Tighten Up: Cut the Clichés

Remember the song “Tighten Up” by the R&B group Archie Bell & the Drells, a 1968 #1 hit? Those of us “of a certain age” do. Fast forward to a recent day when I woke up thinking about that song and its connection to writing. What connection? A major challenge to our imaginations referred to as cutting out lazy writing. What can we tighten up and cut? Let’s start with clichés.

Cut Clichés

Tighten up writing by banishing clichés—those overused and overworked words or phrases we’ve heard so many times they seem hardwired into our vocabulary. Examples: “Dry as a bone,” “In the heat of the moment,” and “Old as the hills.” Besides phrases, there are one-word clichés, too, at least in my opinion. One is “amazing,” perhaps the most over-used word in blogs, twitter feeds, even newspaper articles. Let’s pour some de-greaser down our writerly cliché-clogged drains and open our creative flow. Let’s find new ways of saying the same old things. Oops. I just realized I use “the same old things” too often and once it is in the grips of the cliché catcher, it deserves the tighten up knife. Just like “a long story short.” What are your downfalls, your clichés? What is a cliché, anyway?

Merriam-Webster – Clichés 101

Definition of cliché:

1. a trite phrase or expression, also: the idea expressed by it
2. a hackneyed theme, characterization, or situation
3. something (such as a menu item) that has become overly familiar or commonplace

Cliché catcher

I already mentioned “Old as the hills.” Another, as I’m feeling older and ready to flip the calendar to 2019, is “Time flies!” Oops. Where’s that cliché-catcher? Often, we are lucky when we find friends to read our work and act as our personal cliché catchers. That’s one value of writers’ groups or long-distance writer-pals. Even book clubs.

This month, my book club is reading Only to Sleep (2018), a novel by Lawrence Osborne that features an aging detective, Philip Marlowe. Osborne, to his credit, has not used, “old as the hills” in his story, but he describes Marlowe as “old man” repeatedly. That description is getting on my nerves. But I digress …

Alternative to “old man”

I know to avoid, “older than dirt,” but what is an original substitute? Maybe we don’t need an alternative phrase, just an alternative approach. One way of showing a character’s advanced age is to have the character do something that shows he or she is, like Marlowe, past seventy. Marlowe is often in hotel bars. Rather than having Marlow lean on the bar to drink his gin and tonic, to his credit Osborne has Marlowe sit at a table because it’s easier than climbing up on a barstool. And he adds something else.

Do the Tighten Up

To show Marlowe’s coping with age-related physical limitations, Osborne gives Marlowe a cane. It’s genius, really, because the cane not only helps Marlowe keep his balance, hike rocky inclines, and push open doors, it also adds another dimension to the story. Spoiler alert: hidden in the cane’s handle is a knife—a feature that helps low-key Marlowe compensate for his shaky legs and gain an advantage over unsuspecting adversaries.

This year, let’s enliven our stories by identifying and cutting out overused phrases and ideas that sneak into our work. Now, take a moment and listen to Archie and his friends sing their catchy song at the link below. I hope it helps you remember to “Do the Tighten Up” and think, “Cut clichés!”