Yesterday I was driving to work. For some reason I have this unnatural fear of being hit by another car. And as I was thinking about the possibility of this, the phrase "sickening crunch" came to mind. What a magnificant term - how definitive of the feeling and sight and sound of metal meeting metal. But of course, we cannot use that phrase in our writing because, well, because it's so cliched.
This led me to wish that I could come up with a description so profound that in short order writers around the world would shy away from using it because it had been overused. Something as powerful as "vague malaise" or "dog-tired" or "pitch black"--they just say it, don't they?
Please put on your thinking caps--oops, cliche--and see what you can come up with. Then I'll start using it in my writing, get my writing friends to use it in their writing, and before you know it, we won't be able to use it anymore.
Oh to be the inventor of a good cliche.
2 comments:
"Casual precision"
Ran across this in today's N&O's food section. Similar to "vague malaise" in intent, without the rhyme.
A future cliche?
Hmmm, would that expression be a future cliche or a present oxymoron??
Post a Comment