• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Avoiding cliches with a common storyline?

Lord Ben

Minstrel
What she's specifically going for might be a motivation too. Maybe her brother has xyz disease and she's going to school on full scholarship to be a neurosurgeon or something. A chance of making a difference vs immortal happiness.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
What she's specifically going for might be a motivation too. Maybe her brother has xyz disease and she's going to school on full scholarship to be a neurosurgeon or something. A chance of making a difference vs immortal happiness.

She doesn't have a brother, and her sister is fine (and also has a boyfriend who's a healer mage). Elspeth isn't too terribly fleshed out in my head yet, so I'm not too sure where her career ambitions lie. Possibly something that would be made easier by her magic, though that also is a tricky thing to answer, since I haven't decided on her powers yet either. Not that I'll have a lot of time to show them off in 1500 words or less.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
The "other responsibilities" is more or less where I was trying to go with the whole college-aspirations train of thought.

I was thinking more along the lines of a family member she's supporting, or a friend she made a promise to.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
I was thinking more along the lines of a family member she's supporting, or a friend she made a promise to.

Ah, that makes sense. Not sure how I'd get that across in such a short story though, with only three or four scenes to establish everything. If I only bring it up close to the end, it might seem tacked-on, but I can't see how it would be relevant before, when Elspeth and Gavin are just friends. I need that space to develop their relationship, not just Elspeth's reasons for not following him.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
That's a problem you can solve once you figure out what you're going with. You could open on her making a promise, or have a tender moment interrupted by something connected to it. It's hard to answer in the abstract, but once you can pin it down it shouldn't be hard.
 

DameiThiessen

Minstrel
I personally am a fan of the bittersweet ending. The Fox and the Hound is a good example of this (the movie, not the book, which is sad as hell). The two are best friends, then grow apart and are forced to hate each other. But then they put aside their differences and go their separate ways and in the end there is a moment where you see them both happy apart.

I cried. D:

But I also cried (and I should note that these are the only two moments in cinema history I did) watching Cloud Atlas, where Hae-Joo Chang dies and Sonmi-451 says "If I cared to imagine a heaven, I would imagine a door opening and behind it, I would find him there..." And the door opens in the 1849 timeline and the two are reunited again as different characters.

So there's my two cents. I vote bittersweet.
 
Top