Cliché: hump day

Meaning: Wednesday, day mid-week that gets you over the "hump" (example)


Rewrite 1: camel back day
Rewrite 2: road bump day
Rewrite 3: leaf pile day
Rewrite 4: Bell Curve day
Rewrite 5: high jump day
Rewrite 6: leap frog day


Comment: At first I thought of other kinds of humps or bumps or piles you get over, then I thought of obstacles you go over to get to the other side. There are lots of creative ways to say "I'm half way over the week."


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For when you run out of words
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Cliché: get into hot water

Meaning: get into trouble (example)


Rewrite: gulp hot coffee
Rewrite: dive into boiling water
Rewrite: skinny dip in a scalding pool
Rewrite: ride some white water
Rewrite: cross a river at a deep spot


Comment: There are lots of ways to use water as a metaphor for getting into trouble and I've attempted to use some of them here.


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How they might say it at sea

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Cliché: hot enough to fry an egg

Meaning: ambient or surface temperature is extreme


Rewrite 1: hot enough to steam an egg
Rewrite 2: hot enough to fry a burger
Rewrite 3: hot enough to grill a cheese sandwich
Rewrite 4: hot enough to broil a steak
Rewrite 5: hot enough to melt steel
Rewrite 6: so hot you could prep s'mores on the sidewalk!


Comment: It's usually said to indicate how hot a surface is, such as a sidewalk or car hood, but it could also apply to how hot the air is or how hot the day is.


Find me on Twitter to share your rewrites: @a_copywriter
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More about food and drink in speech
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Cliché: happy holidays

Whatever faith or tradition is dear to you, may you experience the joy of this special season. Merry Christmas. Happy Kwanzaa. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Festivus. Although "happy holidays" has become a cliché in many ways, it is always meant to express wishes for a time of joy in a spirit of good will. 


May peace, good will, and joy be yours now and into the coming new year.


Alan Eggleston (Wordsworth) and family
"How to Slay a Cliché"

Cliché: horsing around

Meaning: improper, unruly behavior (example)


Rewrite 1: making like caged monkeys
Rewrite 2: running with the fools
Rewrite 3: bouncing around like cage fighters on sugar
Rewrite 4: careening around like a European road rally driver
Rewrite 5: having a Black Friday freak-out


Comment: I always associated this idiom with playful unruliness, but I can see it getting out-of-hand and becoming more destructive, so I've attempted to treat the various degrees of unruliness here. Feel free to take it to whatever extreme you need to fit your need. 


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A little horse sense with idioms
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Cliché: hook, line, and sinker

Meaning: completely (example)


Rewrite 1: bait, line, and switch
Rewrite 2: site, link, and virus
Rewrite 3: hook, line, and spam
Rewrite 4: text, headline, and disclaimer
Rewrite 5: spine, cover, and pages
Rewrite 6: cereal, box, and special offer


Comment: Although in usage this usually takes on the connotation of "being had," it can also have the more denotative meaning of "getting it all." I tried to cover both here.


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The art of the sell
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Cliché: hit the nail on the head

Meaning: to be exact (example)


Rewrite 1: hit the thumb on the nail
Rewrite 2: slotted the screw square
Rewrite 3: fed the thread through the needle, first try
Rewrite 4: pinned the tail on the donkey square on the ass
Rewrite 5: walked a line so fine even a tailor couldn't stitch cleaner




Comment: This one was a challenge, thinking of other ways to express manual exactitude. What did I miss?


If you're ever on Twitter, stop by and say hello: @a_copywriter
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Making it easier to talk carpentry metaphors
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Cliché: hit the hay, to

Meaning: go to bed (example)


Rewrite 1: hit the bale
Rewrite 2: hit the mattress
Rewrite 3: cuddle with the pillows
Rewrite 4: ruffle the linens
Rewrite 5: snuggle in z's
Rewrite 6: join the bed buds


Comment: I went for more colloquial wording here.


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Write more picturesquely
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Cliché: hit below the belt, to

Meaning: hurtful, unfair hit (example 1, example 2)


Rewrite 1: going for the groin
Rewrite 2: nuking the no-hit zone
Rewrite 3: knock-out punch between the side pockets
Rewrite 4: aiming for the target of last resort
Rewrite 5: landing one that will make everyone wince 


Comment: This interpretation favors the end-product or area versus the intention. How would you rewrite it differently to suggest someone is intentionally dealing unfairly?


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How to play fair in everyday living

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Cliché: the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing

Meaning: lack of coordination (example)


Rewrite 1: the left hand and right hand refuse to shake
Rewrite 2: the left hand and right hand aren't talking
Rewrite 3: the left hand is signing Latin, the right hand is signing Greek
Rewrite 4: the left hand is lost and the right hand won't ask for directions
Rewrite 5: the left side of the brain doesn't know what the right side of the brain is thinking
Rewrite 6: the cows don't know what the horses are doing



Comment: The last one kind of comes out of left field, but I wanted something different that still illustrated the point.

