a list of fantasy cliches you might want to avoid
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hello and welcome back :) before i upset anyone who uses any of these cliches in their wip, i want to say it is completely okay to use these in your book! however YA fantasy books are rarely different from any other YA fantasy book, so it’s important to make yours unique. so this list is meant to help you see which cliches are commonly used, and to help you make yours more original. an idea is to invert them! i’m not trying to stop you from using these; after all, cliches are cliches because people love them!
seriously, why does almost every YA fantasy protagonist have dead parents and are left to fend for their own? consider giving your protagonist alive, supportive parents. happy family dynamics are not as commonly used in fiction.
“you have been chosen by the gods above. you must save us all.” “but- but i don’t wanna be a hero! i’m not anything special!”
often paired with “the chosen one”, a prophecy is commonly used in fantasy as the inciting incident that kickstarts the whole plot. consider reversing it or having it all be a lie in the end. plot twists are great for turning the prophecy trope into an “anti-trope” (is that a word??)
especially elemental powers. you know, where everyone is assigned a magical power at birth, and the chosen one receives an unusual power that ends up saving the world…sound familiar?
the protagonist sets off to find the magical [insert object], makes many friends and enemies along the way, and saves the world. while quests are fun to write, consider switching it up to something more original.
usually the antagonist, the dark lord is “ruler or the universe”, seemingly impossible to defeat, and for some reason commonly has an enemies to lovers arc with the protagonist, who is usually a young naive female. pretty toxic if you ask me.
the magical artifact which destroys or saves the universe
commonly paired with “the quest”, the protagonist must attain a magical object in order to save the universe before the antagonist gets it before them and uses it for dark, evil purposes.
not every fantasy story has to end in tragedy. too often, a main character sacrifices their life at the end “to save the world”, resulting in an unnecessary character death that could have easily been avoided and leaves readers unsatisfied.
the “different”, sassy female
ah yes, the “i’m quirky and different and not like other girls” trope. often this girl is the main character of YA fantasy and just so happens to be a natural at battle with little to no experience. she’s fluent in sarcasm and seduces men to get what she wants. also called the “femme fatale”.
although these characters melt our heart if written well, they are slightly overused in fantasy. try making them more complex. what if the gentle giant had anger issues, making them extremely dangerous when angered?
elves, fairies, ogres, goblins, and so on. while these are really fun to use, consider creating your own magical species! another thing is maybe don’t give all creatures of the same species the same character traits. elves love trees and dwarves love gold; these traits are okay if used as part of their culture and all but an entire species isn’t gonna have the exact same personality.
i feel like almost every fantasy book has this character. although the “mentor” is an archetype that is often necessary in fantasy, you don’t have to make them a literal old and wise man with a long white beard and a twirly magic staff. consider making this character archetype a completely new type of character, for example a younger female, or the cynical bad boy.
this one is very overdone in my opinion. at some point the main character finds out they’re secretly the heir to the throne and that they are meant to be the new ruler of the kingdom. what about having a fantasy story starring peasants and lower-class people, who make up like 99% of the population anyway, instead of the main characters always being royalty?
training of the hero / heroine
usually this trope appears in the form of a handsome man training the female protagonist for battle or something of the like. consider switching it up and having a female training a man!
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