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

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I also like knowing what characters look like. Descriptions really don't stop the story for me--I tuck the details in my pocket and shoulder on.

In some respects, I am a very uncritical reader.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I like a hint or two, as well. I remember nebulously in the past reading a few books where you get no hint of what the narrator looked like--so of course I made up my own character. And then, suddenly 75% of the way through the book, something happens that tosses me out of the book. We get a descriptive hint, and it's something weird, and nothing about it has shown up so far.

I hate that. It's important, figure out a way to get it in.