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Bringing the hands together

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Cliché: his bark is worse than his bite

Meaning: not as big a threat as they sound (example 1, example 2)


Rewrite 1: its growl is worse than its pounce
Rewrite 2: his scream is worse than his karate chop
Rewrite 3: her silence is worse than her slap
Rewrite 4: her threat is worse than her payback
Rewrite 5: the "crack" is worse than the wound


Comment: This covers a wide assortment of situations, evolving from a dog, to a cat, to a Ninja, to a scorned woman, to an angered competitor, to a gun.


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(book reference removed)

Cliché: hindsight is 20-20

Meaning: better seen after the fact (example) 


Rewrite 1: rear-view vision is 20-20
Rewrite 2: hindsight is keener vision
Rewrite 3: foreseen with perfect hindsight
Rewrite 4: seen with the precision of past experience
Rewrite 5: this time you'd do it with prescience
Rewrite 6: rose tinted glasses have nothing on lenses calibrated for the past

Comment: This one was immeasurably harder to rewrite than I imagined. How would you rewrite it?


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Revising fiction
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Cliché: highway robbery

Meaning: overly high fees (example 1, example 2)


Rewrite 1: bank mugging
Rewrite 2: credit card hold-up
Rewrite 3: middle class jacking
Rewrite 4: desperation taxation
Rewrite 5: economic pickpocketing


Comment: Rather than trying to parallel each part of the original terms as I often do, this time I tried to stay true to the sense of the whole idiom and recast that.


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More about writing and money

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Cliché: high maintenance

Meaning: needs a lot of care/attention (example 1, example 2)


Rewrite 1: High steady-state rate
Rewrite 2: High keeping-up-with-the-Joneses mantra
Rewrite 3: Max-out-the-cards care
Rewrite 4: Major wallet-drain pain
Rewrite 5: 24-karat spending habit 


Comment: At first, I had trouble with this one. I was on the verge of putting it off for another time, when I suddenly found my stride. 


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Learn about high-maintenance relationships
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Cliché: high as a kite

Meaning:  intoxicated (example)



Rewrite 1: High as a crop duster
Rewrite 2: High as a loon
Rewrite 3: Tumbling in the clouds
Rewrite 4: Partying past Everest
Rewrite 5: Flying with the Shuttle


Comment: I tried to give some sense of the euphoria of intoxication accompanied with a sense of being above board. Some of it has a double entendre nature to it. How would you rewrite or recast this cliché and keep its dual nature? 


Feel free to discuss this on Twitter, too: @a_copywriter
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More double entendres
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Cliché: hen pecked

Meaning: males harassed by females (example)


Rewrite 1: sow slopped
Rewrite 2: bitch nipped
Rewrite 3: ewe butted
Rewrite 4: lioness mauled
Rewrite 5: apron whipped


Comment: I tried to stay with the female of the species until the last item, and then I tried to pick up on something that species would do to grapple with one of their own species.


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Life with family animals

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Cliché: heard it through the grapevine

Meaning: gossip, "news" heard from unofficial sources (example 1, example 2)


Rewrite 1: heard it at the watercooler
Rewrite 2: received it on e-mail
Rewrite 3: rd it on txt
Rewrite 4: saw it on Facebook (or Twitter)
Rewrite 5: read it on Drudge
Rewrite 6: Saw it on E!


Comment: Some an updating of "technology" from grapevine to social media.


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Legal ins and outs for writing about entertainment industry
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Cliché: heads up!

Meaning: Be alert, be watchful (example 1, example 2)



Rewrite 1: eyes open!
Rewrite 2: ears piqued!
Rewrite 3: blinders off!
Rewrite 4: on-off switches "on"!
Rewrite 5: plugs in the wall!


Comment: This is generally about keeping alert, being aware, but I thought it might also be about watching out for things we might overlook.

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More idioms to profit by
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Cliché: head over heels

Meaning: excited; turning bodyflips or cartwheels (example)



Rewrite 1: noggin over joggin
Rewrite 2: cap over socks
Rewrite 3: helmet over cleats
Rewrite 4: nose over toes
Rewrite 5: knees over shoulders


Comment: Most of these are just another way of saying the same thing, although I did at least change the general terms and order a bit. It might have been fun to say something more like "knocked into body flips" or "rolling like a Catherine's wheel."


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How the pros write about sports
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Cliché: he's toast

meaning: facing certain defeat (example - be toast) 


Rewrite 1: he's month-old biscuit
Rewrite 2: he's burnt bacon
Rewrite 3: he's melted ice
Rewrite 4: he's overdosed on Tobasco
Rewrite 5: he's past his use-by date


Comment: These all relate to food in different states of disaster. What other metaphors might you explore?


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Women and food
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