Cliches, cliches and more cliches!!

[solas]

As I edit and revise, the program I use picks up all the cliches in my writing. But I am confused (as always)..."open the door" is a cliche? I mean I can say "he unbolted or unlocked the door" but there really aren't too many options for "open the door". I just read an article and the writer more or less (cliche) said cliches are okay if they "work". A couple of others: "in the middle" and "grey hairs". Okay the last one I could use silver, pewter. etc. but for cripes sake! Feedback please and thank you.

 

[CupofJoe]

For me "open the door" or having "a few grey hairs" are not clichés. They are phrases. Repeating them too often could be a bad thing, but they are not in themselves wrong...
"It was a dark and stormy night and murder was afoot..." now... that's a cliché...

 

[Svrtnsse]

Aye, what CoJ said. Sounds more like your program is being overly sensitive rather than anything else.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

The definition of a cliche is a trite or obvious remark. So, in that light, "open the door" could qualify as a cliche, I suppose. That's extreme though. How many actions are obviously applied to a door? Not many. We knock on doors and open them every day. These aren't literary cliches. They're just simple and expected actions.

The danger of cliches is in the use of common expression or common story elements.

For example, if you employed a metaphor or simile that is a cliche like "cool as a cucumber", this may be a problem. It's unimaginative and gets glossed over by the reader. It's so common it won't engage the reader's mind.

Or, if you wrote a cliche story element, like the farm boy turned chosen one, it may bore many readers. Again, it may not engage the reader's mind as actively as another, less common device.

This isn't to say the use of a cliche can't engage. They can if executed well. These are merely things to be mindful of when writing.

 

[Steerpike]

*waves hand*

These are not the cliches you're looking for.

 

[BWFoster78]

Is it becoming a cliche for us to worry about using too many cliches?

 

[Penpilot]

I have a program that does the same thing. I set it to be overly sensitive. Don't rely on a program to tell you if something belongs or not. The final choice is and will always be yours. My program flags stuff in dialogue but I ignore it because sometime a character will speak a cliche.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Actually "open the door" is or can be a cliche. It can simply refer to someone actually physically opening a door. But people use it in a metaphorical manner as well eg "I'll open the door to further discussion." Use this too often and it becomes cliche. That's what your program has responded to - it isn't able to determine in which fashion the phrase is being used.

Cheers, Greg.