The War on Cliche

I'm always looking for the lyrical language, whether as a reader or a writer.

Mind, not literary language (despite what others may say that it's the same) but the 'pretty language', which I jokingly referred to sometime ago. For me, as I keep pointing out, it's always the "right word at the right time." Look at the two of my current favorite writers, Kelly Link and Theodora Goss: these writers seem to combine prose and poetry into one solid narrative when they relate their stories.

Which is why am constantly reminded of Martin Amis' non-fiction book, The War Against Cliche, whenever I write.

Fortunately, I have a heaven-sent editor when I write in the form of [identity-protected], who scrutinizes each and every line of all of my stories (including my last one for Fully-Booked). She was the one who warned me not to reach for the first available phrase that comes to mind as I write.

And it's true: one thing I've realized as a writer (and something I've always known as a reader) is that words-- in all their phrasing and structure-- have so much incredible capability, so much fantastic potential when combined with each other.

Think about it. When you think of certain words, it's so easy to think of "a clap of thunder" or "a cacophony of words and sounds" (which I admittedly used) or even the already-in-a-joke-in-itself "it was a dark and stormy night." But the problem with these phrases is that they're so oft-used, so much abused that nobody really thinks of these words when they read them: they're like shiny glass surfaces, so unbecoming that nobody really looks behind the glass itself.

So what do I do? I know the power of words, I know how much it is capable of. So I reach past that terribly repeated phrase on the nearest shelf, the cliches that we lazily reach for, and see if I can come up with something better. And when I do, I feel so goddamn elevated, so energized at realizing that, "Wow! I didn't think that I could up with something like that." Almost like poetry, like almost reaching that pinnacle that I attribute to where Link and Goss are. And then I joyfully dive back into the writing again like a lemming with floaters.

So here's a little something helpful I'm passing on to you as one writer to another: watch your words.