• 80 prompts
  • Checked October 2026

Cliche Writing Prompts

Worn openings, characters, plot turns, endings and phrases, each with a way out.

Cliche Writing Prompts

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  1. Cliche: the big game comes down to the last shot.Break it: the game is settled by halftime, and the story is the second half.
  2. Cliche: the underdog team wins the final.Break it: they lose the final, and the town carries them home all the same.
  3. Cliche: the real treasure was friendship all along.Break it: the treasure is real, heavy and hard to split five ways.

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All 80 prompts

Openings 16

  • Cliche: a bored hero stares out of the classroom window. Break it: something outside is staring back, every bit as bored.
  • Cliche: a crash of thunder wakes the whole house. Break it: it is the neighbor learning the drums, and he is getting good.
  • Cliche: a family moves into a creaky old house. Break it: the house is brand new. The creaking came in one of the boxes.
  • Cliche: a letter arrives that changes everything. Break it: the letter is for the neighbor, and the hero walks it over.
  • Cliche: a prologue explains a thousand years of history. Break it: all that history is one rude sentence carved into a bench.
  • Cliche: a stranger rides into town at sunset. Break it: the stranger comes at lunch, on the wrong bus, asking the way out.
  • Cliche: on a birthday the hero is told the family secret. Break it: the hero has known for years and has a secret for the family.
  • Cliche: the first line says, Nothing ever happens in this town. Break it: nothing does, and the town works very hard to keep it that way.
  • Cliche: the first paragraph is about the weather. Break it: the forecast was wrong, and the story opens on the argument about it.
  • Cliche: the hero looks in a mirror and describes their own face. Break it: the mirror shows the room behind, and the room says more than the face would.
  • Cliche: the hero wakes from a dream on page one. Break it: the dream was somebody else's, and they would like it back.
  • Cliche: the narrator says, Let me start at the beginning. Break it: start one minute before the end and tell it backward.
  • Cliche: the story opens in the middle of a chase. Break it: the one being chased stops, turns around and asks why.
  • Cliche: the story opens on the first day at a new school. Break it: it is the teacher's first day. The class has been together for years.
  • Cliche: the story opens with an alarm clock and a hero who is late. Break it: the alarm is on time. Everyone else in town has overslept.
  • Cliche: the story opens, Long ago, in a land far away. Break it: it was last Tuesday, two streets over.

Characters 16

  • Cliche: the absent-minded professor with wild hair. Break it: the professor is the neatest person in the building and has never lost a pen.
  • Cliche: the chosen one, named in an old prophecy. Break it: the chosen one says no thank you, and the runner-up gets the job.
  • Cliche: the clumsy sidekick who is there for laughs. Break it: the sidekick is the only one who can do the job. The hero is the clumsy one.
  • Cliche: the detective who notices everything. Break it: the detective misses things, and a seven-year-old keeps pointing them out.
  • Cliche: the evil twin. Break it: neither twin is evil, and both get blamed for the same spilled paint.
  • Cliche: the grumpy neighbor with a heart of gold. Break it: the cheerful neighbor is the one hiding something, and it is a puppy.
  • Cliche: the hero who is good at everything. Break it: the hero is good at one thing, juggling, and has to solve every problem with it.
  • Cliche: the mean popular kid. Break it: the popular kid is kind to everyone, and that is the narrator's whole problem.
  • Cliche: the new kid with a secret power. Break it: everyone in the class has a power except the new kid.
  • Cliche: the orphan hero with a mysterious past. Break it: the hero has a large, loud family, and all of them come along.
  • Cliche: the princess waiting in a tower to be rescued. Break it: she left weeks ago and rents the tower out by the night.
  • Cliche: the robot who wants to be human. Break it: a human wants to be a robot, and the robot talks them out of it.
  • Cliche: the talking animal who gives wise advice. Break it: the animal's advice is terrible, and the hero takes it exactly once.
  • Cliche: the tough loner who needs nobody. Break it: the loner runs a knitting circle on Thursdays and never misses one.
  • Cliche: the villain who explains the whole plan. Break it: the villain will not say a word, so the heroes have to guess.
  • Cliche: the wise old mentor who knows everything. Break it: the mentor is one lesson ahead of the pupil and hoping nobody notices.

Plot turns 16

  • Cliche: a disguise fools everyone. Break it: it fools no one, and everyone plays along to be kind.
  • Cliche: a few weeks of training turn a beginner into a champion. Break it: the training fails, and the beginner wins with something learned at home.
  • Cliche: a friend thought gone returns to save the day at the last moment. Break it: the friend turns up a day early and gets in the way.
  • Cliche: a long-lost relative turns up. Break it: the relative was never lost, only two towns over and bad at writing back.
  • Cliche: a secret passage opens behind the bookcase. Break it: the passage is behind the fridge and comes out in the neighbor's kitchen.
  • Cliche: a storm traps everyone in one house. Break it: the weather is lovely, and still nobody will leave.
  • Cliche: an X on the map marks the treasure. Break it: the X is where the map-maker dropped a pen. The treasure is in a footnote.
  • Cliche: the big game comes down to the last shot. Break it: the game is settled by halftime, and the story is the second half.
  • Cliche: the countdown is stopped with one second left. Break it: it is stopped with forty minutes left, and everyone has to find something to do.
  • Cliche: the hero overhears half a conversation and gets it wrong. Break it: the hero walks in and asks what they meant.
  • Cliche: the hero trips while running away. Break it: the pursuer trips, and the hero goes back to help.
  • Cliche: the heroes split up to cover more ground. Break it: they refuse to split up and all squeeze into one closet.
  • Cliche: the magic object works only for the pure of heart. Break it: it works for whoever read the instructions.
  • Cliche: the phone has no signal just when it is needed. Break it: the signal is perfect, and nobody picks up.
  • Cliche: the villain turns out to be the hero's relative. Break it: the villain is no relation at all and is hurt that anyone thought so.
  • Cliche: two rivals forced to work together end up best friends. Break it: they work together well and stay polite rivals to the last page.

