Cliches, avoiding them, spotting them and so on

[DAgent]

I've wondered if anyone has found any online tools that let you check your work for well known cliches.

I know people hate to see cliches in any form, even trying to twist them around or reword them to sound or be different, but whats been everyone's personal experience with them if they've found they've used one without realising it, and then tried to change it?

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Let me be the first to say, you should avoid cliches like the plague

 

[The Judge]

Beaten to the punch!

*ahem*

I can't help with any online tools, though the grammarly-type things really ought to have some kind of cliche alert if they're to justify themselves as helping writers. Might be worth looking at them, if you haven't already.

I'd second MRG in recommending you avoid cliches, but the trouble is it's only when one knows that a phrase is hackneyed that it protrudes like a painful pollical digit -- if one has only come across the expression once or twice it might seem perfect. The only answer to the problem that I can offer is to read widely, particularly current work and media, and to have writing group buddies or beta readers who can pick up things of that kind. As for changing cliches when they're found, I can't see a problem -- just take them out!

I've never found myself using a cliche of the "sore thumb" type, but I have been unkindly mocked by someone who shall remain nameless (but whose monicker rhymes with HairDrain) for having a character cry "No!" when his beloved seems to have died. Unbeknown to me, those persons such as BareGrain who have a televisual habit bordering on addiction have heard such an expression parodied too often for it to be used in a serious piece of work such as what I wrote. I ignored him, of course. (Actually, no -- or, rather, "NOOOOOOOO!!!". I simply removed it.)

 

[sule]

If you're talking about cliche phrases, then The Judge's advice is best: read and have others look over your work whose judgment you trust.

If you mean cliche story beats (tropes, etc.), I think much of your problem can also be solved by reading a lot (and by showing your work to beta readers you trust), but tropes in particular are difficult to avoid. The best way to deal with cliched story is to understand the core essence of it, then find your own spin to put on it so that it's fresh.

For example, Cinderella is a very well-known story: it has centuries of retellings and they all hit about the same beats: young girl is abused by her step-family, she goes to a ball in disguise, meets a prince, etc. etc. Cinderella is a cliche. However, there are still ways to adjust the framing of the story (Marissa Meyer's Cinder is set in the future with the main character as a cyborg), to make it fresh. Sometimes, it's ok to use a trope if you know you're using it, and (more importantly) you know why you're using it.

This episode of Writing Excuses could be of use.

13.35: Cliché vs. Archetype

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard Tropes, archetypes, and even cliches are tools in our toolboxes. There’s no avoiding them, but there are definitely ways to use them incorrectly. In…

writingexcuses.com

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

I've done a bit of digging around and there are a few articles on line about avoiding cliches, some with lists

Here's the biggest list I found

681 Cliches to Avoid in Your Creative Writing

681 Cliches to avoid in your creative writing.

www.be-a-better-writer.com

I suppose the best way to avoid them is to learn them so when you read back your work, they stick out like a sore thumb

 

[Stephen Palmer]

"A cliché is better than the phrase which does not work." - Gene Wolfe.
Just to put the other side of the discussion, you know...

 

[msstice]

Examining some clichés (sticks out like a sore thumb, avoid like the plague, beaten to the punch) they appear to be analogies that don't add anything. Simply removing the analogy doesn't seem to weaken the writing.

1. The red letter stuck out like a sore thumb.
2. I avoid Mr. Churchill like the plague.
3. The grim reaper Death beat me to the punch it.

Like adverbs, they can be left out and the context can be used to make the bare words more powerful.

 

[Danny McG]

They work sometimes, look at William Shakespeare, his stuff is full of cliches

 

[Ogma]

Were they cliches when he wrote them?

 

[Don]

Examining some clichés (sticks out like a sore thumb, avoid like the plague, beaten to the punch) they appear to be analogies that don't add anything. Simply removing the analogy doesn't seem to weaken the writing.

1. The red letter stuck out like a sore thumb.
2. I avoid Mr. Churchill like the plague.
3. The grim reaper Death beat me to the punch it.

Like adverbs, they can be left out and the context can be used to make the bare words more powerful.

No use crying over spilled milk. You can run, but you can't hide. Wait for the other shoe to drop. Keep a stiff upper lip. Bide your time for what it's worth. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Watch your p's and q's.

Hardin threw himself back in the chair. "You know, that's the most interesting part of the whole business. I'll admit I had thought his Lordship a most consummate donkey when I first met him - but it turned out that he was actually an accomplished diplomat and a most clever man. I took the liberty of recording all his statements."
There was a flurry, and Pirenne opened his mouth in horror. "What of it?" demanded Hardin. "I realize it was a gross breach of hospitality and a thing no so-called gentleman would do. Also, that if his lordship had caught on, things might have been unpleasant; but he didn't, and I have the record, and that's that. I took that record, had it copied out and sent that to Holk for analysis, also."
Lundin Crast said, "And where is the analysis?"
"That," replied Hardin, "is the interesting thing. The analysis was the most difficult of the three by all odds. When Holk, after two days of steady work, succeeded in eliminating meaningless statements, vague gibberish, useless qualifications - in short, all the goo and dribble - he found he had nothing left. Everything canceled out."

Asimov, Foundation: A long agreement that meant nothing

Hello, I am trying to find the reference in the original Foundation series where two societies entered into a long agreement (thousands of pages) and it ended up not meaning anything at all. This was determined by encoding the agreement in symbolic logic and then feeding it into a computer...

www.sffworld.com

 

[sknox]

You might also start a list of your own cliches. There are cliches that will never appear in my writing because I'm attuned to them and catch them even before pen hits paper. The ones I don't notice are the slippery ones.

This edges over into overused words. There are definitely words that I use too often. You could regard those as one-word cliches. Taking Gene Wolfe to heart here, I would not simply remove cliches. Instead, I would do a search and re-examine each. This would be in a very late edit, just before proofreading.