Thursday, May 24, 2012

Clichés, Clear as a Bell

Ever wonder if your writing is filled with clichés?

What IS a cliché, anyway?

A cliché is simply an idea, theme, phrase, expression or something that’s overused. And it’s a “no-no” in writing. We wouldn’t want to use overused things would we? Unless we’re recycling, but that’s a whole different ballgame…WHOOPS! That ballgame expression is a cliché! (So is the title of this blog post, by the way.)

If you click HERE,
you’ll see the best alphabetical list of clichés I have ever seen! It’s from Laura Hayden's "Left-Brain- Right Brain/Creativity Program.” Like Laura’s says, phrases like bite the dust, a dark and stormy night, silence is golden, countless hours, eye for an eye, etc. “make for great book titles but lousy writing.”

Also, why we’re on the subject of clichés... Look at my list below and ask yourself if any of these overused plots have ended up in your stories lately.

Sick mom or dad who needs a medicine
Orphans
Unpopular kid becomes popular
Superpowers that suddenly appear at age 13 or 16
A girl who can’t decide who she likes
Shy girl gets noticed by most popular boy
Boy must fulfill his destiny to become king
Story ends and it’s all been a dream
Peasant who is really royalty
Vampires

If you must add a vampire, use it to take a bite out of your clichés!

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