Wasting Away Again in Tired Ol' Clichéville

[Angie]

I've been reading a ton o' books over the past few weeks, and I think I've exceeded my cliché quota for the next two or three years. Don't get me wrong, I've fallen prey to the evil cliché fairy's machinations, finding multiple instances of worn out descriptions in my own work, many, many times. I have a friend who shrieks in glee every time she comes across one in my work - "you're always busting me, and then here's a bunch in your story!" Well, yeah. Guilty as charged. Which is exactly why I ask others to read stuff before I send it out. I mean, if I could catch 'em and exterminate 'em on my own, I wouldn't need another reader would I?!

But c'mon...what the hell does "stench of death" really smell like? Besides, "sweet" and "metallic," or possibly "rotten." Seriously. I wanna know. Just once I'd like to read a description of what rotting, bloody corpses smell like that's actually visceral and not short hand for "trust me...it's gross and it stinks." Come to think of it, that's more interesting and original than "stench of death."

And do cops eat anything besides pizza when they're working a case in police procedurals? Don't they ever, y'know, just pick up a bucket o' chicken, or get some sandwiches? A burrito, maybe? Hey, I'll even settle for the ever popular take-out Chinese food if it breaks up the pizza parade.

Then there are the stereotypical characters. Mob guy? Must have an Italian last name, or maybe Russian. Um...okay. It works especially well if the only Italian in the story is...a mobster! How about a Canadian mobster? I've always found those shifty Canucks particularly worrisome.

Cop? Anger issues, PTSD, substance abuse (alcohol is a big winner in this category), divorced or busy gettin' busy on the side are all de rigeur and freakin' boring. "Ka-Ra-Zy" bad guy? Hmm, childhood trauma, usually sexual abuse, and either brilliant or quite stupid, not much in the middle ground. Typical "mommy didn't love me, daddy didn't care" stuff, so now s/he is gonna make (somebody) pay. Oh, and don't forget the "psychopath" label. That one makes me extra nuts, because it is not accurate and has become shorthand for "Ka-Ra-Zy" bad guy without actually specifying anything. Yawn.

Now I've got a lot of respect for writers who grab a cliché and then tweak it into something nifty and new - Bruen's Jack Taylor should be a cliché, but isn't even in the same area code, IMO. And I understand the well-chosen (and written) icon. But I'm finding that those tend to be the exceptions rather than the rule. What's up with that?! With tons of words and personalities and plot variations available, why do we trot out the over-used cliché so damn often? 'Cause, y'know, I'm just askin'...

[Bill Peschel]

Great discussion, and I can add to this:

"Just once I'd like to read a description of what rotting, bloody corpses smell like that's actually visceral and not short hand"

I was told "pork barbecue" by a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent at the Harriet Austin writers conference a few years back. Said he couldn't eat it for a year.

If that doesn't inspire you, check out "Never Suck A Dead Man's Hand." It's a memoir by a civilian who worked crime scenes in Baltimore County. It's packed with more disgusting scenes than a Kay Scarpetta.

Now for cliches .....

Yes, they're bad and they should be rooted out. It shows lazy thinking on the part of the author. It shows that you're not in tune to your music, your voice (or, maybe that IS your voice, in which case, God help you).

It's also desperately hard to keep it fresh for 80,000-100,000+ words, so I understand why it's tempting to take the easy way out. Or, you're hitting the drop-dead deadline and you know it's better to get the thing out.

I'm seeing it in my work. I'm rolling out the cliches by the yard where I"m not inserting notes like ***insert great comeback line here***.

And it's difficult to stay true to your "no cliches" rule when you see books like "Unholy Grail" (which I reviewed) and it's JAMMED with cliches. There were sentences I was finishing before I could read them. It takes a special talent to be that consistent.

Then I think of the Patrick O'Brian books (Napoleonic War at sea; think Hornblower novels). Everytime he starts a chapter with the ship at sea, I wondered if he was going to fall into a cliche trap. I mean, how many times can you describe a boat on the water? But over 20 books, I never got that niggle at the back of my neck, that reflexive twinge that hits when the cliche monster rears its head. It helps that he wrote complex sentences in the Jane Austen model, but still, he was an impressive writer.

[I. J. Parker]

O'Brian is great. I also stand in awe, long sentences or not.

I'm not sure that all of Angie's "cliches" are cliches. Sometimes they are shorthand, sometimes they fit the tone of the novel, and sometimes they are just true. The smell of a dead body is probably familiar to everyone. We have all come across rotting animals on hot summer days. And cops not only have stressful lives that produce personal problems, but people often search out professions they find congenial to their personality, good or bad. I'm not troubled by doughnut and pizza-eating cops. Those are very common fast foods.
I do get a little antsy if the girl detective eats nothing but hamburgers, always has an empty refrigerator, always wears sweats and running shoes, runs at least five miles every morning, is way smarter than her cop boyfriend but has him eating out of her hand, and drives a beat-up old car for years.

[Karyn J. Powers]

Sometimes the cliche bridges and elevates the stupidity of the real circumstance of crime. We want our bad man to be crazy because if he just shot his roomate because he was too drunk to remembr if he loaded his gun or not, that cheapens the death. A mad man who took out the youth because the victim, alone, stood in the way of his master plan is more palitable.

The hit and run that was a "scare tactic" that got out of hand reads better than "I was reaching for a kleenix in the back seat." An ethnic/cultural biased organized group of criminals is more acceptable than one that just operates out of greed. A jealous woman who drives 600 miles to threaten a rival for her platonic boyfriend's affections is just a jealous woman (unless she's wearing astronaut diapers.)

Maybe I'm not giving readers enough credit, but cliche is a form of standardized communication. If everybody gets it, the story moves forward.

[Christa M. Miller]

I am going to argue, as a freelancer who has researched this stuff, that statistics (yes I do know the old saw about them!) DO bear out that alcoholism/substance abuse, suicide, PTSD, etc. are higher among police than they are among civilians. So my cop characters do bear those out, but I gave them reasons.

When I was a police cadet many years ago, I saw both cops who were messed up and those who were totally straight, happy guys. Seems to me it was largely generational... the older cops were more likely to have "issues," while the younger ones were more health-conscious, marriage-conscious, etc. I say generational because by now I know a lot of Gen X officers who have been cops for ages and don't have nearly as many issues as the "tweener" (non-Boomer non-X) officers did. Not sure what to think about that, unless of course it's a New England phenomenon!

Robin - "I have to wonder if clichés don't stand out more when the characters and story aren't carrying their weight?" I completely agree with you. It's like any other aspect of fiction - rehashed plots and settings especially. Nothing is truly original, so we'd better make sure that what we do with it is!