According to British novelist, Martin Amis, the effort to create good literature involves engaging in a war against cliches.

Phrases like “the heat was stifling” or “she rummaged through her handbag” kill literature.

Think of cliches that have become novelties in pop culture like:

Amis, who teaches Creative Writing at the University of Manchester, says that these are “heard phrases.” Cliches are “heard writing,” “heard thinking,” “heard feeling.”

Writing isn’t about taking a cliche and rewording it with new synonyms, although many writers do that. Writing is about perspective – being true to what you observe and putting your perceptions into clear, truthful, descriptive words. There are no original ideas, but there are a million new ways of looking at the same old ideas. Good writing is a search for freshness – fresh perspective, having something unique to say.

Writing is not about decorating paragraphs with rumble and glitter. Rather, writing is giving your story song – choosing the words which become the music on which your story will sing.

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