Endings 16

  • Cliche: and they all lived happily ever after. Break it: they lived happily until Thursday. Write Thursday.
  • Cliche: everyone learns a lesson. Break it: one of them learns the wrong lesson, and it works out anyway.
  • Cliche: it was all a dream. Break it: the dream was not a dream, and there is sand in the bed to prove it.
  • Cliche: the detective explains the mystery in one long speech. Break it: the speech is wrong, and the cat knocks the real answer off a shelf.
  • Cliche: the hero comes home and home is just as it was. Break it: home has been painted yellow, and nobody asked.
  • Cliche: the hero gives up the prize to do the right thing. Break it: the hero keeps the prize and does the right thing with it.
  • Cliche: the hero rides off into the sunset. Break it: the hero misses the sunset and leaves next morning in the rain.
  • Cliche: the hero wins the big race. Break it: the hero comes fourth and finds out who was watching.
  • Cliche: the last line hints that the monster is still out there. Break it: the monster sends a postcard to say it has retired to the seaside.
  • Cliche: the lost pet walks in on the last line. Break it: the pet was home all along. It was the family who got lost.
  • Cliche: the narrator, now old, says it all happened long ago. Break it: the narrator is still in the middle of it and has to stop writing to run.
  • Cliche: the real treasure was friendship all along. Break it: the treasure is real, heavy and hard to split five ways.
  • Cliche: the story ends where it began, and nothing has changed. Break it: it ends where it began, with one small thing in a new place.
  • Cliche: the story ends with a wedding. Break it: it ends with the dishes after the party, and who stays to dry.
  • Cliche: the underdog team wins the final. Break it: they lose the final, and the town carries them home all the same.
  • Cliche: the villain is beaten and the kingdom cheers. Break it: the villain says sorry, and somebody has to decide what happens next.

Phrases 16

  • Cliche: a chill ran down his spine. Break it: put the feeling somewhere new: the knees, the teeth, the backs of the hands.
  • Cliche: as cold as ice. Break it: name a cold thing only this character would have touched.
  • Cliche: at the end of the day. Break it: write the real end of the day: the hour, the light, the last job.
  • Cliche: butterflies in her stomach. Break it: choose another animal and let it behave like itself.
  • Cliche: he let out a breath he did not know he was holding. Break it: he knows he is holding it, and he counts.
  • Cliche: her eyes sparkled like stars. Break it: compare her eyes to something out of a kitchen drawer.
  • Cliche: her heart skipped a beat. Break it: say what her hands did.
  • Cliche: in the nick of time. Break it: say how late, to the second, and what the lateness cost.
  • Cliche: little did she know. Break it: she knows exactly, and she goes anyway.
  • Cliche: only time will tell. Break it: somebody tells, right now, and gets it wrong.
  • Cliche: quiet as a mouse. Break it: the mouse is the loudest thing in this house. Find the quietest.
  • Cliche: suddenly, everything changed. Break it: cut suddenly. Change one small thing first, and let her notice it late.
  • Cliche: tears streamed down her face. Break it: she does everything but cry: she tidies, she hums, she counts the spoons.
  • Cliche: the calm before the storm. Break it: write the noise before the calm.
  • Cliche: time stood still. Break it: time speeds up. Fit ten things into one second.
  • Cliche: white as a sheet. Break it: take the color from something in the room where they stand.

How it works

Each of these cliche writing prompts states a worn idea in plain words: the chosen one, the alarm clock opening, it was all a dream. The line under it breaks the cliche with one change, and the writing starts there.

Read the full guide

Kill the cliche writing prompts

The change is one move, small enough to see. The chosen one says no thank you, and the runner-up gets the job. The treasure that was friendship all along turns out real, heavy and hard to split five ways. Everything else about the cliche stays, because a reader has to know it before it can break.

Cliche phrases

The last group works on a sentence, not a plot. Her heart skipped a beat becomes what her hands did. As cold as ice becomes a cold thing only this character would have touched.

  • Write the cliche straight for three sentences first, so the break has something to land on.
  • Break the same cliche a second way. The first change is often the next cliche along.

Questions and answers

What is a cliche in writing?

A saying, an idea or a part of a story used so often that it has lost its force. Happily ever after is one. So is the mentor who knows everything, and so is quiet as a mouse.

What are break the cliche writing prompts?

Prompts that hand over a familiar idea and ask for it to go another way. Here the first break is given: the stranger rides in at lunch, on the wrong bus, asking the way out. A second break is yours to find.

Which writing prompt cliches are on the list?

Sixteen each of openings, characters, plot turns, endings and phrases. Among them: the first day at a new school, the evil twin, the X on the map, the wedding on the last page, time stood still.

Is it ever fine to use a cliche?

Yes, for a laugh. Cliches are often used for comic effect in fiction, and most of these changes are jokes at the cliche's expense: the monster on the last line sends a postcard to say it has retired to the seaside.

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