Clichés & the Writer

[Paul Whybrow]

A common piece of writing advice is to avoid using clichés. As William Zinsser advised: 'Not every oak has to be gnarled.'

In creating the character of my fictional detective, I wanted to avoid the typical stereotype of a hard-drinking, womanising rebel who bucks the system, but his boss allows his waywardness as he gets results. My hero has his own idiosyncrasies, but he's not a cardboard cutout. That trope has been done to death and is another form of cliché.

All the same, in writing speech, there are times when a cliché feels unavoidable. I tend to use them when in full flow, looking for something more original as I edit. Of course, it's OK to place common expressions in the mouths of our characters. It's with our omnipotent voice as narrator that we can show some flair, though not so ostentatiously that it sounds like writing.

I'm fortunate to live in Cornwall, where I set my crime stories, and which has its own Celtic language as well as many local expressions. Some are commonly used, but they're unusual to anyone from out of county, like 'a face as pale as a whitewashed wall' or 'wasson me cock'...which isn't as rude as it sounds and is simply asking if someone is alright.

I like to show the inner nature of my detective protagonist, by sometimes replacing clichés with witticisms that pass through his mind. Hopefully, this rounds out his character, making the reader like him; after all, I am writing a series, so I need loyalty.

I recently edited a section of my WIP, in which a journalist described the problems he was having writing a true-crime story in which the secret services were involved. Saying that he felt 'worried sick', was 'scared to death' or that it was a 'minefield' sounded hackneyed. Remembering that the journalist has a wry sense of humour, I had him say, 'I feel like I'm tap-dancing through a minefield,' which added fun and emphasised the danger he felt.

How do you handle the problem of clichés?

Do you have any witticisms you'd like to share?

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

I'm battling clichés all the time. Then, I overdo it and people don't know what it was that I really wanted to say

Once, I described my MC's bedroom as "bringing a hooker's cubicle to mind". I was super delighted with that idea, since he was a Don Juan-ish type of person so, hehehe, take that patriarchal establishment. Then I realized that unless someone actually lives in Holland he has no idea what a hooker's cubicle is, let alone how it looks like! Ehhhhh, there goes my brilliant joke...

In my newest project the MC's face is scarred, which makes it look like "badly stitched cloth". I kinda like this one

 

[Carol Rose]

I avoid them like the plague....

(see what I did there?)

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Like Paul, I often write them in during the first draft, just to keep the flow going. I go back later and replace them with more interesting analogies. Then I run into the problem Bluma has--no one understands my analogies I actually think that's okay. As a reader, what bothers me is when an author comes up with an analogy that the character they're writing as wouldn't understand. This happens frequently in MG novels.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I'll use them now and them in dialogue, because people do use them in dialogue.

 

[Matnov]

In creating the character of my fictional detective, I wanted to avoid the typical stereotype of a hard-drinking, womanising rebel who bucks the system, but his boss allows his waywardness as he gets results. My hero has his own idiosyncrasies, but he's not a cardboard cutout. That trope has been done to death and is another form of cliche.

Having some fun playing with this myself at the moment. I have a lead character in my WIP who is hard-drinking, womanising detective with a horrendous personal life along with all that entails apart from one single twist and that is the fact that he is corrupt. He is the bad guy and has helped to steal millions with the 'system' who are more the goodies in that they are desperate to nail him before he can find out a way of getting his hands on his ill-gotten gains. I anticipate him doing the right thing in the end but that is not his primary intention.

Always thought that behind every cliche, lays some bloody good solid reasoning/wisdom and that the interesting approach is to look for an angle on that.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Having some fun playing with this myself at the moment. I have a lead character in my WIP who is hard-drinking, womanising detective with a horrendous personal life along with all that entails apart from one single twist and that is the fact that he is corrupt. He is the bad guy and has helped to steal millions with the 'system' who are more the goodies in that they are desperate to nail him before he can find out a way of getting his hands on his ill-gotten gains. I anticipate him doing the right thing in the end but that is not his primary intention.

Always thought that behind every cliche, lays some bloody good solid reasoning/wisdom and that the interesting approach is to look for an angle on that.

Clichéd characters can be useful as touchstones for the reader. We all have preconceptions of the character of people in different occupations. Think how you react when told that someone is a playleader with young inner-city children or a line operative in a factory making artificial cream or a motorcycle dispatch rider. I've done all of those jobs and was keenly aware of how differently I was treated by strangers, and also how my sense of self-worth changed.

To a certain extent, we become our jobs and that can happen very quickly if compromised by bad practice or corruption. I knew a man who was prosecuted for stealing from parking meters. He'd been coerced into doing so by his boss, and all of the other collectors were skimming too, so if he didn't take part he'd have been shunned before being pressured to leave.

I've known a number of uniformed coppers and plain clothes detectives, as well as career criminals, including murderers and members of organised crime. One commonality among them was that all considered what they did to be normal and 'just a job.' Years apart, a tough vice detective and a prisoner who'd spent half of his life inside, both said to me, 'The only difference between police and criminals is which side of the line they walk.'

If you haven't read him, I recommend Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole series of detective stories; best read in order as there's an arc through the series. Now there's a flawed detective—with a great name—hairy hole indeed!

 

[Brian Clegg]

I'll use them now and them in dialogue, because people do use them in dialogue.

I think Katie-Ellen has an important point - try to keep clichés out of your descriptive prose, but it's sensible to use them sometimes in dialogue, because people do it all the time.