Avoiding Cliches Like the Plague

                Next time you need a very long game to occupy you on a very long road trip, or at a very boring party, take turns listing clichés.  I’m guessing this game could take you into the next century, as there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of clichés that we writers need to avoid.

                Writers do it when they can’t think of their own clever turn of phrase, or when they get in a hurry and stop paying attention.  It’s lazy, it’s cheap, and we all know it.  Of course, clichés swirl around us like bad odors— unfortunately we get so used to them that we don’t notice them creeping into our work.  I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve found clichés in my work, and you might make the same shocking discovery in yours—hopefully before any of them get published.

                So let’s make ourselves a promise: Let’s re-read our writing one more time with the express purpose of finding—and eliminating—clichés.  Here are a few that annoy me the most; you’ll have your own list: 

Woefully anything, painstaking anything, mother of all anything, never a dull moment,  Litmus test, the fair sex, without further ado, throw under the bus, on the same page, for all intents and purposes, cross that bridge when we come to it, dot the I’s and cross the t’s, the world is your oyster, the unvarnished truth,  walking on egg shells, far be it from me, everything but the kitchen sink, signed, sealed, and delivered, every jot and tittle, all the gory details, run it up the flagpole, greatest thing since sliced bread, hale and hearty, neither here nor there,  long arm of the law, an offer he couldn’t refuse,  in less than no time, more than meets the eye, let’s get this show on the road, the little woman, shoot from the hip, waiting for the other shoe to drop, thunderous applause, ace up his sleeve, well-heeled, long in the tooth, cooking the books, it remains to be seen, selling like hotcakes, your guess is as good as mine.

A good exercise would be to make a list (or use mine), then try to describe the same thing with completely different wording.  It will teach us to be deeper thinkers, more clever wordsmiths, and more quotable writers.  Who knows-- maybe a turn of phrase that you generated will  catch on and become so popular that someday you’ll see it on a list of clichés. You may not be able to burn your bridges or bite the hand that feeds you, but you can laugh all the way to the bank, find that every dog has his day, and might even leave a killer legacy to die for.