How Delightfully Cliché

Today is a good day... to Blog. We've all seen them -- the little, clever phrases that become so popular. "Today is a good day to die," for the macho set, "Who are you and what have you done with..." when someone acts out of character, and, a good one for today's post, "think outside the box."

These little phrases are popular for a reason. They are concise and witty. When I first heard the phrase "24/7" I knew instantly what it meant. No one had to tell me 24 of what. And if you can adopt one of these phrases early enough, you get the added bonus of sounding hip and in tune with the times. Of course we want to use them. But alas, so does everyone else.

Many of these turns of phrase have a limited shelf life. They can date the work in which they are used. Sometimes, that's a good thing. A tale told in the sixties might benefit from words like "groovy." But it's not if you want your tale to be timeless. And be careful of anachronisms. I recently saw the movie The Boat that Rocked. I liked the movie, but I found its use of the phrase "Think outside the box" jarring for a story set in the early days of Rock 'n' Roll. I'm old enough to remember that there really was a time before the box.

Of course, it's harder to be clever on your own. But hey, if good writing was easy, everyone would do it. You'll notice, I trust, the cliché I used in that last sentence. Don't sweat it too much. They are part of our language and can't be avoided entirely. But like everything else, you get the best results when you think about what you are doing.

It's possible to turn a popular phrase around and make it your own. If your story takes place on Jupiter, for example, you can have events going on 10/7.