"Let's face it, with all due respect, Clichés suck ..."
As a writer in pursuit of something fresh and exciting I am often dismayed by the use of worn out aphorisms and phrases. One of the most odious of the last decade has been the phrase ‘At the end of the day’ which is repeated by every radio talk show caller and host ad nauseam (another cliché!)
Doing a little research (and I stress ‘little’) I noticed that there are hundreds of them, possibly thousands, clogging up the English language like locusts. How do you avoid clichés when everyone in the vicinity uses them on a daily basis? As a writer the temptation to use them is big because a lot of them convey simple ideas that people can understand. But really, most of these should be avoided in any kind of serious prose writing. Here then is a list of the most annoying ones. I only added the first few hundred because I was going ballistic looking at them all.
CLICHES TO AVOID AT ALL COSTS || Compiled by David Hunter
all walks of life
at all times
leave no stone unturned
lock, stock, and barrel
calm before the storm
long arm of the law
never a dull moment
cry over spilled milk
patience of Job
paying the piper
give the devil his due
selling like hot cakes
hook, line, and sinker
stick out like a sore thumb
winds of change
in the same boat
Awful, aren’t they? Here are some more. These ones are usually used to start off a sentence and are particularly irksome …
To tell the honest truth
To tell the honest truth
As a matter of fact
Let's face it
The reason being
You know
I personally
With all due respect
At the end of the day
Let's face it
The reason being
You know
I personally
With all due respect
At the end of the day
Absolutely
Some of them are unavoidable, right? I mean, there are only so many ways to start off a sentence. But in prose writing I think it’s still possible to be fresh and original. Here’s some more:
It's not rocket science.
It's not rocket science.
It's a paradigm shift.
win-win situation
bottom line
thinking outside the box
wealth of experience
low hanging fruit
in a nutshell
put all the eggs in one basket
giving 100%
strike while the iron is hot
no brainer
turn-key solution
beat a dead horse
everything from soup to nuts
leaps and bounds
Ugh. I’m feeling my stomach turn. But I suppose we have to go on …
value added
be at peace with yourself (shut-up)
Flies in the face
get his dander up at the tip of my tongue fine as frog hair to make a long story short A penny saved is a penny earned walk like a cowboy honest Injun line up like tin soldiers make it plain and clear Above and beyond the call of duty dog tired The more things change, the more they stay the same take a walk on the wild side Better late than never! batten down the hatches can't be counted on in the clutch age gracefullyI must confess to using some of these, but mostly in jest. If I were to use these phrases in my daily life I’d have no friends left …
Cover your ass
you reap what you sow road hog once in a blue moon times are changing gum up the works Angel of Death like a bat out of hell Happier than a pig in shit. get a move on an eye for an eye good, bad or indifferent there's no free lunch between you and me and bedpost thick as thieves I would if I could. vested interest wolf in sheep's clothing You have no Idea how painful this is for me! But, I’ll be a good writer and soldier on …
Don't eat the yellow snow
far be it from me
good-for-nothing on the Fritz rip me off eat your heart out I don't know how to break this to you but.... by leaps and bounds Women, can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em running around like a chicken with it's head cut off I'll knock you from here to next Wednesday As wise as an owl a feather in his cap Every day of the week and twice on Sundays 24/7 I’d like to insert something witty and urbane here, but I’ve lost my appetite …
talk 'till your blue in the face
in his element all work and no play last resort the rocky road to success your mission in life had eyes that light up a room bury the hatchet a fish out of water busy as a one legged man at an ass kicking contest bottoms up came the dawn see it through blind leading the blind a marriage made in heaven you're not just whistling Dixie! year in and year out the eternal triangle sucking hind teat dictates of conscience It ain't broke. Don't fix it.Lets "Chew the fat." ...like being nibbled to death by ducks Like a bull in a china shop
all's well that ends well in the lap of luxurySo you see, clichés are everywhere! We can’t avoid them completely in everyday conversations, but we can certainly avoid them in our writing. Clichés are only weak, lazy language. We can do better. And please, if you catch me using a horrid cliché, just bust me in the chops!
(As a postscript, I will leave you with a few more horrendous clichés …)
bust in the chops from the mouths of babes at the crack of dawn beauty is only skin deep charity begins at home chicken hearted give a damn snug as a bug in a rug every inch a king slim picking to hell and back labor of love cut to the quick not a ghost of a chance lay on, Macduff half-baked idea rise and shine it's the best/greatest thing since sliced bread true blue ~ David Hunter, Over and Out
Some novels are full of them. I agree, it's very difficult to avoid clichés at times; maybe with a few edits they'll rise up to the surface. But as for blogs, clichés are less noticeable or I don't notice them.
ReplyDeleteJust because this annoys me, I think I'm going to write a novel just based on these cliches.
ReplyDeleteErp. Cliches are hard to avoid, especially when you think about how many there are...some of them are alright in dialogue, since they're fairly common, but I do try to avoid them.
ReplyDeleteYou're not just whistling Dixie!
ReplyDeleteYa know ... if you had stopped with the first two or three collections, I would have been home free ... but no, you had to keep going ... so now, well, I'm just a failure ;)
ReplyDeleteFine as frog hair?
ReplyDeleteThats a new one to me? =)
Fun post and very true.
Edge of Your Seat Romance
I never heard of that one either. I don't think it's in common use anymore, which probably takes it off the endangered cliche list .... =)
ReplyDelete