Meaning: metaphorically, powerful enough to explosively remove clothing
Rewrite 1: knock your boxers off
Rewrite 2: knock your bra off
Rewrite 3: blow the shutters off
Rewrite 4: spin the tires off
Comment: Extend the metaphor to the house or other things.
Check out the searchable alphabetical list of my cliché rewrites with my archived list.
Find books on clichés through my online book store affiliated with Amazon.com. They can help you identify clichés and what they mean.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Cliché: beats picking cotton
Meaning: this is better than menial work
Rewrite 1: It beats pitting olives
Rewrite 2: It beats cleaning sewers
Rewrite 3: It beats stuffing prunes
Rewrite 4: It’s better than dusting road mines
Comment: The use has gotten away from the sense of hot, painful work picking cotton could be to the more mundane, unenviable effort. I’ve extended it even further.
Check out the searchable alphabetical list of my cliché rewrites with the archive list.
Find books on clichés through my online book store affiliated with Amazon.com. They can help you identify clichés and what they mean.
Rewrite 1: It beats pitting olives
Rewrite 2: It beats cleaning sewers
Rewrite 3: It beats stuffing prunes
Rewrite 4: It’s better than dusting road mines
Comment: The use has gotten away from the sense of hot, painful work picking cotton could be to the more mundane, unenviable effort. I’ve extended it even further.
Check out the searchable alphabetical list of my cliché rewrites with the archive list.
Find books on clichés through my online book store affiliated with Amazon.com. They can help you identify clichés and what they mean.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Cliché: the pot calling the kettle black
Meaning: in short, accusations of hypocrisy
Rewrite 1: the fire engine calling the barn red
Rewrite 2: the leopard calling the Dalmatian spotted
Rewrite 3: the emerald calling the coke bottle jaded
Rewrite 4: the yew calling the holly unruly
Rewrite 5: the spiked do calling the beard unkempt
Comment: It's easy enough to pick up the same sense by simply changing colors, but there are many other sense in which this cliche can work and in which you can extend the metaphor for seeing something in another person that you fail to see in yourself.
Check out the searchable alphabetical list of my cliché rewrites with the archive list at the right.
Find books on clichés through my online book store affiliated with Amazon.com. They can help you identify clichés and what they mean.
Rewrite 1: the fire engine calling the barn red
Rewrite 2: the leopard calling the Dalmatian spotted
Rewrite 3: the emerald calling the coke bottle jaded
Rewrite 4: the yew calling the holly unruly
Rewrite 5: the spiked do calling the beard unkempt
Comment: It's easy enough to pick up the same sense by simply changing colors, but there are many other sense in which this cliche can work and in which you can extend the metaphor for seeing something in another person that you fail to see in yourself.
Check out the searchable alphabetical list of my cliché rewrites with the archive list at the right.
Find books on clichés through my online book store affiliated with Amazon.com. They can help you identify clichés and what they mean.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Cliché: in hot water
Meaning: in a lot of trouble
Rewrite 1: in boiling water
Rewrite 2: in raging water
Rewrite 3: in hot soup
Rewrite 4: in tepid waters
Comment: The first rewrite may be an extreme case of being in hot water, so you may want to bring the heat down a notch or wait until things get way out of hand before describing it.
Check out the searchable alphabetical list of my cliché rewrites with the archive list at the right.
Rewrite 1: in boiling water
Rewrite 2: in raging water
Rewrite 3: in hot soup
Rewrite 4: in tepid waters
Comment: The first rewrite may be an extreme case of being in hot water, so you may want to bring the heat down a notch or wait until things get way out of hand before describing it.
Check out the searchable alphabetical list of my cliché rewrites with the archive list at the right.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Cliché: dead as a doornail
Meaning: dead like an inanimate object
Rewrite 1: dead as a paperweight
Rewrite 2: dead as a drill bit
Rewrite 3: dead as a casket
Rewrite 4: alive as an icecycle
Comment: The first two rewrites courtesy of John Shoemaker, a writer and editor in the Greater New York City Area via LinkedIn, the professional networking site, with permission.
John was one of several who responded to a question I posed on LinkedIn, “Do clichés bother you?” Most who answered were very tolerant of clichés and those who use them. Most responders were writers or editors or both. None thought using clichés were the best first option of a writer, but most thought there was a place for using clichés.
What I have attempted to show in this Web log is that as writers and editors we are all better off avoiding clichés, although it is certain there are times when we can’t avoid them or when using them can be an advantage. Better is learning to rewrite or recast the original idea, which I do in each case by example. I think my colleagues agree in principle with that. In that case, the advantage is usually yours.
Check out the searchable alphabetical list of my cliché rewrites with the archive list at the right.
Rewrite 1: dead as a paperweight
Rewrite 2: dead as a drill bit
Rewrite 3: dead as a casket
Rewrite 4: alive as an icecycle
Comment: The first two rewrites courtesy of John Shoemaker, a writer and editor in the Greater New York City Area via LinkedIn, the professional networking site, with permission.
John was one of several who responded to a question I posed on LinkedIn, “Do clichés bother you?” Most who answered were very tolerant of clichés and those who use them. Most responders were writers or editors or both. None thought using clichés were the best first option of a writer, but most thought there was a place for using clichés.
What I have attempted to show in this Web log is that as writers and editors we are all better off avoiding clichés, although it is certain there are times when we can’t avoid them or when using them can be an advantage. Better is learning to rewrite or recast the original idea, which I do in each case by example. I think my colleagues agree in principle with that. In that case, the advantage is usually yours.
Check out the searchable alphabetical list of my cliché rewrites with the archive list at the right.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Cliché: go with the flow
Meaning: be one with the flood
Rewrite 1: move with the crowd
Rewrite 2: wander the path
Rewrite 3: follow the lights
Rewrite 4: stay in the ruts
Comment: This could almost be a plea to not "rock the boat," but its roots are in the 1960s, and it was really a suggestion to go along or play along with whatever was happening at the moment rather than plan and scheme or resist the temptation to play.
Check out the searchable alphabetical list of my cliché rewrites with the archive list at the right.
Rewrite 1: move with the crowd
Rewrite 2: wander the path
Rewrite 3: follow the lights
Rewrite 4: stay in the ruts
Comment: This could almost be a plea to not "rock the boat," but its roots are in the 1960s, and it was really a suggestion to go along or play along with whatever was happening at the moment rather than plan and scheme or resist the temptation to play.
Check out the searchable alphabetical list of my cliché rewrites with the archive list at the right.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Cliché: like a fish out of water
Meaning: something or someone out of their comfort zone
Rewrite 1: like a bird out of the nest
Rewrite 2: like a cow out of the pasture
Rewrite 3: like a horse out of the barn
Rewrite 4: like a dude out of beer
Comment: The last one’s pushing the allusion, but I wanted to take you beyond the animal metaphor.
Check out the searchable alphabetical list of my cliché rewrites with the archive list at the right.
Rewrite 1: like a bird out of the nest
Rewrite 2: like a cow out of the pasture
Rewrite 3: like a horse out of the barn
Rewrite 4: like a dude out of beer
Comment: The last one’s pushing the allusion, but I wanted to take you beyond the animal metaphor.
Check out the searchable alphabetical list of my cliché rewrites with the archive list at the right.
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