The Cliche:- Death to Style

From time to time, and not infrequently, new writers want to know how they can improve their writing style. While I usually tell them that their own style or ‘voice’ will develop over time if they are writing consistently and in a committed manner, and to on no account consider imitating another writer’s voice, the other single most useful piece of advice I could give would be about cliches. There is no other single element that can destroy a piece of writing as instantly as can a cliche. The trouble is, one cliche in a whole book could be enough to make a discerning reader begin to distrust the writer. Your policeman must not say ‘Just come along with me, Sir.’ Your doctor must not say ‘Are we feeling better, or what seems to be the trouble,’ and your concerned husband must not say, ‘Darling, we have been so worried about you.’ If it’s a phrase in common use, or even if you’ve heard it before just once in real life – in the newspapers, on film, don’t use it. This might force you to really think about words and what they mean and the subtlety that can be conjured up when one is juxtaposed with another, and if it does, that’s good because it means you are committed to being a serious writer, even though you may not be a writer of serious subject matter. It’s worth remembering as well that cliche doesn’t just stop at sentence level; story ideas themselves can be pure cliche.