The first thing you've got to decide what kind of "story clichès" you mean. There is no such thing as a completely original plot- they're all clichèd. They've all been done before, at the bare-bones level (if you want to argue this with me, fine, but fair warning- I'm well-versed on the subject ^_~).
But if you mean story elements, that's quite another thing. Clichès in story elements can make or break a book, honestly.
Most clichès occur within characters. By making sure that your characters aren't "Mary Sues", you can avoid many of this typicaliities. You might want to read this article that I wrote a while back.
Why do all clichès start with characters? Watch a Disney movie- preferably, High School Musical or one of the princess movies. High School Musical has the beginnings of a good story, with an interesting setting- a high school on the brink of social revolution- and since the plot [two unlikely people pairing together to face adversity and possible criticism] has already been done, we really don't have to worry on that level. The characters are what, quite frankly, make it suck. You have your Pretty Nerd, and your Pretty Jock. Because they are both Pretty they pair together even though that would never happen in real life- it could happen in fiction, but that doesn't necessarily make it good fiction.
Graffiti is the most passionate form of literature there is.
Think back to all the books you have read. Most likely you have gotten one of your ideas from there. If not then I would think you could ask around and then you will be good
I think cliche isn't a bad thing if written correctly. We've come to a point where, almost everything is "cliche" in a sense. Elves, fairies, vampires, wizards. I mean, can you imagine anyone else churning out another wizarding novel? If they did, everyone would compare it to Harry Potter. So, is it cliche? Maybe, but if that novel sheds new light on wizards, then maybe not.
It all depends on your perspective and how you introduce your characters. Vampires are cliche if they turn into bats and suck blood...but if you could somehow show them in a different way then, it wouldn't exactly be cliche.
Hope this helped,
--starry
“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.”
One time, my brother and I were trying to come up with the least cliched story... then we started naming the inspirations for it and realized it was totally cliched. So just write. If you love it, then most likely it's bound to be better than something you scrape together, just because it's non-cliched.
Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est.
"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly." ~ Richard Bach
I agree with Snoink - just write whatever you want, and then go back and work on it. I think that eventually everything will be cliched, because people will become so desperate to right an original novel they'll start writing books about, like, the king of bubbles who lost his piece of cheese. Not exactly the most thrilling idea, is it? So just do what you want.
Well, maybe not exactly what you want. You can write for your own sake about whatever pleases you, but when trying to please others and get published, well...
I would advise you not to write about things that have already become bestselling novel, because people will compare and then it will become a cliche. So, don't write a vampire/werewolf twilight-esque book, because everyone is still buzzing about those. *sighs* Vampires are being so abused in literature these days.
There are some things that are very cliched, things that you can't exactly convince yourself otherwise about. Like High School Musical, as Sam said. Urgh - this is so hard. I can't express myself coherently...
Why not just post your ideas on YWS, and people will tell you what they think?
Please help!
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