Monday Prompt

To Cliche or Not to Cliche, That is the Question

Between you, me, and the lamp post, is it an all or nothing proposition?

Ya gotta love the English language.

It’s full of colorful cliches and turns of phrase. They are so easy and tempting to use. Once you put one down, another pops up, proving the old adage — when it rains, it pours.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why writing books and blogs so poo-poo their usage. That just sticks in my craw — whatever that is!

I know, I know. When you take the easy road and rely on cliches, you’re missed an opportunity to create a fresh and original way of saying it. And of course, that’s great to do.

Might even get you distributed, so by all means, help yourself! Go for it! Whatever floats your boat.

But isn’t it nice to know some old standbys are happy as clams to help you out in a pinch? Instead of poo-pooing cliches, we should thank them. They work hard for their money and don’t ask a lot in return.

Besides, many of them are literary giants.

To be or not to be, for instance. Classic Shakes! Yes, trite and overused, especially on suicide hotlines, but then again, the fact that they stopped and popped the question is the saving grace of someone — including Hamlet’s (at least for a while) life.

Cause if you’re asking about it, you’re not doing it, right?

Other cliches have won grammy awards and Pulitzer prizes. Some are household legends. We honor them through use. That should make their authors — even dead ones — happy as a clam.

So let’s take this advice with a grain of salt, shall we?

When we wake up and smell the cliche coffee, it fills our lungs with its chicory aroma, gets our juices flowing, and lights our creative fires.

In short order, lickety-split, I am writing my ass off. A cliche on the page is worth two uncoined witticisms floating around in the nether regions of my brain. So if nothing else, I’ll put the cliche in its place and come back later and see if I can tease anything better out of my imagination.

For my money, that might be as good as it gets.

Then again, maybe not. Maybe there’s always room to improve. In the meantime, I can flatter myself that I’m a legend in my own mind.

For us writers, some of the cliches really get my goat. Even if they are true. If they’re true, they make me even madder. Mad as a hatter, even.

So, for example, it’s said you can’t judge a book by its cover. One can argue that this is even truer in the age of the internet, where said cover has been reduced to a thumbnail. 150 X 150 pixels to be exact.

Me and my friends can’t even see ’em let alone judge ‘em.

But we’re writers, we gotta make them. Design them. Or pay someone else to.

Big, Bright, and Bold

It’s going to have our book title and name right on there in as big and bold and bright a font as we can muster. That’s our signal to our potential readers — BUY ME! BUY ME! BUY ME! Or if you’re in the Little Shop of Horrors — Buy me, Seymour!

The sad truth about this cliche is that the cover is no guarantee of the quality of the writing inside. That being said, once they buy the book, they’re more likely to read it. Or at least start reading it.

And we know to put out best writing in the first fifty pages, right?

And once we’ve got 50 stellar pages, we know how to write. We can write 250 more stellar pages. Why? We have a reputation to live up to. We want those readers to keep grazing in our pastures, drinking from our wells, and gorging themselves at our banquet table.

Last but not Least…

The other thing to keep in mind about a cover is, one picture is worth a thousand words. Which usually means the photographers are richer than us writers.

But in this case, the odds are in our favor because you can’t fit a thousand words on the cover of a book anyway. Or if you did, they’d be way too small to read without a microscope.

And trust me, you don’t want your work under a microscope. That’s like airing your dirty laundry in public. It’s not a good idea unless you’re a confessional writer like me, and don’t give a damn what people think. But that’s all water under the bridge at the moment.

I do a lot of walking on eggshells when I write those pieces, tiptoeing through the tulips of my own making. I’ve made my bed, and I get to lie in it, but it’s no bed of roses. However, a bed of roses by any other name would stink as sweetly, right?

Which just goes to show, if you’re going to talk the talk, ya gotta walk the walk. Life’s too short to do anything but, right? Or is life too short to do anything but write?

Thank you so much, 𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘢 𝘊., for this week’s shadowy prompts!

Marilyn Flower writes political humor and satire to delight socially and spiritually conscious folks. She’s a regular columnist for the prison newsletter, Freedom Anywhere, where she writes about faith and prayer. Five of her short plays have been produced in San Francisco. Clowning and improvisation strengthen her resolve during these crazy times. Stay in touch!