Cliche and Overused Phrases - The Fuzzy Dolphin Forum

Well, but not so much in stories... at least not that I've seen. It's probably one of the most used movie quotes of all time, though. I like to see it parodied.

Girlbrainiac

#5 Mar 17th 2007, 8:09am

"I OBJECT!!"

-Evil wedding scene

They felt a jolt from the simple contact of when their hands touched.

The kiss was electric.

She was blond, with big blue eyes like [the sky, cornflowers, etc, etc]

Her hair was [or raven tresees, hair dark as midnight] and her eyes were [cold green/blue]

#6 Mar 19th 2007, 4:02pm

'And s/he was thrust into a world of [magic, wonder, wars, something like that]'

That's everywhere, I tell ya. EVERYWHERE.

#7 Mar 21st 2007, 3:47pm

a Cornucopia of Love

I second the orbs and framed hair sentences! Man, I hate those!

- "Her raven tresses/locks" (*Looks back* Aw man, someone already got that!)

- Not really a phrase, but describing hair as a "veil".

- Always describing love as "passionate".

- Describing a woman's body as a perfect hourglass shape.

- "He wiped/pushed away a stray lock/strand of hair from his eyes..."

- "Her eyes were the color of emeralds/sapphires/rubies/[name any other gemstone here].."

- "He laughed evily/menacingly."

- "He gave her a[n evil] smirk."

- "Her skin was [a golden] bronze..."

- "Her heart was pure as..."

- "He cocked a [color] eyebrow..."

- "His eyebrows furrowed."

#8 Mar 21st 2007, 7:43pm . Edited Mar 21st 2007, 7:45pm

Rozovian G

Narc's first post reminded me of the only Jaffa (eh, from Stargate) joke I know:

A serpent guard, a Horus guard and a Setesh guard meet on a neutral planet. It is a tense moment.

The serpent guard's eyes glow.

The Horus guard's beak glistens.

The Setesh guard 's nose _drips_.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

#9 Apr 06th 2007, 10:58am

ROFL. I remember that joke. And he starts laughing really hard and everyone looks at him like "That's funny?". Man, I love Stargate...

Hmm...

"strange and mysterious" anything.

"Then, his/her world went black/dark."

#10 Apr 06th 2007, 1:05pm

DudeInHyrule

Oh! I've got two!

"Once upon a time."

"The End."

^_^

#11 Apr 07th 2007, 9:51pm

That reminds me...

'And they all lived happily ever after!'

LOL!

#12 Apr 08th 2007, 9:14pm

Marie Silver

What about:

~ 'He/she rolled his/her eyes' - I see that one everywhere and it drives me mad.

~ '[Insert evil guy] laughed manically'

~Marie Silver~

#13 Apr 16th 2007, 2:25am

I actually use the gemstone eyes one a lot...

Children! Why are children in stories either incredibly stupid or incredibly wise and mature for their age? Why can't they be flawed, like NORMAL CHILDREN IN THE REAL WORLD ARE?

#14 Apr 16th 2007, 4:08pm

Narc

Frankly, that probably has to do with the fact that it's very difficult to write believable normal children unless you spend a lot of time around them. Even when the story's not from that child's POV. Personally, I suck at it, because I have no children of my own nor do I spend a lot of time around them. I had a six-year-old character in my story 'Too Far Gone' (very powerful, but normal personality-wise) and every scene with her was extremely difficult.

Abnormal children are so much easier to write because you don't have to think through the complexities that are the child mind. A child isn't going to interpret things the same way as an adult. You can either make them a complete nitwit, which isn't complex, or make them think like an adult, which is complex but easier for adults to understand.

I'm not saying it excuses the cliche, but just explaining why that's probably the case.

#15 Apr 19th 2007, 9:31am

Sometimes its hard to write a child's POV, sometimes not. You see, as far as I go, I can easily remember what it was like being little. Some people don't. When I was little, I remember interpreting everything literally and having absolute trust in my parents. Not all children would be like that because not all children are the same. Sometimes you have to be careful about making all children the same and yet you still have to write them so that they act like children, not adults.

Going back onto topic, I dislike when somebody uses orbs to describe eyes. Its just...ugh. Your eyes aren't really going to be an orb unless they're hanging from your eyesocket. Besides, its distracting when eye would work so much better. Then again, when I started out writing I was guilty of it myself so, what can I say?

#16 Apr 22nd 2007, 9:08am

"He/she raised an eyebrow."

