hi! i recently decided i want to write a high school romance story but i don’t want it to be on the cliche side so i would appreciate any suggestions!
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Include a plot twist to make it less cliche
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Hey, I’m also writing one! Something that rlly annoys me is how the LI and MC or MC and best friend have the exact same schedule. Every time that happens, I get rlly annoyed, because that never happens in real life, haha. Also, will you be doing a badboy story?
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yeah, i wanna come up with some type of plot twist not sure what its going to be yet though.
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oh cool!! and ikr that like never happens irl & no, i wanna make the love interest more on the softer side
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maybe make it a forbidden love maybe it’s 2 families at war and both of them have been warned to stay away from each other.
Or
(I don’t know how people would react to this tho. So you may need to ask people how they feel about it.)
maybe outline a serious problem in today’s society that maybe they are not allowed to date because of their race but use it as a way to that people should be allowed to date not matter what.
Add plot twists for example:
The Mc falls in love with someone who they keep a secret due to strict parents. But as time goes on you start to realise he doesn’t speak about his family, about his day at school/work and over is just mysterious. When you research him you find out that he actually died in a fire years ago and it turns out he is a ghost, or some sort of creature that cannot die but to avoid the government, scientists (whoever) he lives in secret to avoid being tested on.
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Some things I can think of:
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don’t have them fall in love over the course of a day/week. Some people believe in love at first sight (not me) but it’s a common cliche.
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maybe add different personalities to the characters. Maybe the guy isn’t a black belt and can take down like five guys at once. Maybe the girl isn’t a trippy “beautiful laugh” type girl that gets nervous at every flirt the LI makes.
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I am definitely not saying making them weak is a bad thing. You can make them physically weak, or just the opposite but the traits don’t have to match them. The fighter doesn’t have to be the smoothest flirter with the most sass (guy or girl) and the damsel in distress (again, guy or girl) doesn’t have to be the smart and nervous one. People link strong to better at sports/flirting and all and weak to smart/nervous and that’s what makes it cliche and boring.
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Maybe avoid harsh pasts which makes them build walls at every corner. Like small family problems are cool (sibling rivalry)(fighting w/ your mom) but to a point where they ran away cause their fam is messed up or they were murdered and the MC started anew and keep running from people is common and this is my view so I close off any story like that. (Unlessss, of course, that revolves around the plot of the story)
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please please avoid the gay best friend (yes, go for diversity but making them the cliche “Gay-BFF-with-a-fashion-statement-and-sassy-remarks” and the “GURL WHATCHU WEARING?”
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the MC’s best friend and the LI’s best friend being a couple
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the truth or dare games (where the MC and LI are “forced” to kiss or one has to kiss someone else making the other angry and jealous)
AH I HAVE SO MANY MORE but this should give a basic idea to avoid cliches. Having some of the cliches doesn’t make the story a cliche (def avoid the big ones that affect the whole story) but having little ones are totally fine and shouldnt bore readers.
If you have second doubts about cliches you don’t know whether to add or not, make a survey on the forums or just ask if the people would be interested in reading that. (Those are super helpful for a successful story)
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thank you so much for ur help!
Of course, np!
I dislike romance cliches so I’m happy to help 
oh I almost forgot, mafias are the clichest of them all
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yeah id honestly never be interested in writing a mafia story that’s for sure 
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Thank the gods 
If you want to make a non cliche romance story, you can have a realistic development of love instead of the usual love at first sight in most stories. Trope wise, anything other than bad boys and mafia leaders will do
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The biggest thing is to develop your characters first and write their romance specific to them as people. Even if you use a cliche trope, this will give you a nuanced relationship that readers are rooting for. There aren’t many universal experiences of romance and too often authors fall into the trap of wanting specific scenes or character archetypes, so they write leading with those tropes and archetypes rather than with who the characters are.
What are your characters’ personalities? What are their love languages? What are their goals? What are the things that keep them from their goals? How do they navigate conflict? Thinking about these things will help you develop characters that are uniquely suited to be in a relationship with each other. That will help you get out of the trap of a “cliche” no matter what tropes you’re using. Cliches are cliches for a reason and those cliches can help draw people in, but developing your characters as people and in relation to each other is what moves your plot forward and enables growth - and that’s what tends to keep people reading, especially if you’re worried about a story being “too cliche.”
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Don’t use stereotypes it’s annoying and basic we seen it over over again.
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Hello really sorry I can’t work out how to write my own question so I’m replying to this.
I have started playing episode again and I really want to find a story I used to read before I stopped. It was a cliche kinda gangster and trapped girl blabla the last I remember is she was helping the opposite gang that her boyfriend used to be part of and they ended up at a shoot out so he hated her and then she was trying to win him back by joining the other gang and getting their secrets
Does anyone know what it’s called??
Uhmm I think I know, you might wanna delete your post u might get flagged 
I know this is from July and you probably don’t want suggestions but I don’t think you can really avoid cliches in romance but you can put a twist on them. A lot of people like cliches especially if you add a twist that pulls them in ( just don’t put criminals, its so annoying because who would want to date a genuine criminal) Most times they are only out for themselves but any other pulls are good
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Here’s an idea: one of the LIs turns out to be a criminal, and it’s presented to the reader as a major turn-off. Just make sure the twist is not completely uncalled for.
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