Original Stories

Do they exist? Or has every story been told already?

Readers have evolved to love tropes. That’s all I see on the reader’s side of websites like Instagram, is people talking about their favorite tropes and what books do those tropes best. They want something familiar. Something they’ve seen before. Why risk waisting their time on something new that might not even be good?

For those who aren’t aware, tropes are recurring themes or motifs. For instance, the chosen one character is a trope because it’s used in so many stories. The double-cross is a popular trope for adventure stories. The alien invasion plot is a big trope in science fiction.

Does this mean tropes are bad because they’re used so often?

Not necessarily. Often, certain tropes are expected in specific genres. If you’re reading a fantasy, you expect there to be magic to some degree. If you’re reading science fiction, you likely expect space travel to be normal for the characters. If you read a mystery, you probably expect to be a suspect who turns out to be nothing but a red hearing. But building a story based on nothing but tropes, that’s when you run into a problem.

Using tropes to your advantage is fine. But don’t only use tropes. That’s when stories become completely unoriginal.

But if you use some tropes, isn’t it already unoriginal?

Yes and no.

All stories have tropes to some degree. As long as the foundation of the story is your own, then you should be alright using tropes as tools. But never use tropes as your foundation. Not only will the story not be as good, but you’ll quickly hate writing it.

But how can you write a story without using tropes as a foundation? Every story has been written before. How can I possible make anything original?

Easy. You make something that’s uniquely you.

You love Star Wars? Mix it up. What if the Empire were the good guys desperately trying to keep a group of terrorists from taking over their deadly battle station?

You enjoyed The Dark Knight? What if your character goes against the law to finally get rid of the city’s crime families once and for all only to constantly be thwarted by someone claiming to be an agent of justice?

How about Shakespeare? Try adding dragons and magic into Hamlet and see what much it changes the plot.

So many stories are similar to one another. They share similar themes, plots, and characters. What sets your stories apart are the twists you give them. How do you change the story? How do you flip everything on its head?

Another way of creating original stories that I love to see and need to start experimenting with is genre mashing. Genre mashing is amazing. Like this one. Check this out.

This book (which you can check out for yourself here) is a great example of genre mashing. It’s a mix between post-apocalyptic and western, and it embraces the tropes of both genres very well, finding the perfect balance and creating a really cool blend. This is what I love to see.

Another one I came across recently is called A Fistful of Mechs (which is a play on the movie title A Fistful of Dollars), and it’s another mix between western and post-apocalyptic, but it also adds mechs. I haven’t read this one yet, but it looks like it’s full of really goofy fun, and I’m excited to get into it.

Genre mashing is also how we came up with specific sub genres, like historical fantasy, cyberpunk, and steampunk. If it weren’t for people mashing genres together, we wouldn’t have these really fun sub genres to play in.

Have fun with your story. Mix tropes. Twist tropes. Mash genres and forget about genre conventions. Do what you want. Write stories you think are fun. Don’t worry about what people want you to write. Write what you think is fun.

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.