Okay, I admit to being guilty of this one myself. My point is that, for some people, it is PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to only raise one eyebrow. I'm one of those people myself, lol. Yet almost every character I come across can do it. I'm starting to work on correcting that with my own characters at least, lol.

As for writing from a child's point of view, I think it gets harder as you get further away from that point of view yourself. I remember certain things I did as a child that I can't quite understand, or remember what was going through my head... Like wiping paint on my sister's pound puppies... And then, there are other things I do understand, like tying a string around my cat's neck to "walk" it... (poor thing!)

As for the "orb" thing, I think that people use it in an attempt to mix things up. Using "eye" all the time might get a bit tiresome... We should find better words to describe them.

Which reminds me... "Crystaline" in association with tears.

Girlbrainiac

#17 Apr 22nd 2007, 10:42am

My brother can raise just one eyebrow, then the other, in rapid sucession. It's creepy, very creepy. A lot of my characters do it too so I guess we're both guilty.

Of course, as far as orbs go, I suppose mixing it up is always good. The problem is that I don't think orb is a very good discriptor, it gives the wrong image, it just doesn't seem to fit. For me, at least, it seems to stick out like a sore thumb. In short, IMHO, it's tacky. But that's just me.

#18 Apr 22nd 2007, 1:37pm . Edited Apr 22nd 2007, 1:37pm

I can raise just one eyebrow. Took me years to be able to do it, and it's impossible for me to raise the other one. Like, all you have to do with scowl and then raise your eyebrows as if raising both. But...only one will raise for me...

Kinda freaky. :D

"the world was saved"

Hn. Howabout, you know, the world gets DESTROYED? Lovely plot twist there.

#19 Apr 25th 2007, 5:22pm

Destroy the world? Heresy! How will the impossibly powerful, god-like, beautiful main characters ever be able to have true, mad, passionate, happy love afterwards? We need the next generation of purple-eyed, wavy haired Mary Sues! We need sequels! Neverending sequels! ;) ((Or, you can be like Robert Jordon and never really get around to doing ANYTHING, even something as trivial as saving the world. The main characters are too busy having tea parties))

Actually, I have a softspot for happy endings. I enjoy the feeling of satisfaction I get from it.

The thing is it can be said that another cliche that "the hero always prevails" and that's not neccasarily true. Its actually just that authors tend to focus the POV on the characters that are going to win. And, to me, that's not bad since I get annoyed when I have to put so much effort into a character only to get back an unsatisfactory ending.

Then again, cliches are around for a reason. People like them. Sometimes cliches are only around because writers like them (ie Mary Sue characters) and everyone else hates them.

#20 Apr 25th 2007, 5:51pm . Edited Apr 25th 2007, 5:55pm

Spirithunter

Hn. Howabout, you know, the world gets DESTROYED? Lovely plot twist there.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! That is such an awesome book.

I agree with the Robert Jordan thing. He's already written what, 11 books? And long, drawling ones at that. I never got past the first half of book 2 because 1) things were kinda slow and I really don't feel like reading eleven books that take me 2-3 weeks to read and 2) my obsessed friends have already told me pretty much everything about them, so nothing's a surprise. The whole Eye of the World thing is really random...

Someone should write a story about someone who's accompanying the one who's supposed to save the world. I have yet to see a story like that. If you know of any stories like that let me know.

#21 Apr 26th 2007, 3:12pm

Rozovian G

Yeah, Hitchhiker, the book, is great, funnier than the movie. I was kind'a bugged at the book's ending, tho, but at least it wasn't a cliché. Unfortunately, it's quite anticlimactic.

I saw War of the Worlds the summer it was in theatres (at least, I saw it in a theatre, not as sure about the summer). I trust most have seen it by now, so I'll spoil the ending. Just, scroll away if you don't want to read the **SPOILER** At the end of the movie, I was quite disappointed. I had long been annoyed with the fact that stories are all about heroes and people responsible for making the world a better place by destroying some big bad evil, instead of being about ordinary people who just try to survive the atrocities, maybe do some good somewhere, but mainly just try to survive. And then I saw WotW and was disapppointed because I had been hoping for a story about a hero, and it turns out that although the main characters do survive, it just never felt heroic - despite out dear protagonist sending grenades into the belly of the beast, and pointing out the absense of shields near the end; despite that he saved his daughter from the big bad people-to-fertilizer-machine. The thing is, we want heroes.

