Image by Janet Cameron
My New Year’s Resolution is to keep up to date with my blogs, especially those I share with my fellow writers. I hope to receive some new stories for the New Year, so please email me at: thestoryslotlive.co.uk
Clichés
Tips on avoiding well-worn plots and phrases for new writers of fiction and poetry. Awareness of what to look out for will instantly improve your writing.
There are clichés in all areas of writing, in story plots, scenes, phrases and titles, and mostly they need to be avoided. You can allow them in dialogue if your character would naturally speak in that way. Even so, it’s probably best not to overdo it. Here are a few examples; once you are cliché-aware and actively watching your own writing, you’ll find similar clichés all over the place. Once you recognise them, you can discard and/or replace them.
Story Plot Clichés
These rules are found in the writing guidelines of most women’s story magazines:
Avoid anything about twins. Since, and probably before Shakespeare, mistaken identify relating to twins has been a favourite plot. (Most mags won’t look at a story if they see the word “twin” in the text.)
A wife discovers her husband’s lover is a man. (Or vice versa.)
A conman tries to hoodwink a sweet old lady, but it is she who is the heartless criminal.
The conman gets duped, the murderer drinks the poisoned wine, and other stories of that ilk.
Another mistaken identity “no-no” is that of the female impersonator, who pops up at the last moment to “surprise” us. Perhaps he’s wearing the same posh dress as the heroine or he’s somebody’s wife or lover. He has to go!
Well-worn Scenarios
These sentences, or sentences like them, will betray you as a beginner writer. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a beginner, as everyone must start somewhere. But the sooner you discard beginner habits, the sooner you’ll be an expert!
“She stood in front of her mirror and surveyed herself, appraisingly. ‘Not bad,’ she thought.”
“It was a lovely day, with little white fluffy clouds drifting across the bright blue sky.”
(“Surveyed” is a terribly over-used word. People are always surveying rooms, each other and their reflections in mirrors, in the stories of new writers. And – why are fluffy clouds always little?)
Other Clichés to Avoid
Don’t describe your hero or heroine as feeling…
Over the moon.
On cloud nine.
With feet hardly touching the ground
Some words and phrases that have lost their sparkle include:
The game is up.
The first flush of youth.
Acting more in sorrow than anger.
Cannot see the wood for the trees.
Don’t give your poems tired titles, such as:
Autumn (or Spring, Summer or Winter)
The River of Life
Turn Clichés Around
Sometimes you can turn clichés around. The nasty little cliché, “seen better days,” was turned into the equally nasty but witty, “past his/her sell-by date.” But now, even this is a cliché through overuse. If you want to be mean about someone’s age, you need to think of a new image and make it your own.
Shakespeare, incidentally, was responsible for many of our present-day clichés, but of course, they weren’t clichés when he invented them, but fresh, brilliant writing.
Autumn 2011
I hope the new pink theme might encourage some more stories. I think it’s easier to read and also the stories are more accessible. Here is the first story – written by… moi!
Spring 2011
The Story Slot has languished a little from neglect for a few weeks. Now I am going to pay it more attention. This wickedly delightful flash fiction story from Jack Horne, which you can find in the menu in alphabetial order by title, is a good start! (If you like any of the stories posted this time, don’t forget to do a quick search using the author’s name, so you can read their other stories.)
Lobster Lunch by Jack Horne.
October, November, December 2010
Stories above in alphabetical order by title.
Most recent: Strangers on a Train by Olive Day
The Story Slot – July/August/September 2010
New stories – congratulations to the writers:
You Got No Chance to Win by Catherine Rose Davis
Never Accept a Lift from a Stranger by Paul Chiswick
Solstice by Kaori Fujimoto
Crossing by Catriona Yule
The Story Slot – June 2010
What’s happened to all The Story Slot’s talented writers? Since the sun’s been shining, maybe you’ve been sunning yourself on the beach or in the garden, and who can blame you? But if you have a good story, please do send it to me, as the output dropped dramatically last month. Still, one encouraging thing is that I can see from the statistics that people are still visiting the site – and reading the material. Please don’t let’s run out of fresh new writing.
Posted for June 2010: The Image by Alan Hayward, Another Time Another Place by Brian Lockett.
The Story Slot – May 2010
The first story this month is a true story from her own life by Olive Day, who has done well in getting her quirky pieces published in the Daily Mail. Congratulations, Olive. Here is the list of stories published this month, you can click onto any of them from the menu above, which is in alphabetical order by title. Or search by author.
Celebrities by Olive Day.
Rhiannon by Sally Anne Croft
Be Careful What You Wish by Jacqueline Adams
One Good Turn Deserves Another by Ruth Harper
The Story Slot – April 2010
Stories posted for April 2010. Just scan the menu to find the story you want to read (they’re all in alphabetical order).
Godsent Sweets by M.A. Rasheed
Vanishing Point by Annie Harrison
O Dear, What can the Matter Be? by Olive Day
You and Me by Yvonne Pooley
Bumps in the Night by John Cook
The Story Slot, March 2010
Add colour to your writing: Bougainvillea (The Gambia) Copyright: Janet Cameron
Writing Tip for March:
Editors say that some stories sent to them are well-written but are rejected because they are predictable. Try to create a new spin on your story, or find a fresh angle.
Stories Uploaded for March 2010
The Value of Family by Jacqueline Adams
Time Out by Pam Wilding
Life’s Embarrassing Little Moments by Janet Cameron
Poor Anonymous Dave by Kathy Maclean
DID YOU KNOW?
Some Strange Facts About Famous Thriller Writers
A Very Special Honour
Jurassic Park’s erudite author, the great Michael Crichton, born 1942, has had a recently discovered ‘ankylosaur’ named after him. It’s called the ‘crichtonsaurus bohlini’. Certainly beats having a tea rose named after you!
MichaelCrichton.com
Nice Warm Snails
Patricia Highsmith, thriller and crime writer (1921-1995) had a great fondness for cats and snails and was reported to carry around 100 snails on her person. Her biographer, Andrew Wilson, tells how she smuggled a number of snails into France – under her breasts!
Beautiful Shadow, A Life of Patricia Highsmith by Andrew Wilson (Bloomsbury 2004)
Essex Girl Gets the Push
Ruth Rendell, who also writes as Barbara Vine, was born in 1930. While working for an Essex newspaper, she was asked to write about a Tennis Club Annual Dinner. It would have been fine except that the after-dinner speaker dropped dead in the middle of the speech. As Ms. Rendell hadn’t actually attended, she didn’t have this vital piece of information – and so she got the sack.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Rendell
Thriller Writer of Limited Vision!
Stephen King, thriller writer born in 1947, had a post-graduate health examination in 1970. According to his wife Tabitha writing on his official website, he was graded 4F – with high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet and punctured eardrums. Unable at first to find work as a teacher, he ended up as a labourer at an industrial laundry.
StephenKing.com
Writers Just Have to be Boring
Forty-five year old writer of blockbusters – that’s Harlan Coben. He’s an American and wrote the well-known chiller, Tell No One. On My Space, he says he has no interests. ‘I’m a writer. That means that when you’re having fun with an ‘interest’, part of your brain is scolding you for not writing. Ergo, you have no interest.’
MySpace.com – Harlan Coben
