One thing about fantasy is that every cliche, every trope has been done. So when you take that on into your writing, you have to make a twist. There is no need to avoid cliches. You can repurpose them.
They can be anything from humans to creatures you made up yourself. They can be well-known fantasy creatures like elves or vampires, but try to give your own spin on them.
Anagnorisis, or discovery- the main character’s sudden and abrupt recognition of the true nature or identity of a person or the meaning of an event. For example, a girl finds out that her best friend is just a figment of her imagination, and was never alive in the first place. Flashback- an evocative revelation of past events. In books, flashbacks are usually italicized, worded in past tense, or told from a younger narrator’s point of view. Instead of a flashback, a foreshadowing could also be used. Unreliable narrator- in the end it is revealed that the narrator has falsified, made up, or greatly exaggerated the story that you’ve read up until that point. Peripeteia- A realistic or logical reversal of the protagonist’s fortune, whether for good or for worse. For example, the main character of a story, after struggling through an arduous murder case and about to give up, stumbles upon the missing piece of information he needed. Deus ex machina, meaning “god out of the machine”- an unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event that is introduced to resolve the main conflict, or even a side conflict, of the story. Poetic justice- an ironic “turning of the tables” where the character is either rewarded or punished for their actions, such as a sudden death or a compensation. Chekhov’s gun- a character or plot element is introduced early in the narrative. The importance of the character or plot element is not recognized until later in the story. Also known as a “plant”, or an initial device that is repeated throughout the story. Red herring, or false foreshadowing- a false clue that misleads the investigators toward an incorrect solution. If the protagonist is misled, then the reader is typically misled by extension. In medias res, or into the middle of things- the story is began in the middle of the story rather than the beginning; the beginning is revealed through flashbacks. Everything ultimately leads up to a big revelation. Non-linear narrative- the plot and characters are revealed in a non-chronological order, meaning that instead of beginning, middle, and end, it might be end, beginning, and middle. This will force the reader to piece things together themselves, but not fully understand until a piece of crucial information is revealed at the climax. Reverse chronology, a form of non-linear narrative- Events are revealed from end to beginning.
