Creating Stories

The number one thing in creating a new and interesting story is to avoid cliches.  Cliches are what they are because they have been overdone.  They don't surprise your audience and lead to a mundane story.  One way to avoid cliches is by coming up with creative characters. There are two types.  The protagonist and the antagonist.  The protagonist drives the story and usually the story is told from their point of view.  The antagonist is there to stop the protagonist.  The two of them aren't working toward the same thing, but on their way to their individual goals they cross each others paths.  This causes friction between the two and creates the story line. Another way to keep characters interesting is to not let them be too much like the audience.  If the audience can identify too much with the character they will get caught up in predicting their behavior and possible tune out the actual story.