I ask this because I am interested in writing a fantasy story, but I don't want to write 'just another fantasy.' So I'm wondering, what to you screams 'cliche' in a fantasy world. Because it seems that out of all the genres, fantasy is the most saturated with people trying to copy with the Elder Scrolls or, more obviously, Tolkien's work.

Cliche's I can think of... Elves are there for a start. And are either purely good, smart, beautiful and help out the stupid younger race of mankind. Or they're at war with humans/ were at war with humans.

Also, the fairytale ending, where everything is totally hunky-dory and nothing's wrong at all. No bittersweet moments.

Where the final battle is decided in or around a volcano.

An evil wizard that kidnaps a pretty lady and a random boy is sent out to get her and becomes a hero. And the wizard is his father.

Also black and white characters/stories that are very predictable.

My eyes have been opened.

As long as the opening sentence doesn't start with

"Once apon a time.."

you're golden

Dwarves with Scottish accents.

Pretty much every fantasy book you will read will have one common thread - a coming of age story. So unless you do not write one of those, it will be a little cliche. Myself, I adore coming of age stories, so I say go for it!

"It was a dark and stormy night..."?

It depends on what type of story you're writing. Is it a more traditional one with a tone and setting similar to The Lord of The Rings, Dungeons And Dragons etc with a bunch of different races being common throughout the world? Or is it more dark and a bit more realistic like A Song of Ice and Fire, with mostly just humans? I'm just going to assume the former because it's easier to give advice for that.

1. Anything that involves Black and White morality, although that doesn't only apply to Fantasy of course. I think Grey and Black morality is as good an alternative as Grey and Gray.

2.The standard evil fantasy races like Goblins, Orcs, Trolls etc. The alternative of removing them altogether is to come up with a unique counterpart of those for your world, and/or demonstrate how races like that might realistically function in your world to put a unique spin on them, instead of them being like every other Chaotic Evil creature.

3. It's not necessarily a cliche, but I think it would make a story more interesting without it: Humans. They've always been the most boring fantasy race, and I've never understood the point of them in fantasy. The whole point is to create a different world that nobody has seen before, isn't it? So what's the point of having the most mundane everyday race ever in it? Don't include them, and you can focus more on writing the history and culture of the other races that, 'yknow, actually have potential for being distinct. I don't think I've ever seen human history in a fantasy story ever being particularly unique or worth learning, except for A Song of Ice and Fire. And since I mentioned that, you could also just have one primary race, even humans, and just focus on writing them, and leave out the other ones, or vice versa.

4. This is obvious, but make sure your villain, whoever it is, has a motivation. Even if you choose to make him Chaotic Evil, give at least some reason for what he's doing. Refer to Sarevok from Baldur's Gate for a good example of that.

Fantasy stories can be about anything that isn't possible. What do you have in mind?

A quick and dirty way to avoid cliches would be to avoid anything that sounds like Tolkein. A lot of writers subvert Elves: some turn them into an oppressed underclass, TES makes a lot of them merely think that they're purely good, smart, beautiful and help out the stupid younger race of mankind. You don't have to include Elves at all. There must be plenty of folklore and mythology to work with which hasn't been used that much in pop culture and you don't even have to potray it faithfully because it's fantasy.

It's worth going into mundane detail about social structures because then, even if you choose something clicheed, you can justify it by making it interesting. For example, the crystal dragon Jesus trope, where you take the Catholic church, put healers and paladins in it and swap the god at the top can be more interesting you really go into its role in society and politics and you bother give it its own mythology. That's more of problem in gaming than literature, but you get the idea. Otherwise, if you go for low fantasy, the reader can assume that anything you don't mention at all is the same as it is in real life, which makes real life history part of your backstory. That instantly makes it rich. Sorry if I'm going off topic.

Don't worry if it's on TV Tropes because just about everything is on TV Tropes, including catch all "Our are different" tropes.

I've probably said as much earlier in the post, but I recommend always having a purpose for an element of your universe (e.g. the existence of a more sophisticated humanoid race) to deviate from reality. That way, you can explore the consequences of that difference and if you find they're the same as in someone else's story, you've probably hit a cliche.

I'm actually trying to write a fantasy story to. Some ways I'm breaking cliche:

- It's no "Black and White" morality. Only "Black and Grey" and "Grey and Gray".

- No evil races. Orcs, Goblins, Dark Elves, Undead, Gnolls, etc. While I'll include them, they won't be evil and instantly hostile to everything. I made them Chaotic good/neutral.

- I'm giving it a deep history. While its kind of http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MedievalStasis, It has an "ancient" era that is http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SwordAndSandal. For example, The humans are currently influenced by Medieval England/France (Yes I know it's cliche, but I'm trying to give it spins elsewhere), about 2000 years ago, It was like the Roman Empire. The Mummies used to be a separate human culture, but in a war with the Imperial humans (I'm using real history as influence on historical events, so this is like Cleopatra), they were all killed and returned as undead mummies.