That doesn't mean that we should always write about the heroes. Most heroes just don't survive, or get noticed. Spirithunter's idea of writing about the hero's sidekick, or tag-along, is a great one. I had an idea of the same type myself, where the story would follow the older brother of the "chosen one". While the kid is juggling clichés, his brother is trying to find him and save him from whatever grim fate I as an author choose to use.

The problem is, we want heroes so bad that it's difficult not to make our beloved characters heroes. When they do become heroes, the story tends to be roughly the same: save the world. We write, and we invent characters we love. We love them, and want them to be important. We make them important, and all of a sudden, they're in the middle of the saving of the world. They've become heroes.

Any writer having written some kind of adventure should recognize this. As for me, all I can say is: Oops, I did it again. They're saving the world again. Dangit.

#22 Apr 26th 2007, 3:54pm

Heehee. Yep. Have to agree with you, Rozovian, on the point of people wanting heroes... Still, there are several ways to be heroic without "Saving the World" or affecting anyone besides a few people and yourself...

Personally, I like books that take an unconventional look at what heroism really is... I'd like to read about one man's struggle to survive in a hostile landscape, a woman who saves her children and herself from harm, a fugitive struggling to escape the harsh sentence awaiting him... All those good stories from literature that are never set in a fantastic place... Not every hero need be prophesied. Not every hero need affect the whole nation. For once, could we have a hero that doesn't become widely famed?

Girlbrainiac

#23 Apr 26th 2007, 6:50pm

LandUnderWave

Though, really, I would like to write/read a story where the Hero of Good LOSES...and the bad guy, who's winning is supposed to destroy the world, will actually do that. But all the people get crowded off to something like a cross between the afterlife and Elfland. I can see the villain offering the dead good guy a drink... *coughs* Forgive a girl the occasional cliche-ridden dream?

Oh, and I hope you don't mind me recommending a book where the narrator's the hero's sidekick. (Sorta.) Eric Flint's 'The Philosophical Strangler'. I love that book!

I tried to read War of the Worlds once. Well, listen to it actually. I kept tuning it out. Couldn't tell you what happened except for the few times I made myself actually listen to it...

Lilz

#24 Apr 28th 2007, 5:10am

RainingStars170

Here's one I use, and many others as well, ALL THE TIME.

"His/her eyes flashed." And what about the famous...

"AHHHHHRRRRG!" I can never read screams, they just annoy me.

A lot of cliche phrases don't always annoy me, some of them are very appropriate and beautiful.

#25 Apr 29th 2007, 1:33pm

"What's that supposed to mean?" You know what it means. You're not an idiot.

"[A comment followed by the name of the person we are addressing]". Really, we only use people's names when we're greeting them or when there's a possibility they wouldnt know we are adressing them. I see so many names in fiction. How many times in normal speech do you over and over use the name of the person you're talking to?

"An adventure like no other." "And his world will be changed/was changed forever." I see these two phrases so much. So much. It's like a tag line that lets you know the rest of the book is just as recycled.

And BTW I can raise my eyebrow, but I can't snap my fingers. And I only use written screams VERY RARELY, when I feel that there's simply no other way to express the noise I hear in my head :D

#26 Jun 01st 2007, 9:09am

Miriam Doyle

How about:

"His world was turned upside down."

(in stories involving cute animals, usually exclaimed by annoying bubbly seven year olds) "Can we keep him, daddy? Can we keep him, PLEASE?"

"Why ME?"

"Oh, you don't say?" (used in desperation by an author who has run out of sarcastic things for his grumpy character to say)

#27 Jun 09th 2007, 10:58am

Spirithunter

Don't forget the classic "Why didn't you tell me?!"

#28 Jun 09th 2007, 11:16am

"Streams of Moon light..." While I think it's a beautiful effect in art, it just dosn't work on books, unless there's all sorts of trees or something.

"flowing [incert article of clothing here]" Ok, while I'm quite guilty of this one, flowing gets sort of old sometimes. When can she just be wearing a dress on a windy day, instead of it always 'flowing' or 'dancing'?

While some people don't like the hero to be triumpth, nobody likes the stories where they loose. War of the Worlds (the new one at least, never seen the old one) is a great example (though, I still kind the very, very ending interesting.) No one likes to see a character struggle, then fall, die, and have his attempts in vein. However, very few people like to see the hero win completely. So, I think most great works are where people sort of win, sort of loose.

Like, La Vita E Bella (Life is Beautiful), the movie. Oh god, that has the most touching/sad ending I've ever seen. But, the hero sort of wins, sort of loses, depending who you ask, and what you would call winning. I won't say what happens in the end, so you have to go to the forgin film section and rent it yourselves (sorry, tried youtube, but people've only uploaded the funny parts.)

