Using Cliches in Your Writing: Why, When, and How

septembercfawkes:

Yes, you should probably use cliches in your writing. This post tells you why.

When people think of Pablo Picasso’s work, they usually think of something like this:

 Girl Before a Mirror by Pablo Picasso

What the general population doesn’t know, is that his earlier work looks like this:

 Science and Charity by Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso learned the rules of art and went on to break them to create his own style.

Writing rules are meant to be broken too, and I have a couple of posts about that. This one is on cliches. Next week’s is on adverbs and adjectives. In both I’ll tell you what the rule is, why it’s a rule, and then why, when, and how to break it to your advantage.

The truth is, sometimes cliches are the way to go.

What’s the Rule?


The Rule:

Don’t use cliches.

A cliche is something that’s been used so many times, it’s lost its effect. The cliche can be a phrase, like “cream of the crop,” “dead as a doornail,” “thick as thieves,” “like a kid in a candy store,” or it can be a plotting technique, like having your hero discover there is a prophecy made about him defeating the antagonist, or it can be a character like an old wise gray-haired mentor (who dies of course) or the slutty but popular (blond) cheerleader.

Bullying is a cliche. So many heroes have been victims of bullying that audiences almost expect it. And have you ever noticed how many fictional twins are basically duplicates of each other? It’s gotten to the point that if you have twins, people expect them to be almost the exact same. (And usually you can combine them into one character and it won’t effect the story.)



Cliches can be found in micro-plotting, like I talked about in my post on action scenes. How many times have you seen people hanging from a ledge or a girl kicking a guy in the crotch? They’re cliches! We’ve seen them dozens of times.

Writers can even create their own personal cliches. They use the same technique or phrase so much that it loses its effect. Even a single novel can have phrases or techniques that become cliche. Stephenie Meyer’s characters are often found “putting her head between her knees” after running. I read that phrase so much that, for me at least, it started to feel cliche.
Why it’s a Rule


At best, a cliche lacks impact. It’s invisible. At worst, it generates groans and gag-reflexes.

The first time people heard “cream of the crop,” “dead as a doornail,” “kid in a candy story,” those phrases had a powerful effect. So powerful in fact that people started using them. Now, though, they are so commonplace that they don’t illicit any kind of emotion out of the reader. You know what the cliche means, but it doesn’t strike you. They’ve lost their gumption, so a reader could care less about reading them. They aren’t creative. And they can be annoying.

The prophecy plot line has lost its effect. People hanging off ledges about to die has lost its effect. (And have you ever noticed no one ever actually dies in any of those moments? Even if they do fall off, they find something else to hold onto or something catches them.) How about the cliche where a guy is fighting someone really good only to find out that the opponent is actually a girl?





Another reason not to use cliches is simply that they’ve already been done. A writer already did that, so why do the same thing again? Do something new! What can you bring to the genre that’s new?

Finally, the last problem with cliches is that they don’t allow writers to stretch and grow. Because the writer is just copying what everyone has already done, she isn’t stretching herself to get better.

Why and When You Should Use Cliches


With that said, you should definitely take advantage of cliches. Here are some reasons why:

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