Avoid Cliches to Make Your Writing Sparkle

Engage the Reader by Avoiding Cliches in Your Fiction Writing

There is a large contingent of writers who say cliches are cliches, because they work. A cliche is any phrase or comparison that is overdone and overused. 

Examples of Cliches 

Her eyes were as blue as the sky. 

Her teeth shone like pearls. 

The boy was as smart as a whip. 

The job was as easy as pie. 

I bet you have heard all of these before. Do they work? Yeah. When you read each one, you know exactly what the writer means. Cliches do not confuse the reader, or make writing unintelligible. They just make it flat and boring. 

Who wants to read something that they’ve read one thousand times before? That is why you should avoid cliches. 

Cliches also show a certain degree of laziness on the part of the writer. Using a cliche is easy. But it also generic, and does little to describe the details of the particular thing you are describing. Avoiding the cliche will impart more information to your reader. 

So, how do you get rid of cliches? Practice and a lot of re-writing. Doing writing exercises can help you learn how to rewrite cliches into engaging, sparkling descriptions. 

Try to rewrite this: Her eyes were as blue as the sky. 

What do you get? 

Here are some examples of non-cliche descriptions that give the reader more interesting information than the cliche ever could. 

1) Her eyes were the color of a high-Summer sky, clear and stark. 

2) Her eyes sparkled like saphires on black velvet. 

3) Her eyes were the same milky blue as my mother’s eyes were before I killed her. 

All of these sentences mean the exact same thing, but give entirely new information that can help the reader not only learn more, but enjoy the writing more as well. 

Plot cliches are also important to avoid. A plot cliche, like a descriptive cliche, is something that is overused and unoriginal. “The butler did it,” is a perfect example. That plot device has become a catch phrase for cliches in mystery stories.