FROM MARY ANNA: Kicking the cliché habit

Brain scientists have shown that our minds fall into familiar grooves. When we speak or write, we reach for prefabricated thoughts, because it is so much easier than reinventing the wheel. I would argue that clichés aren't particularly undesirable in casual conversation, unless they are so frequent as to annoy the listener. They communicate the speaker's intent in a way that the listener can easily understand. What's so bad about that? They are not, however, a creative way to communicate.

Those of us who earn our livelihood with words feel inspired to do better than to simply regurgitate canned phrases. If I cannot find my own way to tell you something, why should we expect you to listen? We writers delve deep into the language for new ways to say things, in hopes that you will respond by finding new ways to think.

Does this mean that I never unconsciously resort to clichés? Oh, heavens no. I'm human, and I don't think there's any way to root every last cliché out of 95,000 words of prose...not unless I plan to devote a decade to each book. So go ahead and send me a catalog of every overused phrase in all of my body of work, if you feel that you must, and I'll try not to use any of them again. Just be assured that I know without looking that they are there.

A few days ago, a reader told me that she particularly enjoyed a sentence I wrote in my first book, Artifacts: "Providence tends to repay a man in the coin he hands to others." Then she asked, "Is that yours? Is it original?" I could only answer "I hope so."

Unintentional plagiarism is not so different from dredging my memory banks and coming up with a cliché...except using something that belongs to another writer is simply wrong. Obviously, I hoped that I hadn't unintentionally used someone else's pithy observation when I wrote about Providence and her coin. In this case, I also hoped that the sentence was original simply because I liked it.

I just did a web search and could find nothing remotely similar to that sentence. This prompted me to breathe a sigh of relief. It's mine....I'm pretty sure it's mine...good heavens, I hope my brain didn't take a lazy trip down a well-rutted road and come up with that idea. Because, while slapping a cliché into a book now and then is lazy, it's not unethical.

By contrast, taking someone else's idea violates one of the most timeworn phrases of all: Thou shalt not steal.

Mary Anna

Comments

[Camille Minichino]

I'm trying to think of an original way to say So Well Put. Maybe with caps, it's not a cliche.

Thanks for the excellent explanation of why cliches come trippingly out in the first draft, and how some of them hide during the editing phase. You've got me wondering if readers would be uncomfortable with 95000 words of original phrases! Maybe cliches are necessary.

[Mary Anna Evans]

Actually, that wouldn't be a bad title for a book...Ninety-five Thousand Words of Original Phrases. ;)

[Camille Minichino]

A book, or a drinking song.

[Mary Anna Evans]

Ahahahaha! At the next Bouchercon, we Ladykillers and our writer friends should gather in the bar and play that game. When anyone utters a cliche, we all have to drink a shot. I love it.

[Susan C Shea]

Mary Anna, I cringe when one of my writing group members points out a cliche I've used. They do creep in, at least for me, unnoticed. As you say, someone who considers herself or himself a creative writer should be able to do better. Good point and good post! for once, I'm glad I can't go to Bcon - I worry I'd be buying multiple rounds of drinks in the bar!

[Liz]

Better are cliche than text abbreviations--which require me to search online to find out ":)" is a happy face.

[Mary Anna Evans]

I'll use a few of the more common abbreviations, like LOL and that :) you love so well, Liz. If I do anything fancier than that, I feel like somebody's mother who is trying to be cool...which I guess is what I am.

LOL.

[Priscilla]

Your comment on how the brain happily uses its well-worn paths was great. Now I have an explanation for using the same word far too many times in one page! I also chuckled over googling a phrase. As for drinking a shot after each cliche, Mary Anna, it's a good thing I will not be at B'con or you'd all be drunk after I uttered one Jamesian sentence!

[Mary Anna]

My 15-year-old has started pointing it out when I latch onto a word and say it too often. Recently, it was "overt." There are many, many well-worn paths between these two ears.

Alas, but one cliche would probably be enough to get me drunk. I am the cheapest of dates.