Author Jerry B. Jenkins has some very good advice about removing cliches from your writing over at Writer’s Digest. Yep, Writer’s Digest. Hard to believe.
Clichés come in all shapes and sizes. There are just as many clichéd
scenes as phrases and words. For instance, how may times have you seen
a book begin with a main character being "rudely awakened" from a
"sound sleep" by a "clanging" alarm clock? Have you written an opening
like this yourself? Wondering where to start, you opt for first thing
in the morning. Speaking of clichés, been there, done that. We all
have. Don’t ever do it again.Compounding that cliché is having
the "bleary-eyed" character drag himself from his bed, squinting
against the intruding sunlight. And compounding that is telling
the reader everything the character sees in the room. What comes next?
He’ll pass by or stand before a full-length mirror, and we’ll get the
full rundown of what the poor guy looks like.Are you cringing?
Odd how Jenkins is so good a defining cliche, but incapable of not writing cliches of Jews in all 13 of his books.
You’ve read his books?? Tod, I hardly know you…
Only 2…when your students want to write rapture fiction, it’s good to know what the competition is. That’s why libraries are important for society.
THAT’S the guy responsible for the horrendous, preachy, ignorant and terrible LEFT BEHIND series?
Man or man, I’d like to give him a solid sock right in his pie-hole.
Chris Fisher, a friend of mine from grad school, has published a great mock-interview with Jenkins in The Wittenburg Door. Here is the link if you’re interested http://wittenburgdoor.com/archives/jenkins.html
Pretty funny stuff.
While Jenkins makes a valid point, it is hard to take him all that seriously. I have read a little over half of his Left Behind series and it is filled with horrendous plotting, lazy writing, and, yes, way too many cliches. So his advice is a wonderful example of “Do as I say, not as I do” in action.
Blunders of Fiction
I got the link from Alison Kent who got it from Lee Goldberg. The article lists some mistakes new writers make.(or old writers who havent learned their craft yet).
My favorite is below because I always struggle w/ the scene setup.
Setting…