- Don't make the hero "perfect". Give him flaws, major flaws. Make him murder somebody out of his personal code of justice, even though the victim was innocent.

- Make it violent. For some reason, Fantasy seems very bloodless considering the damage weapons like that can do.

I mean, fantasy elements are going to be fantasy elements.

A Song of Fire and Ice is very popular right now with its own HBO adaptation, but when I read through the books I was surprised how much generic fantasy stuff there was in it. Knights, dragons, princesses, etc.

It's not the elements of the story that are cliche, it's what you do with those elements.

What is your twist? What makes yours different?

George R.R. Martin has a lot of characters but we get to see the same events from multiple angles. All (or almost all, depending) characters are redeemable in some way.

While we have "fantasy" elements (magic, dragons, etc) it is very much on the "fringe" of society. Conventional wisdom says that dragons, goblins, and snarks are myths of fairy tales and don't exist. Then we are given the perspective of someone on the fringe of society that sees things they can't quite believe.

The story lines are also more gritty and "realistic", apart from the standard fantasy stories where everything is okay in the end because the main character is there to save the day. Sometimes the bad guys win.

That's what Martin does different than the standard fantasy stock. It's a hallmark of his story.

What are you going to do that's the hallmark of YOUR story?

Good guy either:

Get's the girl.

Saves the Kingdom.

Defeats the Evil Guy.

I figured that I'd tell you guys little details of my 'story'. But I'm not putting big things on the internet, just little things that I think make it a little different and hopefully less cliche. I'd like to note that I've taken careful measures to avoid plagiarism. I've done several things to prove that my work is mine; I have proof that I've written it all myself. Even talked to a solicitor for advice.

1. There is an 'order' of people called the Carrash. The Carrash were five hundred children who were experimented on by the King's advisor-and-magic guy, Saturnanis. The King was getting old and having just removed the Angolan empire from Duncove (Dunharrow's sister nation. Dunharrow is the capital of a new 'empire'. Well, four really big kingdoms) he begins to take back land. He becomes greedy, lustful. Eventually, his greed gets the best of him in his older age and he looks for a way to fend off death, so that he can enjoy his reign of power for even longer. Saturnanis (who I percieve as 'good' but he does some horrible things) offers to perform experiments to find a way to be more powerful; he'd be harder, better, faster, stronger. The king, not caring of the consequences agrees, and Saturnanis has guards 'raid' orphanages (for subjects that nobody will miss) and twists them with his 'revolutionary' alchemy and magic. Many die, but 280 live. They grow to become giants. Averaging from 6"6 to 8 foot tall, these monster-people were made into soldiers by the kings son, Jonathan, after his father died before the procedure was safe enough. He employed the Carrash (Which means 'Tower' in the ancient Romoraverie language) as elite guards of the capital cities and an elite fighting force. All but a handful died following the war with the Elven empire, who invaded to take land for a yet undisclosed reason...

2. Dragons and Wyverns.

Yep. They're both in it. The dragons are ancient and wise, but the Wyverns are strong and plenty in number. The dragons were wiped out from the world when mankind came from the continent of Attattar, blooddrunk and greedy as they cut the dragons from the skies to take Alswyre for themselves. The last dragon had the chance to see a Carrash first-hand (before wiping out the rest of the Carrash with him). The dragon was reminded of the power mankind once had, which confuses the Carrash he meets. So that suggests that mankind was stronger once, as they were strong enough to pull even the mighty dragons down to the ground. The wyverns are less of a thinking race, per se. They fight constantly for superiority of the air with the dragons, but are wary of mankind even in their weakened state after the wars. Neither dragon nor Wyvern have been seen anywhere near the Dun empire (the Dun Empire is made of the nations of Dunharrow, Duncove and Dunnil. Mahova and Archeon are colonies of the Dun empire) for decades, preferring to hide in the mountains in the midlands at the border of Dunharrow and Duncove and the far north. While the dragons are now thought to be extinct, the occasional Wyvern can be heard screaming into the winds of the mountains.

3. 'The bad guy'

This one is undecided. In the first book (I intend to write many) the 'main protagonist' appears to be the Elven War-General Calain. He uses the idea of Elven supremecy to rally the Elven houses behind him to build his own empire, but his ultimate goal is something rumoured to be buried deep under Handor (the capital of the Dun empire). Something- or someone - with the power to shape the world. But time is running out for him. He has made a deal with the devil, and now his Western shores are being eroded away by something neither Elven nor Mannish in nature. He needs this rumoured power, but he knows the Dun empire is too greedy and untrusting to give it up. So he must take it by the sword.

I'll see your Peanuts reference, and raise you

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."