Since the debut of the movie Freaky Friday, many writers have been interested in the perplexing subject manner of a basic body swap. Reversing the roles of two people with opposing personality traits as well as lifestyles can after all create a whole slew of imaginative material. The two individuals have to literally walk into the shoes of the body they have somehow managed to get themselves stuck into. To keep things from going to chaotic, neither party can tell another person of their dilemma, thus making the challenge of adjusting into someone else's lifestyle even harder. Every kind of fictional writer, especially those interested in the fantasy genre, love the body swap premise because of its limitless creativity. Stories such as the manga Fairy Tale to movies such as the previously mentioned Freaky Friday have used the body swap trope to outstanding results.
But with every strong idea that comes into fruition, there is always something that ruins it and turns the premise into a never-to-be-repeated cliché. The body swap trope is such a case. Due to the trope's high popularity, the body swap storyline has become just as reused as the damsel in distress. Every single story that tries to tackle the subject manner always goes for the same plot formula, refusing to go to new areas with the imaginative possibilities. This plot formula for the body swap storyline holds it back from truly being something great,
Every single body swap storyline begins and ends completely the same. Two rivals, usually of two different age groups and social circles, from a stroke of bad luck end up in each other's bodies. Because they do not know how to reverse the effects of whatever was done to them, the two individuals are forced to begrudgingly live out each other's lives. Both individuals end up in deep water due to their newfound roles and end up making both of their lives worse than before. Not wanting things to worsen, the two are forced to make a pact in order to get their lives back by working together. They succeed on that front and end up becoming friends or in some cases lovers. Their reward for this mutual understanding is their bodies swapped back to one another. All of these stories end on a happy note, no matter what.
From the storyline that was described above, how many movies, books, comics, or manga have you seen use this plot line with at least half of the traits I described above? If you answered more than one, you can see the problem. The body swap plot formula always plays out like this with zero potential creativity. It may give you a quick buck to write about, but good luck being noticed out from the crowd of other people who have used the same idea before. This trope's popularity has held back all of the creativity that when played around with can be effectively crafted into a quality story.
Going back to the story description from above, let us together try to fix the cliché plot line in order to make it more creative. Instead of the two characters being rivals of some sort, they can be individuals who have never even met each other and live in two completely different universes. One lives in the average human world with a medium class job in an office building. The other lives in a fantasy world as the brave hero character who saves their village multiple times from supernatural dangers. Due of an act of pure coincidence, they swap bodies and are forced into lives they have no background into. The office worker has no knowledge on how to be a fantasy hero, let alone fight. The brave hero does not know anything about 21st century society or what an office job entails. While the office worker from training learns to adjust to their new role, the hero does not get any better adjusting to the human world. The hero gets jealous when discovering that their role has been effectively been taken over by the office worker and strikes a deal with an evil entity to kill them. The two sides eventually meet and fight in an all-out duel. Just when it seems the hero character is going to win, they swap back into their original bodies by the same force as before. The truth ends up getting revealed to everyone about the body swap. The hero is met with the shame of the town for going so low as to try killing the office worker and is exiled from the village. The office worker meanwhile is able to transition into the heroic symbol the town needs, while deciding to continue their life in the other dimension as well. The ending is bad for the hero, but the office worker becomes a better person from the experience.
Examples like this one can help spice up the otherwise bland body swap storyline. Reconstructing the plot is almost always the best call. Even if it is not the best story in the world, you tried to do something other copycat writers have not; take a creative risk. After all, Shakespeare did not become a hit overnight with his first hit. He tried and tried again until he created the perfect play. Shakespeare was rewarded greatly for his trials and errors. Today people still remember his stories, such as Othello, Romeo and Juilet, Hamlet, and Macbeth.