Stories went stale (5)
I believe the answer is:
tales
'stories' is the definition.
('tale' can be a synonym of 'story')
'went stale' is the wordplay.
'went' indicates an anagram ('go' can mean move).
'stale' anagrammed gives 'TALES'.
(Other definitions for tales that I've seen before include "reports" , "Lies" , "Relations" , "Stories, yarns" , "Stories, perhaps tall ones" .)