Tone deaf

[ksmith]

This post in janni's LJ triggered something that has bothered me off and on for years. I wonder if I'm tone deaf to cliched writing, or would know a cliche if it reared up and picked my pocket.

Is cliched writing in the eye of the reader? If you read a lot, and in many genres, do you have a more difficult time finding prose that strikes you as evocative or that moves you in some way? Are there cliches that are genre-specific--the romance images of heaving bosom and throbbing manhood come to mind.

If you have a sentence handy that you find cliched, could you please post it in this thread, along with the reason you feel it's a cliche?

Update: The character describing themselves while looking in a mirror or any other type of reflection--I've seen enough complaints about that one, although I admit to having used it before I had heard it was a cliche. Now I make a conscious effort to avoid doing it.

Comments

[kalligraphy.livejournal.com]

The person looking in the mirror may be a cliche', however I think the story arc involving Janni Killian may be impossible to avoid that. Her physical changes involving the hybridization are an important part of who and what she is. It is kind of hard to convey those changes and the effects they are having on her without having some way for her to see those changes and comment on them in the narrative.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

As I said above, I agree with this. Thanks for saying it--it made me feel better. *g*