A Deep Dive Into Cliches

Are you using cliches in your writing? Not sure about the pros and cons? Let's explore.

What is a Cliche?

This is undoubtedly the best place to start! Apart from being a nice-sounding French word, a cliche is an overused phrase, idea or story element (such as a character or a plotting trend) that has lost its originality and potency.

Some typical examples could include "It was a dark and stormy night" (which is the opening line to a surprising number of novels and short stories!), "every cloud has a silver lining", and "cold as ice."

The Problem With Cliches...

At first, we don't often recognise the issues with these phrases and overused pieces of language. But as we look closer at our own writing, and receive feedback from others, we understand that not only are these ideas recycled again and again, but they lack any sense of creativity – which completely defeats the point of writing creatively. If you're not sure you've absorbed any of these, reread or rewatch something you have recently finished and write down a list of phrases, lines and plot structures (and annoyingly repetitive character archetypes) that you've seen again and again.

Many cliches are actually so overused that they eventually lose their original meaning altogether, all opportunities to excite and enthral washed away.

A great way to identify cliches in your writing, and to weed them out, is to look for places where you have clearly told and not shown. It's that good old piece of advice coming back to haunt you! Seriously though – prose which lack authenticity are also most likely those which fail to connect with the reader on a sensory level.

Types of Cliche

There are three main types of cliches. The first relates to phrases and is commonly associated with comparisons such as similes. (For example, "as white as snow", or "cold as ice"). The second type evolves around characters and how they are presented to the reader, or what roles and motivations they are given. Examples could include "The Chosen One", which is an overused character cliche in many fantasy novels.

Character description can also be packed with cliche if you look in the right places, such as describing an antagonist as having "an evil laugh" or detailing that the brightest boy in the class is wearing glasses, and has no friends... You'll notice that there tends to be a very strong connection between cliches and his evil cousin, the stereotype. (Insert evil laugh here).

The third type of cliche concerns story structure and ideas that connect events in the story together. These could include (but are definitely not limited to!) beginning a story with a character waking up in bed, or ending the story with "it was all a dream" (biggest let-down of all time). "Love at first sight" could be considered an acceptable cliche by many romance writers and readers, but continues to be both problematic in its overuse and completely illogical – as there will always be a jarring difference between a character being immediately "attracted" to another character vs "loving" them as a result of their development in the story.

Story cliches tend to be more influenced by readers and other storytelling media around us – which is essential, because that's how we learn; but also deeply problematic, because over-consumption and replication is how cliches are manufactured.

Some Top Tips to Avoiding Cliches

1 – Be more specific. Instead of telling us that Mary was bumbling along "as busy as a bee", describe what's she's doing. Use those handy five senses.

2 – Freshen-up your comparisons with original metaphors and similes – think about how you would describe this, not this other X, Y or Z author.

3 – Remember that essential rule of showing and not telling. Your character isn't "heartbroken". Okay, yes, maybe they are – but don't tell us – SHOW US. Invite us into the character's mind; show their physical reactions.

4 – When possible, flip your cliches. What if the villain was actually the hero? What if, instead of loving Mary at first sight, your character vomited during their first encounter. Harsh, but unexpected! Cliches are so predictable – and your writing shouldn't be! Predictability is really pants.

I hope this was an insightful guide on cliches. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions!

Are you looking to sharpen your cliche-executioner's axe? Why not check out my Start Your Story course, which – at the time of this post – is half price! £125 for 13 modules and feedback on 13 assignments! Check it out here:

https://www.henrikenblogs.com/creativewritingcourses

Thanks for reading!