think.) A passion. Goals in life.

Add a little twist to a usually annoying and cliché plot. Have fun with it. Play around with it. 

Love at first sight

Unless it's an au, (another universe), don't use this, no matter what.

(okay, I'm just going to tell you to go read a book, and it won't take long bc it's only one chapter long. You can read it in fifteen minutes, tops. It's called The Story of How I Saw Blue by Muggles_Mortals. It's an excellent example of an acceptable love at first sight book.)

I'm gonna rip off the band-aid, or plaster, wherever you are: love at first sight is stupid.

Love at first sight is simply not possible, unless it is, again, an au. But if it is not an au, do not use this. It's a little lazy, and if you have love at first sight, that'd be strangers falling in love with each other's looks. And it is plain. Stupid. To build a relationship off of that. It wouldn't last, and they wouldn't even know each other's names. Kids, don't date someone you don't know the name of. 

The Evil Ex

I'm going to put this simply: it doesn't torture your readers enough. Make them love the ex, but have them have a coincidentally bad past with your mc. That way, your readers will tear each other apart, debating whether the ex is evil or not. And you can just be reading their comments while snacking on popcorn.

But jokes aside, you want something to set your stories aside from all the other's your readers have read. Make them question their thoughts. Make them be philosophical about it. Question your own thoughts.

Now, the big question: why?

Because it'll be more realistic that way. Not every ex of your love interest and wants your love interest back is a terrible person. And you can spice it up even more, make them the mc's best friend, and a good best friend, not a crappy toxic best friend. Because in real life, things are never so one sided, so your book shouldn't be either.

If you want me to add anything here, comment, and I'll try to fulfill your request.

Now, we're going to talk about the classic clichés, the cute clichés, the vague clichés, and the clichés that are twistable.

The Love Triangle

There are tons of ways you can change this up. Twist it, rewrite the norm, and make your readers suffer.

One of my favorite ways: the different povs. For example, let's say that mc A has a crush on mc C. But so does mc B. And you include mc A and mc B's pov's so your readers are split in themselves. Doubt themselves, question themselves, drive themselves crazy. It's a part of the job description to do that. That's your job as a writer. Tear your readers apart. Make mc A and mc B both amazing people, but complete opposites. Or if that doesn't satisfy you, you can make them both best friends. And remember, having your mc's ending up with their love interests isn't required. You can make them end up with completely different people, or mc A and mc B together. 

Spice it up. Have fun with it. Brainstorm ideas, and choose your favorite, the most surprising, and the most complicated scenarios. Brainstorm some more. And choose your favorite. The love triangle cliché is something that you can have a lot of fun with. And that's what writings supposed to be, isn't it? Fun?

Enemies to Lovers

I. Love. This. Trope. It's another one of my favorite clichés.

But it has to be well written. I'm just going to say this as a completely unrelated note, but I don't think that you should use this trope as your first book. It's hard to perfect, and if it isn't absolutely amazing, then it could become really confusing. I think I'm going to do an entire chapter on that.

Anyway, the enemies to lovers trope is one that you can really torture your readers with. Have the mc's have a terrible impression on each other or something, or maybe there's history, or a vendetta or literally anything that could keep them hating each other. But have something slowly change their relationship. Maybe a drunken mistake of revealing how hard their life is, or  maybe someone could save the other from something, or that they're forced to do something together.

That's all. I stayed up past 1:00AM writing this. Well, there you go. Probably the longest chapter so far, and again, if there's a cliché that you're not sure about, you can message me and I'll give you my advice. 

And please vote. If you found this helpful.