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Point well taken. I try to avoid them, and cringe when someone else notices one I've missed in a rough draft.

Funny you should use the sand/ocean. Last week, I wrote a Magpie Tale prompt from a photo of the ocean. While I think mine was different, many other people who participated did use the "toes in the sand" in their poetry or prose. And I wondered if they noticed their commonalities as they read one another's pieces.

It's funny, isn't it, how glaring they become when you put a lot of people's work in the same basket :-)

I was on the seashore this weekend, and I did dig my toes into the sand, and even as I was doing so, I realized how cliched it was!
Yes, they do come from real life, but if everyone has the same experiences, and if everyone writes about the same experiences in exactly the same why, why should someone read what they write instead of writing it themselves?

Great post. Thank you.

I'm sure I'm guilty of using them. Good examples to think about.

Guilty as charged. Thanks for the reminder and great examples, Jessica.

Super Like! Great one using of Sand loved it! i have title for this "2nd Turn".

Thanks

Oy. You've hit on some of the most common offenders, for sure! I advocate the use of shock collars for people who use tired comparisons and stock phrases.

"Our love was burning like fire OWWWW!"

;-)

Great examples. I'm sure that I've used some here or there.

Even though all the male detectives are in suits and ties, the uber-hot lone female detective wears skin tight jeans, a low-cut top and 4 inch spike heels.

And the latest is that the "outsider" consultant is the only one who can figure out who done it. While simultaneously maintaining sexual tension with the lead lawman/woman.

Watching Castle, eh? :-)

How'd you guess?

And I'm not really watching anymore. Shark has been jumped. I will, however, watch the one with Adam Baldwin.

Any chase scene leaves me cold. If I have to watch one more perp haul himself over a chain link fence, I will spit. I really have given up on cop and detective shows except for Justified.

I was thinking of the babe detective syndrome today, and thought of Alcatraz. I like the lead lady detective there. She's pretty, but looks like she can take care of business.

Adam Baldwin was pretty awesome in the Castle episode :-)

Justified is great. The short story it's based on is one of my favorites, too.

The lead detectives on AMC's The Killing are definitely NOT your stereotypical detective characters! The show is great too!

Great post! I won't name the book, as I don't like to cast aspersions, but I did read one not too long ago that was like reading a very bad version of The Secret Garden. The main character was just too sweet for words. She seemed to flit through the story without a care or any kind of emotional upheaval despite the fact she'd been orphaned and sent to an aged uncle far away from

Your series on the seven deadly sins is excellent, Momzilla. Looking forward to seeing what other problems I am standing on the verge of. <br /><br />Twisted

You hit the nail on the head with this post. I&#39;ll put a book down and won&#39;t finish it when I see these problems in characterization. I need to sink into the novel, and that means connecting with realistic characters.

This is a timely post. I have started to write a short story and one of the goals I set for it is to be a character driven story portraying the personalities of the two characters in the plot. Your words of guidance will help me... thanks

First things firsts:<br /><br />Great blog you got here. Found myself opening multiple tabs so I could read all the posts on the first page. Defiantly a must read blog for writers. <br /><br />Second, all good points, especially when talking about too little or too much drama/emotion. <br /><br />Will keep those in mind.

Yes! Especially the accountability one - even when I&#39;m rooting for a character and love the character, I get really annoyed when they&#39;re allowed to &quot;get away&quot; with things. Even Dexter had to face the music.

Wow! Great post. This Seven Deadly Sins of Novel Writing series - is really brilliant! You&#39;re my next Monday Featured Blog, I&#39;d love others to read this. Great stuff here, as always :o)

&quot;NEVER make the sole focus on what a character has or doesn&#39;t have. Instead emphasize what they DO with what they have.&quot; I love this! ;)<br /><br />P.S. You&#39;ve been tagged :)

Great stuff! Thanks:)

<i>9.9 times out of 10, a character cliche crutch means the writer needs to delve deeper to really understand who their character is.</i><br /><br />You are brilliant, you know that? This was a beautiful post. Thank you for making me put on my thinking cap. :D

Bish, thanks. I don&#39;t like to be nagative about books either, but at the same time an example was important and this book is well known enough for people to relate to it. Plus too at the end of the day it&#39;s wildly successful, so its not like pointing out a single flaw will affect that. :-)<br /><br />James, thank you so much. I think we all need to keep these things in mind--I&#39;m

I love these new posts, Angela! I&#39;m all over them!

Excellent post (and reminders)!

What also happens sometimes is that the characters act unmotivated, like the dumb girl in a horror-movie going inside that dark room where the killer hides.

Very informative post!<br /><br />An example of counterfeit, to me, would be the author saying one thing and the character saying another. For instance, if the author (through other characters) comments on how intelligent the heroine is, but the heroine then does something very foolish. The showing is always going to speak louder than the telling.

