Cliche's That Work
Some days I operate mostly on autopilot.
If I'm still tired from a poor night's sleep, or I have something on my mind, autopilot works fine.
That's what a cliche' is to me, an autopilot, but the experts insist that a writer shouldn't use them.
They insist that when we use cliches our readers go into autopilot.
Personally I like to use snippets of other people's thoughts. One favorite is, 'The time has come,' the Walrus said, To talk of many things:Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax — Of cabbages — and kings —And why the sea is boiling hot — And whether pigs have wings.''
I sometimes repeat that more than once just for emphasis. Copied from "Poetry Foundation,"
I like this one from Hamlet, but I don't use the whole thing at once, only pieces that fit the moment. I begin at: 'To Be or Not To Be, that is the question', and meander into 'To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Hamlet (3.1.64-98)
And if you read the original text from Hamlet you will notice that I cut it up (as only a poor memory can) and cobble it back together. Here is a link to the entire version from poetry foundation (on Hamlet this time)
Shakespeare's—"What's in a name? That which we
call a rose, by any other name would smell as
sweet." is a favorite for quoting. Though I think of Anne of Green Gables after that quote, when Anne says,'I don't know if it were called a skunk cabbage if it would smell the same...'
Funny thoughts. Would a 'rose' smell the same if we called it a skunk cabbage? Words and words are all I have...
