Cliches

Do you speak using cliches? You might think the answer is “no” but what if I told you there are as many as 681? These are things we say often without really recognizing that we are using cliches. Because we have heard them our whole lives they come so naturally in our speech that we hardly give them a thought.

A fellow blogger, Christine Goodnough, gave me a link to the article “Be a Better Blogger” that contains the long list of 681 cliches. You can check it out for yourself at https://www.be-a-better-writer.com/cliches.html According to the list maker, Pearl Luke, we should never use these cliches unless it is intentional to be funny.

I am always interested in becoming a better writer, but I’m not sure that I agree with Luke. While cliches can be lazy and boring it seems to me that we are throwing the baby out with the bathwater if we eschew them all forever. I’m not yanking your chain, in this day and age of information overload it pays to be on your toes, but you can’t believe everything you read.

The same goes for this blog.  🙂

“If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.” John Lennon

Photo by Pixabay

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