My Thoughts · Writing

National Cliché Day: What’s That?

Larada Horner-Miller
Scramble Blocks - Cliché

I grew up with parents who loved a familiar cliché. I bet you’ve heard one today from someone in your family or a football announcer. What is a cliché and why are authors warned against them?

Definition of Cliché

“A cliché is a tired, stale phrase or idiom that, because of overuse, has lost its impact.”

https://prowritingaid.com/cliche

Writers who use cliches are accused of having a lack of original thought, and I have been warned against them vehemently!

Think About Things Differently - Cliché

Nevertheless, We hear cliches every day because they’re rooted in our culture. Here’s some you might recognize.

Familiar Cliches

  • read between the lines
  • play your cards right
  • it’s an uphill battle
  • better safe than sorry
  • you can’t judge a book by its cover
  • bring to the table
  • low-hanging fruit
  • the grass is always greener on the other side
  • ignorance is bliss

https://prowritingaid.com/list-of-cliches

I avoid cliches in my writing because of stark warning against them, but in my research today, I found this.

Three Times Authors Can Use Cliches

1. To sync with a readership. Clichés of idiomatic phrases and slang words can work for specific audiences. If you’re writing for a baby boomer audience, the cliché “back in the day” would make sense. By contrast, millennial readers would be familiar with the cliché “the struggle is real.”

2. To simplify. Clichés can be used to explain beginning level concepts. For example, a how-to guide for expectant mothers might use the phrase “Remember, you’re eating for two!”

3. For characterization. Writers might have a character use clichés to demonstrate that they are not an original thinker.

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/writing-101-what-is-a-cliche-learn-when-to-use-cliches-in-writing-and-20-common-cliches-all-writers-should-avoid

My dad, an old cowboy, had many cliches he liked, but my favorite is “it’s raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock.” Obviously that’s a rancher’s cliché and not used in everyday language in the city! My mom had a couple cliches she repeated: a pinch to grow an inch and you’re cruisin’ for a bruisin.’

Finally,

If you’re still wondering what a cliche is, think outside the box, grab the bull by the horns, it goes without saying, there are plenty of more fish in the sea. At the end of the day, check your language. I’ve got my plate full with all my writing commitments, but today I realize, every cloud has a silver lining. And we’re quite a team—there’s no “I” in team. How many cliches did I just use? What’s your favorite cliché? How about your family? Does anyone have favorite cliches they use regularly? In reality, they’re just a part of our culture, so celebrate this national day. I just have to be careful in my writing and use them wisely!

Podcasts & My Interviews

Buy My Audio Books:

This Tumbleweed Landed

This Tumbleweed Landed audiobook cover

Let Me Tell You a Story 

Let Me Tell You a Story audiobook cover

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir audiobook cover

Published by Larada Horner-Miller

Larada Horner-Miller is a poet, essayist and accomplished multi-genre author who holds a bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in Spanish and a master of education degree in Integrating Technology into the Classroom. She is the accomplished author of eight award-winning biographies, historical fiction, memoir, and poetry works and three audiobook’s plus three self-published cookbooks. Her most recent book, Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry is a finalist in the Global Book Awards. As is our book released last year, Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir. Horner-Miller has also been a past national presenter at the Women Writing the West Conference and is currently the creator of Memoir Workshops for others who want to share their family’s legacies through words. Larada and her husband, Lin, enjoy being nestled in the mountains above Albuquerque, New Mexico, near the village of Tijeras. When not writing books, this passionate, energetic, and enthusiastic woman loves to spend time kicking up her heels at square dancing gatherings, traveling, knitting, and reading. As co-manager of her family’s southeastern Colorado ranch, she enjoys spending time exploring her family’s historic ranch and reminiscing with her brother and his children about their mom, dad, and granddad.

2 thoughts on “National Cliché Day: What’s That?”

  1. RE: “We hear cliches every day because they’re rooted in our culture. Here’s some you might recognize… ignorance is bliss”

    Ignorance of lies and deceptions (=most mainstream news and establishment decrees) is bliss because exposing yourself to that is self-propagandization.

    Ignorance of truths is not, or only temporarily or rarely, bliss because it is ultimately self-defeating …. https://johnmichaeldemarco.com/15-reasons-why-ignorance-is-not-bliss

    The FALSE mantra of “ignorance is bliss”, promoted in the latter sense, is a product of a fake sick culture that has indoctrinated its “dumbed down” (therefore TRULY ignorant, therefore easy to control) people with many such manipulative slogans. Eg…

    ““We’re all in this together” is a tribal maxim. Even there, it’s a con, because the tribal leaders use it to enforce loyalty and submission. … The unity of compliance.” — Jon Rappoport, Investigative Journalist

    You can find the proof that ignorance is hardly ever bliss (and if so only superficial temporary fake bliss), and how you get to buy into this lie (and other self-defeating lies), in the article “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room –The Holocaustal Covid-19 Coronavirus Madness: A Sociological Perspective & Historical Assessment Of The Covid “Phenomenon”” … https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html

    “Separate what you know from what you THINK you know.” — Unknown

    “If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t there more happy people?” — John Mitchinson

    “Repeating what others say and think is not being awake. Humans have been sold many lies…God, Jesus, Democracy, Money, Education, etc. If you haven’t explored your beliefs about life, then you are not awake.” — E.J. Doyle, songwriter

    Reply

Hey, there! I would love to hear from you!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.