Cliché: get a life

Meaning: focus on something more worthwhile (example)


Rewrite 1: get a new hobby
Rewrite 2: find a different obsession
Rewrite 3: joust with a different windmill 
Rewrite 4: dude, read a book, play a game, go into a coma, but drop this, okay?
Rewrite 5: Obi-Wan says, "This isn't the cause you were looking for...move along!"


Comment: This cliché is usually a put down, so I rewrote with that in mind.


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Things you wish you'd thought to say or write
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Cliché: big as life

Meaning: large, on a grand scale (example)


Rewrite 1: big as the genetic code
Rewrite 2: big as the biosphere
Rewrite 3: big as the sky and the ground it covers
Rewrite 4: large as the Amazon basin
Rewrite 5: as encompassing as the Yellowstone caldera
Rewrite 6: as grandiose as the Grand Canyon


Comment: To say something is "big as life" (or large as life) is to nearly complete the metaphor. It's hard to find equals to something that already states the case for size or completeness. Therefore, you go for ideas that still get across an immensity of size and scope, depending on the size and scope of the subject. It can be done.


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Learn your way around figures of speech
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