Most used cliches that should be avoided while writing?

Horserider92 · Nov 23, 2009

So I'm writing a book and are wondering what the most used cliches are so I know to stay away from them. Can you guys just list the ones that you know?

Thanks for the help.

scarletpeaches · Nov 23, 2009

All of them.

Maxinquaye · Nov 23, 2009

Anything that is a lazy shorthand for telling rather than showing:

dark as a cave
raining cats and dogs
just like that

and so on. Anytime you grab shorthand like that, you're using a cliché. It's pointless to list specific ones.

motormind · Nov 23, 2009

Horserider92 said:
So I'm writing a book and are wondering what the most used cliches are so I know to stay away from them. Can you guys just list the ones that you know?

Using words. Everybody is doing that nowadays.

DannySherbet · Nov 23, 2009

The more you read and write, the more accustomed you come to spotting cliches.

"John was as hard as nails."

"Miranda is as pretty as a picture."

It's not as difficult as you might think for an inadvertent cliche to slip into your writing.

And it's not just your words: beware also of writing cliched plots, cliched characters and cliched reactions.

Cyia · Nov 23, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
All of them.

Yep.

defcon6000 · Nov 23, 2009

motormind said:
Using words. Everybody is doing that nowadays.

There's always binary.

100011110110...

maestrowork · Nov 23, 2009

Cliches are okay during first draft to get the story out.

In rewrites, try to excise them, or find better ways to express the same ideas. Like someone said, cliches like "dark as cave" or "tastes like mud" read like lazy writing.

Topaz044 · Nov 23, 2009

'It was a dark and stormy night'....

Jamesaritchie · Nov 23, 2009

All cliches are bad, but there are hundreds, probably thousands. Certainly too many to list here. But you can Google and get some pretty exhaustive lists.

Unless it's a generic phrase such as "Good morning", my rule is pretty simple. If I've heard it or read it anywhere, I don't use it.

Bad writers copy the phrases of good writers, which is what turns those phrases into cliches. Good writers create their own phrases that lesser writers copy over and over until they become cliches.

Better to be the creator than the copier.

Horserider92 · Nov 23, 2009

Haha. Yeah It's a dark and stormy night is wayyy over used.

James D. Macdonald · Nov 23, 2009

A cliché was originally word or phrase that was cast as a single piece to save time while compositing hand-set type.

You want clichés? You got 'em!

maestrowork · Nov 23, 2009

I would tolerate the use of cliches in 1st person narration.... but only to a certain extent. If the narrator brandishes cliches constantly, I'd get bored with the writing quickly.

Cliches are also okay in dialogue if that's the way these characters talk. But again, less is more.

Lady Ice · Nov 23, 2009

People do talk in cliches, to an extent. But people also talk like this:
'Um...er...you...do you think..I mean..you know...'

And you're not exactly going to write that too much in a novel.

RJK · Nov 23, 2009

Uncle Jim sent you to a page on the Cliche Finder site This link will let you type in any word and it will list the cliches associated with it.

Libbie · Nov 23, 2009

James D. Macdonald said:
A cliché was originally word or phrase that was cast as a single piece to save time while compositing hand-set type.

You want clichés? You got 'em!

Your generator said "Sweet fancy Moses" is a cliche. I've never heard that one before, but I like it. It's up there with "for corn's sake" for me.

Stijn Hommes · Nov 24, 2009

Just like adverbs and the verb to be (especially 'was'), cliches have their place. Use them with moderation.

DrZoidberg · Nov 24, 2009

"...and so it goes."

It's a great one, but taken

Rhys Cordelle · Nov 24, 2009

hotter than two rats screwing in a wool sock in the desert

That's a cliche?

MDei · Nov 24, 2009

Jamesaritchie said:
All cliches are bad, but there are hundreds, probably thousands. Certainly too many to list here. But you can Google and get some pretty exhaustive lists.

Unless it's a generic phrase such as "Good morning", my rule is pretty simple. If I've heard it or read it anywhere, I don't use it.

Bad writers copy the phrases of good writers, which is what turns those phrases into cliches. Good writers create their own phrases that lesser writers copy over and over until they become cliches.

Better to be the creator than the copier.

Exactly my perspective.

LuckyH · Nov 24, 2009

I haven’t got a good word to say about clichés, nor the continual use of grating adverbs, and some of the other writing commandments, but this: could it lead to a stage where a writer pauses continuously to check the trillion advice sites to ensure that he hasn’t broken any rules?

Do you want to sit in front of your laptop like a startled rabbit caught in the headlights, looking over your shoulder in case somebody is watching, too timid to type out the next word?

I sometimes fear that that is what it’s coming to, an overload of rules that stifle good writing.

It’s impossible to throw the rule book away, but it is possible to disconnect from the internet and throw the How to Write books in the dustbin.

You know enough, now is the time to write like an angel. (God, can I use that phrase? Has someone used it before?)

Horserider92 · Nov 24, 2009

Thanks.

Me&BacchusGoIntoABar · Nov 24, 2009

Maxinquaye · Nov 24, 2009

"behind the clouds, the sun is shining"

A mate had a favorit continuation of that, which he picked up from a comic:

"And beyond the sun there's eternal darkness".

James D. Macdonald · Nov 24, 2009

There is only one rule: If it works, it's right.

Most used cliches that should be avoided while writing?

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