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Avoid Clichés in Writing

Editors and publishers seek active, fresh manuscripts. Trite, stereotyped expressions buried in your text can sabotage your hopes of acceptance. These sentences or phrases express popular or common thoughts and ideas but have lost originality and ingenuity. Because of this overuse, the original impact of these clichés has diminished. The term cliché even reaches beyond individual phrases or sentences to character development and trite. Tired over-used character types and trite plots can also sink your manuscript.

Identify Clichés in Your Writing
Clichés are part of everyday dialog and it’s easy for them to sneak into our writing. Once you’ve written a first draft, it’s important to scrutinize the comparisons and images you use. Flag frequently used predictable phrases. Go through your manuscript using a highlighter or red pen to underline potential clichés. If you’re not sure if your phrase is a cliché, underline it anyway. Find a way to reword what you are trying to say. Use a dictionary or thesaurus to help you find the perfect words. Once upon a time, clichés were fresh, original and made an impact. A lasting impact that carries into today’s language. If you find the right words, your new phrase could become a cliché in the future.

Clichés
When you read through your work looking for clichés, it helps to read your work aloud. Listen for phrases and metaphors that sound too familiar. One way to rework the text is to ask yourself what you really mean. This technique helps to say what you mean in a fresh, unique way.

To help you learn to recognize a cliché I’ve included the following list. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it will help to familiarize you with a variety of clichés and can also serve as a checklist of sorts in the future.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet
Abandon ship
About face
Above board
Absence makes the heart grow fonder
Absolute power corrupts absolutely
Add insult to injury
Ace in the hole
Achilles heel
Acid test
Actions speak louder than words
After my own heart
Against the grain
Ah, to be young and foolish
Airing dirty laundry
Al fresco
All bets are off
All dressed up and nowhere to go
All ears
All for one, and one for all
All hands on deck
All hands to the pump
All heck (hell) breaks loose
All in a day's work
All in due time
All over the map
All talk and no action
All that glitters is not gold
All that jazz
All the bits and pieces
All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of yesterday. 
All things grow with love
All thumbs
All wet
All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy
All's fair in love and war
All's well that ends well
Already got one paw on the chicken coop
Altitude is determined by attitude
Always a bridesmaid, never the bride
Always look on the bright side
Am I my brother's keeper?
American as apple pie.
Am I talking to a brick wall
An angel belongs in the garden
An apple a day keeps the doctor away
An apple never falls far from the tree
An arm and a leg
An axe to grind
An idle mind is the devil's playground
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
Another day another dollar
Another nail in the coffin
Ants in his pants
Any friend of yours is a friend of mine
Any port in a storm
Anyhoo
Anything goes
Apple of his eye
Are you a man or a mouse?
Armed to the teeth
Around the horn
As all get out
As beautiful as the day is long
As clear as mud
As cold as ice
As common as dirt
As delicate as a flower
As dense as a London fog
As far as the eye can see
As fresh as a daisy
As good as gold
As hot as hell
As honest as the day is long
As if
As luck would have it
As much use as a yard of pump water
As plain as the nose on your face
As poor as dirt
As pure as snow
As sensitive as a flower
As slow as molasses
As snug as a bug in a rug
As solid as the ground we stand on
As tender as a mother's heart
As the crow flies
As useful as tits on a bull
As welcome as a skunk at a lawn party
As white as snow
As ye sow, so shall ye reap
Ashes to ashes dust to dust
Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country
Asleep at the wheel
Ass backwards
At the bottom of the pecking order
At the crack of dawn
At the drop of a hat
At the eleventh hour
At the end of my rope
At the end of the day
At the last minute
At wits' end
Atta boy
Atta girl

Babe in the woods
Beat around the bush
Beat it into the ground
Beauty is a fading flower
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Bee in her bonnet
Being led down the garden path
Bent out of shape
Best thing since sliced bread
Better late than never
Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick
Betting the farm
Between a rock and a hard place
Big as life
A bird in the hand is messy
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Bite the dust
Bit off more than you can chew
Bless my bloomers
Blood is thicker than water
Bloom where you are planted
Blow hot and cold
A bottomless pit
Bowels of the earth
Bread and water
Bread and wine
Break new ground
Bring on the sun
Bright as a full moon
Broad daylight
Brought back to reality
Brought down to earth
Busy as a bee
Buy the farm

Caked with mud
Can't tell his ass from a hole in the ground
Can't tell his ass from his elbow
Can't see the forest for the trees
Can't see the wood for the trees
Carrot on a stick
Cat's meow
Caught between a rock and a hard place
Charm the birds out of trees
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Chip off the old block
Chip on his shoulder
Closing the barn door after the horse escapes
Cold feet
Cold hands warm heart
Come down to earth
Come hell or high water
Common garden variety
Common ground
Comparing apples to oranges
Cool as a cucumber
Cover a lot of ground
Cream of the crop
Crows are black everywhere
Crushing blow
Crying buckets
Cultivate the garden within
Cut and dried
Cut the ground out from under him

Dead of winter
Dig in
Dig it
Dig up dirt on him
Dig yourself into a hole
Digging a hole for yourself
Dishing the dirt
Dirt cheap
Dirt poor, filthy rich
Do I look like a turnip that just fell off the turnip truck?
Don't bite the hand that feeds you
Don't count your chickens before they hatch
Don't have a cow
Don't let grass grow under your feet
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth
Don't make a mountain out of a molehill
Don't make waves
Don't put all your eggs in one basket
Don't put the cart before the horse
Don't that just butter your grits.
Don't upset the apple cart.
Don't use a lot where a little will do
Down to earth
Drier than a burnt bush
Drive it into the ground
A drop in the bucket
Dropped like a hot potato
Dry as a bone
Dumb as a stump
Dumber than a bucket of rocks

Earth shattering
Easier said than done
Easy as falling off a log
Eat dirt
East my dust
Every cloud has a silver lining
Every dog has his day
Every rose has its thorn
Every stick has two ends
Everything's coming up roses

Face the music
Fall on stony ground
Fat as a hog
Fat as a cow
A feast for sore eyes
Feeling swamped
Feet of clay
Fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down
Fertile ground
Flat as a pancake
A flood of tears
Flower child
Flower of youth.
For everything there is a season. 
For the birds
For want of a nail the shoe was lost
Fountain of energy
Free as a bird
Fresh as a daisy
From dawn to dusk
From feast to famine
From small beginnings come great things
From the ends of the earth
From the four corners of the earth
From the ground up
Full of piss and vinegar
Full of vinegar
Funny farm

Gain ground
Gentle as a lamb
Get hold of the wrong end of the stick
Get your feet on the ground
Get your feet wet
Give a little, take a little
Give and take
Give ground
Go climb a tree
God's green earth
Go with the flow
Green with envy

Hard as a rock
Like a lead balloon
Moving experience
Needle in a haystack
Oldie but a goodie
Paled in comparison
Ripe old age
Shoulder the burden
Sink or you swim
Stand in awe
Strong as an ox
Untimely death
The Acorn doesn't fall far from the tree
Wise as an owl


About the Author
Author and freelance writer, Donna Sundblad, resides in Georgia with her husband, Rick. Together, they are working on a budgeting book that will be out in electronic format by early 2007. Donna serves as the Fantasy Topic Editor at Inspired Author, and her books, Pumping Your Muse and Windwalker are available in paper or ebook formats at epress-online.com. Check her website for more information at www.theinkslinger.net.