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

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Because readers often want to know what a character looks like?

-->I dunno...I don't think that's true at all. I think they want to know if it is somehow important to the story, but otherwise it's just scene-dressing.

Oh, readers want some help--is the character male or female (or neuter or...) is generally at the head of the list. But that is usually inclued quickly.

It's when you get into the nitty gritty like what color hair does the character have. If it's important or somehow part of character (all the Weasleys have red hair), then yes, the author needs to say it. We know Harry Potter has green eyes and dark hair, but is he cute, handsome, or otherwise good-looking? Rowling never says. The main point she ever makes about his face is the scar (which is plot-significant), and that he looks like his father (which is characterization-significant, though also plot-significant in Prisoner of Azkaban).

From what you're saying about your 6-foot-tall woman, it may be that your beta readers are hypersensitive, or it may be that you didn't inclue it right. Not having read it, I can't say. (I will note that the idea of a 6-foot-tall woman would not startle me, but then I am 5' 10" and not the tallest of my female relatives. ;-) Your "High Pockets" reference sounds like exactly the sort of thing to give the hint. I do things like "Mary Lou glared up at her" to inclue a character is tall without ever having to say it in so many words.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

It's when you get into the nitty gritty like what color hair does the character have. If it's important or somehow part of character (all the Weasleys have red hair), then yes, the author needs to say it

On one side of the discussion, I recall the author of one write-that-bestseller book advising writers to keep the description of the protagonist to a minimum in order to allow the reader to project whatever appearance they preferred onto that character. It supposedly helped the reader bond that much more to the book.

That being said, I like some description. I'm a describer myself, very tuned in to features and appearance.