A cliché is a phrase, image, or idea that has been so overused that it no longer retains its original impact. Although clichés are often based on emotional or experiential truths, they lose their sharpness due to overuse. Their presence in writing signals a failure of attention, a reach for pre-formed language where something more precise or charged might have been crafted.
To understand what a cliché is, one must recognize that it is not simply being a common phrase. It is a shortcut worn thin. The words may still function grammatically, but their effect has grown stale. The familiarity of a cliché offers ease at the cost of originality.
Writers resort to clichés when language is treated as a tool to transmit a thought, rather than as a medium to shape it. This fatigue in expression reflects a fatigue in perception, where inherited language replaces observation.
What Are Clichés in Writing?
Clichés in writing often take the form of metaphors, similes, idioms, and stock phrases. These include expressions like “time will tell,” “cold as ice,” or “every cloud has a silver lining.” Such phrases once carried vividness. These phrases now serve primarily as placeholders rather than as meaningful constructions.
In narrative fiction, clichés often appear through predictable plots, such as a formulaic Hero’s Journey; through stock characters, like the wise elder or the misunderstood genius; and through settings that rely on overfamiliar motifs, including the small town hiding a dark secret. When these elements are used without reinvention or scrutiny, they flatten rather than enrich the work.
Even fresh ideas can lose force when filtered through tired language. A scene may carry intensity or tension, yet the effect dissipates if shaped with expressions that feel inherited rather than chosen. The problem emerges when a trope is repeated without examination, turning once-vital elements into background noise.
Types of Clichés in Literature
- Plot Clichés: Predictable story arcs, such as the underdog triumphing against all odds or the love triangle resolved at the last minute, can feel formulaic when not reimagined with depth or variation.
- Character Clichés: Flat characters who conform to templates, e.g., the damsel in distress, the bad boy with a soft heart, and the greedy capitalist, risk feeling mechanical. Such figures lack the contradictions and peculiarities that animate memorable fiction.
- Dialogue Clichés: Lines like “Let’s get out of here” or “You just don’t get it, do you?” have become cinematic shorthand. In literature, they tend to register as hollow unless deliberately employed to reflect a character’s lack of originality or depth of thought.
Why Do Clichés Persist?
- Familiarity over precision: Clichés persist because they are easy to reach for. They are the language equivalents of ready-made garments—serviceable, familiar, and unchallenging. Writers may choose them unconsciously, assuming shared meaning without testing whether that meaning remains intact.
- The illusion of universality: Many clichés pose as universal truths. Sayings like “love conquers all” or “what goes around comes around” are used as if they require no elaboration. Yet their supposed universality often masks a lack of engagement with the specific contours of a situation.
- Repetition in cultural scripts: Popular media reinforces certain phrases and scenarios, making them feel natural even when they are conceptually vacant. Writers conditioned by these scripts often internalize their rhythms without questioning them.
Cliché vs. Idiom: Are All Idioms Clichés?
Idioms are established phrases whose meanings cannot be deduced from the literal definitions of their words. “Kick the bucket” means to die; “spill the beans” means to reveal a secret. These phrases are idiomatic but not always clichéd.
When idioms become overly familiar and unthinkingly used, they may cross into cliché. But an idiom in a fresh or ironic context may retain its vitality. The key distinction lies in effect and placement. Cliché dulls; idiom, when used well, can enliven.
How to Avoid Clichés in Writing
- Rephrase through concrete detail: The surest antidote to cliché is specificity. Instead of saying “nerves of steel,” show how a character holds their hand steady while others shake. Replace the general with the particular. Description should arise from observed or imagined experience, not from recycled language.
- Interrogate the first draft: Clichés often appear in early drafts. They often act as rough frames that help the sentence take shape in early drafting. Revision demands their removal. Writers should return to such phrases and ask: Is this the most honest or vivid way to say this?
- Twist the familiar: Some writers subvert clichés by slightly altering them. A familiar phrase might be bent or recontextualized to create dissonance or humor. This strategy works best when the writer is aware of the cliché and uses it knowingly, not passively.
Clichés reflect a reluctance to look closely, to listen for the texture of speech, or to trust language’s capacity for invention. For writers, the task is not to invent entirely new expressions but to speak with care and attentiveness. When language is treated with precision, even the most familiar truths can be restored to clarity.
Further Reading
10 Tips to Avoid Clichés in Writing by Peter Selgin, Writer’s Digest
Are Clichés Actually a Writer’s Best Friend? by Todd Brison, What Makes Great Writing
How to Get Away with Using Cliches in Writing Fiction and Poetry by Erin K. Larson-Burnett, Atmosphere Press
How to Eliminate Clichés to Communicate Clearly and Meaningfully by Ivy B. Grey and Kate Callahan, WordRake
