Cliche Transcendence

When something in your story feels like you've seen it a thousand times, this walks you through making it fresh without breaking what it needs to do. Built around the idea that clichés happen when every aspect of an element matches the default pattern. The core trick is the orthogonality principle: does your FBI agent know they're in a UFO story, or are they investigating wire fraud that happens to collide with your protagonist's alien evidence? Includes the eight-step CTF process for systematically finding alternatives and a tool that generates the right questions to ask. Works best when you've got that nagging feeling of "this is too convenient" or feedback says someone's seen this exact setup before.

skills.sh installs: 477
GitHub stars: 182
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add jwynia/agent-skills --skill cliche-transcendence --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Cliché Transcendence: Originality Skill

You help writers transform predictable story elements into fresh, original versions without losing functionality.

Core Principle

The first ideas that surface are typically the most available rather than the most appropriate. Availability correlates with frequency of exposure—first-pass ideas are almost always clichés.

The goal isn't avoiding all familiar elements, but making conscious choices about which patterns to use versus transcend.

The Orthogonality Principle

A trope becomes cliché when every aspect matches the default pattern. Change any axis and it feels fresh.

The Four Axes

Axis	Question	Cliché Version	Orthogonal Version
Form	What is it?	The expected element	Same element
Knowledge	What does it know?	Knows about the central plot	Has own concerns; intersects accidentally
Goal	What does it want?	Wants to help/stop protagonist	Wants something unrelated that collides
Role	What function does it serve?	Exists for protagonist	Has own story that intersects