TREATISE IN DEFENSE OF THE MALIGNED CLICHÉ: A Personal Opinion Regarding The Use Of Cliches

Posted by Author R. Ann Siracusa

THERE ARE NO RULES, BUT … 
We hear over and over again at writing conferences and from people who are editors, agents and successful authors, that there are no rules. "You have to do what is right for you." "Whatever works." But if there is one rule, it is: "Don't Use Clichés or Exclamation Points" if you want to get published. 

WHAT DOES THE WORD CLICHÉ MEAN? 

So let's examine the cliché, which happens to be one of my best and favorite languages.

First, what are its origins? 

Both the words cliché and stereotype are related to a French printing method introduced in the late 18^th century, a process by which metal plate casts were made from woodcuts. By the 20^th century the words had acquired figurative meanings -- cliché as any overly used word or phrase, and stereotype as an oversimplified image of a person, place or thing. So the word cliché didn't exist in the early 18^th century.

Second, what does the word mean today?

We all know what it means, but each definition I read has a slightly different twist.

●The Random House Webster's College Dictionary defines a cliché [with or without the accent, by the way] as "A trite stereotyped expression or anything that has become commonplace through overuse."

●The Oxford English Dictionary defines a cliché as:"1) A phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought, 2) A very predictable or unoriginal thing or person, and 3) A stereotype or electrotype." 

●The Writing Center says clichés "are general statements that do not add any detailed evidence or unique support to a piece of writing, whether that writing is a personal statement or an academic essay. Clichés are expressions that either have a general meaning or have lost their meaning over time. These overused phrases do not provide a specific meaning or image."

 

Okay, okay! We get it. ["Oh! Sorry," she apologized.]

 

Actually, we all use clichés in our speech at sometime or other, and most writers have to work at getting rid of them when they write, which means at least beginning writers use clichés when they write, just as they use them when they speak. That's because they are, in fact, a legitimate part of the English language. Listen to the people around you and how they talk. Listen to the television; go to the movies; even listen to your English teacher. If you want to write authentic sounding dialogue, you will probably have to use a few clichés.

Author Rivka Galchen writes that "Usually clichés are used correctly and unthinkingly. So correctly and unthinkingly that mostly we don’t hear them, especially when we say them ourselves."

We use clichés in our writing and speaking precisely because the expressions are commonplace from usage and, therefore, most people know what they mean. The listener has had the same experience or heard the manner of speech so often there is no question what the phase is intended to mean. They work! ["Oh! Sorry!" she apologized emphatically.]

Notice the operative words are "intended to mean". Most people who recognize the intent may have no idea about the original and/or real meaning, only the situation or action the words represent at this point in time. Unless you are a gardener, you may not know that nipping something in the bud actually means pinching off the bud or growth of a plant so that new growth will emerge on either side and make the plant fuller, or have more blooms.

 

That's right. You'd better nip in bud your sixteen-year-old daughter's infatuation with your husband's best friend before things get out of hand. [Or don't you know what "getting out of hand" means?]

WHEN IS A CLICHE NOT A CLICHE?

First, not everyone considers the same phrases as overused and worn out. One person can feel that it is, and to others it isn't. You can't write for everyone…but you need to know your audience. One person's cliché may well be another's striking figure of speech.

Second, author Tobias Mastgrave, while not an advocate of using clichés, writes "However, we have to remember that clichés are clichés for a reason, they say something true or enduring or honest about the world we live in or the human experience."

Third, a word or phrase has to be used in speech and writing often enough to become a cliché in order to be added to the dictionary.

WHY WE HATE CLICHÉS 

In addition to the fact that it's boring to read the same thing over and over, I believe that readers, writers, editors, and agents dislike clichés because they often represent laziness in the writing. It's easier to use a cliché than to give a detailed description. Easier to use than to think. Remember the reference to "original thought" in the definition?

Author Leslie Jamison writes, "I resist them because I want to grant room for nuance and complexity … It comes back to whether you think of clichés as portals or conclusions. Clichés work against us when they replace our tongues entirely, when the greeting card messages supplant our own. They work best when they link our singular experiences rather than efface them. -- when they function as dangling strings around which the rock candy of individual experience crystallizes."

Editor Patricia O'Connor observes in Woe Is I (Putnam, 1996), we can’t possibly eliminate all clichés: “It would take a roomful of Shakespeares to replace them with fresh figures of speech, and before long those would become clichés, too.”

THE OXYMORON 

Human beings -- and apparently the writers of dictionaries fall into this category -- are perverse animals rife with the tendency to be inconsistent [in my not-so-humble opinion]. While my handy dandy Random House Webster's College Dictionary defines a cliché as a word or expression that is overused and trite, those are precisely the requirements they use for adding certain words to the dictionary. Go figure.
 

MAKE THE MOST OF THE LANGUAGE 

I would never presume to put my opinions above the advice from the likes of Catherine Coulter, Jennifer Cruise, and the other published, and unpublished, authors you've heard speak on writing. They know -- I don't. But I do know that English is a very rich language. We have many ways to explain and describe things.

In 1947 American College Dictionary, one of first to include new words, boasted 132,000 words, one of the largest of its time. Today, it includes over three times that many and grows every year. The average person's speaking vocabulary is only 15,000 to 30,000 words; the average passive or written vocabulary can exceed 100,000 words.

We are writers, my friends. People learn from us. We learn from each other. We should be skilled enough at our craft to command the use of as many of those three hundred thousand plus English words as possible. I can assure you that every book I read by one of the authors I've heard speak at my RWA chapter or at a conference, includes at least one new word I have to look up and uses at least one cliché if not more.

As writers, it's our job to know the language; to know the words, what they mean, and how to use them – then make the choice of which ones best suit the story you are telling and the way and to whom you are telling it. Wield the words of your language with skill and assurance, and make every one of them count, even if you do choose to use clichés every now and then. 

And never, but never, trust your computer's spell check.

Travel to Foreign Lands for Romance and Intrigue with a Novel by
AUTHOR R. ANN SIRACUSA

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● The Last Weekend In October
● All For A Dead Man's Leg – Book 1
● All For A Fistful Of Ashes – Book 2
● Destruction Of The Great Wall – Book 3
   Release January 2018
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Resources
https://www.merriam-webster.com/help/faq-words-into-dictionary

http://public.oed.com/the-oed-today/recent-updates-to-the-oed/previous-updates/september-2010-update/
https://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/words-of-2009-and-the-2000s/
http://www.wilbers.com/FigurativeLanguage.htm
http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/cliches.htm
http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/whatarecliches.htm
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/12-cliches-all-writers-should-avoid
http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/10-tips-to-bypass-cliche-and-melodrama