<i>Even if there is an unbalanced set of circumstances to contend with, NEVER make the sole focus on what a character has or doesn&#39;t have. Instead emphasize what they DO with what they have. A boy can live a perfect, privileged life and still make bad choices. Or a girl can have the odds stacked against her and still succeed through perseverance and the support of those around her. Humanize

Hey this is Silver1 from CC. Great to see you! I can&#39;t agree with your list more. It&#39;s perfect!

What fantastic links! Thank you!

Great links. Thanks for sharing!

These are great - thanks!

What great links! And fun ones, too!

Love the links. You're fabulous as always.

Thanks for all the resources!

excellent. thank you!

Very informative and fun. Thanks.

Thanks for sharing. This was very informative.

Oh more excuses to surf. Wonderful links! Thanks.

Awesome links! thnx!christy

Great links. I especially like the one on dialogue. Thanks!

Can I just say again how fantastic your blog is? Thanks for the great resources.

Cliches are so much easier than stopping to think :) That's why.Nice post! I try to force the first thing that pops in my mind away and use the second or third.

Cliches are as common as fleas on a dog, so it behooves us not to sweep them under the rug. Better to use flea soap and wash them out of our hair. :O

Having been raised to speak 3 different languages from childhood, I don't know as many cliches as the average American, or sometimes I think I know the cliche, but my husband corrects my screwed up cliche.Anyway, I heard you can use them in dialogue.Thanks for always keeping us informed. I have your emotional thesaurus open while I'm rewriting.

I think it's either one of two things -a) lazinessb) a newbie mistakeI admit it. The first draft of my MS was riddled with cliches. And I also thought it was ready to go out the door before it was ready...Superagent served me my $%@ on a platter. He liked the story enough to give me two pages of editorial notes, mostly encouraging, some on plot points, and some on cliched material. I was lucky. (

I agree that cliches are just easier than having to think up something new. When I first started, I thought cliches would be a good thing, because they're familiar. Apparently, I forgot how annoying it is to be around someone who's constantly throwing them around :).

A cool trick is to come up with an original way to use a cliche. I once described a scene as a Norman Rockwell painting that came to life. After I cringed, I rewrote it thus;"The lady on the park bench is drawing this scene as she does every day that the weather allows, and offers her finished works to the tourists for a modest price. She could be the reincarnation of Norman Rockwell, and her

Great comments, Guys!PJ, that's perfect advice. We usually think of the cliche first--so we should nudge the descriptive tidbit a bit to find the fresh idea. Bish--LOL!Gutsywriter--wow, three languages! I know about 1 & a half (I took French in school but if I had to talk to someone in French, their ears would explode at my broken French. I think someone who doesn't quite get the cliches right

I think that in dialouge cliches are OK if it is reasonable that the character would use them (a character from a play I studied in school spoke entirely in cliches and it really worked for the character). This is distinct from cliched dialougue. I have been watching Star Wars with my younger brother, and the oft uttered line: "I've got a bad feeling about this" makes me cringe!

Naturally, a post like this makes me think, "Hmm, how can I start a story with a cliche and still produce something interesting?"I think using the cliche as part of the voice might work. Something like this..."It was a dark and stormy night. But what night would be a good one for your fiancee to tell you she's been seeing another man? And to hell with the storm. Even if it was raining bits of

I've tended to work my cliche issues out on private so no one else but me knows they exist. Ha! But in actual writing and submitting form, I think the use of cliches was stomped out of me before I could let professional eyes see it. I'm uber aware of them when I write (except for shoulder shrugging, must stab).I tend to save that stuff for the fanfiction I write. That's not to say it's laden,

Yeah, dialogue is one place where using a cliche is totally fine. I'll be doing a post on this in the coming weeks.

Maybe it's because I'm a parent, or maybe it's because I didn't like going to my peers as a child, but I think that you can have the cliche go both ways. *Not* going to a parent when it's the sensible thing to do. *Not* telling the teacher (a la HP) when something is wrong and trying to solve everything by yourself is a cliche in YA that grates on my nerves.Some people are raised with very loving

*Not* going to a parent when it's the sensible thing to do. *Not* telling the teacher (a la HP) when something is wrong and trying to solve everything by yourself is a cliche in YA that grates on my nerves. Excellent point--I'm really glad you brought that up as another cliche. There are times where I read a plotline that goes from bad to worse to all out insane and all I can think is, Go to the

Angela may be a brownie-baker, but she's also a pickle-chip-eater, so she, at least, will never be a cliche mommy. Granted, on those grounds, she's also not entirely sane...My thoughts are that you've nailed this particular cliche. Each of your points, I was thinking of stories I've read where I've groaned when the mentor in question came onto the scene. i also agree with Just Me; there are times

But it depends on the circumstance, the strength of the need and the availability of others better suited to go to for help.That's FANTASTICALLY put.

