Task Ten: Rewriting Clichés

Well, this is one a lot of writers I’ve read are guilty of. We use well-known clichés because it’s easy. So, today’s task is nice and simple; find some other ways of making a comparison that doesn’t resort to the old favourites. I have to try and get my class to do this all the time, as half of them keep using the same-old clichés they’ve read and heard everywhere and the other half can’t even write a simile yet.

But I digress. A writer can give their characters clichés to say. In fact, a writer should, because we all speak in clichés, whether we realise it or not. Admittedly, some are becoming a little archaic, but that’s no reason not to use them. However, when faced with that wonderful description that I enjoy so much, there is little reason to use clichés. If, as a writer, you can’t find a better way to describe than using something that’s been used millions of times, then you’d better start expanding your comparative vocabulary.

If you want to know a little more about clichés, have a look at Jeremey’s historical A to Z of clichés. And, although I said you could use clichés for your characters to say, there are some clichés that you just have to avoid on Sage Counsel’s page.

Perhaps my favourite simile ever (although it’s definitely not a cliché but it’s worth sharing) is from ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’. If you’re not familiar, just put it into YouTube!

Private Baldrick: I have a plan, sir.
Captain Blackadder: Really Baldrick? A cunning and subtle one?
Private Baldrick: Yes, sir.
Captain Blackadder: As cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University?
Private Baldrick: Yes, sir.

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as hard to find as your car keys when you’re already late

faster than a child down the stairs at the end of the last day of the school year

as slow as a graceful canal boat

pretty as a hedgerow full of wildflowers

white as a fresh Word document page, just waiting for a story

silent as a school classroom during the holidays

cold as an ice lolly fresh from the freezer on a hot day

It’s not as easy as it looks! I think I’d better just go and check I haven’t used any of the tired old clichés in my own writing!

That’s the thing about clichés… We use them without thinking!

(Tasks are taken from The Five-Minute Writer by Margret Geraghty.)

(Painting is by Malcolm Sharp – http://www.malcolmsharp.com)

Task Three: Playing Tag in the Schoolyard

This task is about making remote associations and thinking outside of the norm, making links between two things you would never normally put together. A useful skill for a fantasy writer, definitely, but also useful generally if you’re hoping to improve your descriptive abilities. Associations like this are more commonly presented in the form of similes and, slightly less commonly, metaphors.

We’re all familiar with similes such as “he had a face like thunder” or “as cold as ice” and even my primary school classes have found simile-creating easy. Metaphors are, I think, a little more clunky-feeling. It can seem odd to actually say something is something else and many people don’t use metaphors for this very reason. However, there are some that feel more comfortable than others, for example “her eyes were two bright sapphires” or “she was such an angel”.

Perhaps one of the most famous similes comes from the film Forrest Gump. Forrest is sitting on a bench and says to the person next to him “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know which one you’re gonna get.” I don’t know who wrote that line, but it’s a great simile. I think most people will think of that whenever something goes amiss and, for me anyway, never fails to raise a smile.

Of course, it only works if you don’t have the little picture menu that comes with most boxes of chocolates.

Other comparisons, personification or anthropomorphism, seem difficult, but once you’ve got your head around them they can flow easily.  My recent class wrote some wonderful personification poems about the sea and I was very proud of them.

Anthropomorphism – the idea of making an abstract notion alive as a human is – is perhaps most famously demonstrated in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. Who doesn’t love Death, that scythe-wielding, cat-loving grandfather who likes taking holidays? But there are other examples that we come across often. People say that “fate stepped in” or “Cupid hit us with an arrow”.

So everyone can think outside the box and make more comparisons in life!

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List of concrete nouns:

dressing gown, cloud, fish, carpet, car, hat, knitting needle, slide, beach ball.

List of abstract nouns:

guilt, love, hunger, pride, embarrassment, wealth.

A comparison between one word from each list:

Pride is like a beach ball. It can be blown up, either by yourself or by someone else. When it’s full, it is elevated, high above other people, enjoying the view from on high. However, it soon loses momentum and needs a boost to get it back up in the air. Sometimes it can become punctured and quickly deflates, leaving the owner feeling sad.

Another comparison:

Wealth can be like a slide. There are steps reaching up to the top and some people find these steps no problem racing up them at full speed. Others have to take one step at a time, worried they might fall. When, eventually, you reach the top, some people are fearless at flinging themselves down, having a whale of a time and not minding when they quickly reach the bottom. Then there are those who will hesitate at the top, looking down at what’s to come and wondering if they want to go down at all. They have to make a decision and, for some, they find out it’s actually quite fun on the way down. Others find their thighs sticking to the metal, burning them as they make the painful, gradual descent.

(Tasks are taken from The Five-Minute Writer by Margret Geraghty.)