Clichés

"But you are not obliged to go to all this trouble. You can shirk it by simply throwing open your mind and letting the ready made phrases come crowing in. They will construct your sentences for you, even think your thoughts for you to a certain extent, and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself."

George Orwell

Clichés tempt us with their seeming poignancy but they deliver nothing.

They were once succinct, visual descriptors. But their popularity, and therefore ubiquity, ironically ruined them. Sadly, they so easily slip into our writing. They’re like friends with bad ideas. Familiar, easy to give in to, but destructive.

Ask yourself:

• Do all doors have to creak open?
• Are all fast things as fast as lightning?
• Do we all grin like Cheshire cats?
• Do all blades glint in the moonlight?
  
  

So dull.

Clichés are the kind of thing that might make it to your first, and worst, draft. You must roll the dice on them.

Here are some more clichés to condition yourself with the enemy:

• As strong as an ox
• Heard it through the grapevine
• Plain sailing
• It's not a sprint it's a marathon
• On the back burner
• To have cold feet
• Worth its weight in gold
• You only live once
• Burn your bridges
• A diamond in the rough
• Barking mad
• Hot off the press
• Hunker down
• In a nutshell
• Learn the ropes
• Missed the boat
  
  

You'll recognise most of these phrases. There are thousands more.

Once they were fresh and full of life. Over time, they lost their life, but they didn't rot or make their death obvious. You can't spot them covered in mould or pick them out by their smell.

Instead they blend into the background, like a painting you see every day, but never study. And that's how you identify them, you have to study your work for them. You hunt for them.

Pay attention to the common phrase that comes so quickly.

The one that captures your idea so perfectly.

It might be the same phrase that sits in your copy muting it, making it dull, skimmable, unmemorable, vapid, and lacking.