Avoid Clichés Like the Plague? Or are they useful?

cj Sez:  I wasreviewing some notes I have and the following paragraphs jumped out at me fortoday’s blog. I think we can agree thatnovels need a theme, a premise on which to hang the action and plot points. Anoverall theme continues as a thread through the novel. It lets a writer connectthe dots of subplots to the main plot.

  Caveat:  A cliché is, bydefinition, a trite and overused expression, a figure of speech that has becometiresome.
  One way to get a handle on finding yourtheme/premise might be to describe your novel in one sentence, as with acliché.
  The neat thing is, once you’ve discoveredthat one true sentence for your novel, you can polish it into a marketingblurb.
   Consider this theme/premise/cliché for aromance story: “Love will find a way.” Then every time you put an obstacle in acharacter’s path on the way to happily ever after, that obstacle can beovercome with some kind of act of love . . . even self-love (conceit, egotism)is fair game. 
   In the premise/cliché, “All’s fair in love and war,” the character is free to dowhatever s/he can in order to capture the heart of a lover. 
   For a love story, that beautiful,angst-filled drama which doesn’t always end happily ever after, a perfectcliché might be, “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.” 
   Or this tired, old saw for a YA or memoir:“A coming of age story.” That keeps the threads of the story tied to someagonizing affliction and growth of young people over a longer time span.    Find your cliché and tape it to your desk.It’ll keep you focused on the theme of your story, despite all those wonderfulobstacles you throw in the path of the protagonist.
  NOTE: Several writer coaches/experts adviseagainst the use of any clichés in the story’s narrative. That said, I thinkthere are ways to use them—for example, you might have one particular character who loves to rattleoff clichés.

§§ Writerly info:   On Jane Friedman’sblog: “One Well-Chosen Detail: Write Juicy Descriptions Without OverwhelmingYour Reader,” by author and writing coach April Dávila.  https://janefriedman.com/one-well-chosen-detail-write-juicy-descriptions-without-overwhelming-your-reader/
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  Did you know that the first “general day of thanksgivingand prayer” was established by Presidential Proclamation in 1789?And since we won’t be together on the holiday . . .
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  Okay, that’s it for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on,and I’ll try to do the same. Raising prayers for a happy and safe you and yours.cj
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