I think this may be why I don't get YA. Even when I was in my teens there were adults (not necassarily my parents though) that I was more comfortable talking with than my peers. And since I am a cliched brownie-baking-ice-cream-making-quilt-sewing-garden-growing mama I think it's perfectly realistic to have a stay-at-home mommy who spends time with her children and talks with them. I know I'm in

For some, the lesson of not bothering them with the small stuff is learned too well.For me, you really hit it on the head with this. To me "don't be a tattletale" meant "you have no adult advocate." When I chose to bull ahead and "tattle" anyway, I was asking, "Are adults still in charge? Will adults mete out fairness and justice, or is it Lord of the Flies here?" (Yeah, I was an over-serious

Great post!!! It has made me re-think and eventually re-affirm the reasons why I eventually succumbed to including a ‘mentor figure’ in my YA work-in-progress. I had originally started out with totally avoiding a mentor, but with the type of story I was trying to tell, it just wasn’t working! So my current solution is to combine the villain/antagonist with the ‘mentor’, hopefully creating an

I love the conversation this post is evoking!Courtney--thanks!Becca--speaking of sane, when will you Floridaians start stocking pickle flavored chips in your grocery stores? The fact that you have no such thing is just...wrong! Sick and wrong!Just_me, I do know where you are coming from. I'm a SAH too, and I work hard at keeping the lines of communication open, largely because I remember what it

Great discussion on mentors! Thanks!

OMFG, you just gave me a fantastic idea for a little flash piece that completely flips this whole baking mom cliche on its head. Ha1

Hm. Interesting points. I have a scene in my current YA WIP where the MC goes to her dad for help... not her peers because she has none she can talk to, and not her mom because her mom doesn't listen as well, but her dad because he listens and doesn't freak out about things.Is this cliche?I know that I often go to my dad for advice/help (and I"m a teenager) so I never thought of it as a no-no in

I think that as long as you show the situation (building on the premise that your MC and dad have a strong & open relationship) then you're fine. :-) Cliches usually arise when there is no set up to show the relationship dynamics, which in turn makes the mentoring stand out as 'false/convienent.' Does that make sense?

Brilliant.

Ha! Hilarious! :)

Oh, that is wonderful -- really fantastic. Loved the tungsten drills and the agony of writer's cramp! And the son's parting shot was just lovely.

I know--it cracks me up over and over again."Look at what you've done to mother--she's worn out from meeting film stars, attending movie premieres and hosting gala luncheons.""There's naught wrong with gala luncheons!"*dissolves in gales of laughter*

There's nowt wrong with British humour, that's for sure!

I watched this.... and then lost an hour watching more sketches.... you tube ought to come with a warning!

You've got these cliches down! They annoy me too. Good job.

Great post, and I found myself giggling and saying "yes, yes!" all the way through. I hate cliches and cliched characters like poison. I've been living a long time, and I've hardly ever met a walking cliche. And believe me, I've had my eye out for them.As the only brown-haired girl in a family of blondes -- and one who was always a year behind my younger sister in math -- I've never bought into

I’m focusing on the younger spectrum of the tired, recycled and overused Paris Hiltons—er, character clichés.ZING! But it's totally amazing how a cliche can come down to something like hair colour though, isn't it? Another winning post at The Bookshelf Muse. I really love the segment on The Nerd/Nerdette.

Oh dear. Every time I read your posts, I look at my characters and think 'Darn!'.

Mary, I actually know a girl who dyed her hair brown because she was not being taken seriously in the coporate world as a blonde. Some of the things she told me (and how her life changed afterwards) make me glad I wasn't born with those often-enviable golden tresses.Bish and Courtney, thanks for the compliments!Kate, you aren't alone. These character cliche posts have been quite revealing to me

-Giggles- Then threatens to to use my blonde ponytail to smack anyone using the blonde cliche in the face!

My daughter has dyed her hair brown. It breaks my heart. And she knows more blonde jokes than anyone I've ever met.Sigh...

Good post, Angela. I realized a little while ago that I'd made many of my heroines dark-haired because I'm dark-haired. So for the WIP, the heroine is going to be blonde. And she'll be a microbiologist. Who wears glasses. In a medieval fantasy world.It's going to be fun. :)

I think most Iraninans know this story as we studied it at school at an early age. It makes me so proud to see this story written in another language so that the knowledge and wisdom is introduced to peoples of other tongues and cultures. It makes me even more proud because the person responsible, is me dear dear school friend Susan.