#29 Jun 09th 2007, 5:06pm . Edited Jun 09th 2007, 5:11pm

writergurlLW

"She was as beautiful as an angel". That qoute is used often, and I'm guilty of it. I can't think of anything else.

#30 Jun 21st 2007, 12:58pm

Miriam Doyle

"You can say that again."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"She had long raven tresses,"

"We're all gonna die!"

"Don't worry about me! Save yourselves!"

Any phrase which compares someone's eyes to a precious jewel, like "large sapphires," "glittering emeralds," and, "chunks of ruby."

#31 Jun 22nd 2007, 12:24pm

Any phrase which compares someone's eyes to a precious jewel, like "large sapphires," "glittering emeralds," and, "chunks of ruby."

Oh ick. You're right. That's just tacky. It's almost as tacky as calling eyes orbs. It'd be even tackier if orbs and precious jewel descriptions were used in the same sentence. Now, that is shudder worthy.

She gazed out the window.

Well, there's only so many things you can do with a window.

#32 Jun 26th 2007, 8:28pm . Edited Jun 26th 2007, 8:29pm

"You can say that again."

Actually, I use that one often in my day to day speech. More so weekly, about as much as I say, "Oh, really?" and "That's too bad."

And, I think we've hammered the eyes-gems thing to death by now. No, really, it's stopped twitching, it's brains are all over the mallet, it's pretty dead to me.

#33 Jun 28th 2007, 5:18pm

Actually, you can also jump out a window, or throw someone through it, or... use it to destroy the world.

Has anybody already mentioned using Japanese names when teh setting is Tolkien?

#34 Jul 08th 2007, 6:07am

Think it's been mentioned on the cliche list. Personally, I have very few problems with Japanese sounding names in a Tolkien-like setting, only so long as the names are all consistent with each other, or for where the character is from. (What truly irks me about the people that do that is not the names of the characters, but how there is very little attempt to make things feel right when their character does have a different type of name.)

For me, personally, I like to assign different types of vowel sounds, common names, or naming traditions to the different regions of my world.

The Notheast, for example, has common surnames like O'Kandrella, O'Drennel, Edren, Harker, Handel... Rather common sounding English or Irish sounding names. The same goes for first names: Jean, John, Jacob, Joshua, Mark, Matthew, Edward...

The Southern desert has eastern sounding names. The Middle lands have weirder made-up names for first names (Arylan, Falanyl, Kendrick), and last names like Highwater, Clearwater, Sandwind, Windstorm, etc.

Basically, I'm just saying, make your names consistent.

Girlbrainiac

#35 Jul 08th 2007, 11:51am

The Villain:

Why you little...!

*manic laughter*

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

#36 Aug 03rd 2007, 9:18pm

RainingStars170

Why hasn't anyone brought up;

"I have a bad feeling about this."

#37 Aug 04th 2007, 10:03am

writergurlLW

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that yet. It is used alot to the point that we already know that when that statement is being said, something bad is bound to happen.

~WriterGurlLW

#38 Aug 04th 2007, 11:41am

Lefty the Right-Handed Shark

Eh, I've never been annoyed by that term. Maybe because it's like inserting suspense music with words to me.

#39 Aug 05th 2007, 8:45pm

To me it's more like reusing the same suspense music over and over again and I want somebody to compose a different score. Besides, it's not that subtle.

#40 Aug 08th 2007, 11:11am

Perhaps what someone should do is USE that term, but not have anything happen. The reader will get suspicious, most likely, and be a little more jumpy so that when something shocking finally does happen, it WILL be a shock.

Just a theory.

#41 Aug 08th 2007, 4:58pm

Hehe. Terry Pratchett used that quite well for humor's sake in his book "Maskerade". Every time someone looked up at the chandelier hanging in the Opera house someone would note how unsteady it looked. Something like "That doesn't look too stable..." or "One good shake would send it crashing down..." All through the book.

At the end, even though the rope holding it aloft had been sawed halfway through, it NEVER FELL. Just a way one can use overly overt foreshadowing for humor.

Girlbrainiac

#42 Aug 11th 2007, 3:29pm

"I'll get you for this [insert hero's name]!!"

Often accompanied by the shaking of an angry fist or a red face.

One of these days, he really WILL get you for that...

#43 Aug 16th 2007, 5:14pm