One way
of getting a grip on this is through style. It doesn’t have to be unique to
you, but it does need to convey, not just what you want to say, but the spirit
of it too. It’s about developing your natural tendencies and polishing them to
be the best they can be.
Unfortunately there are a few
errors that can get in the way of good style. One example is in the use of
clichés, which have a tendency to deaden style.
Some examples might be:
Leave no stone unturned
The luck of the devil (or the Irish)
What’s done is done
No good crying over spilt milk
Pangs of remorse.
Heartstrings tugged
The silvery light of the moon
He stood stock still
Tears stung her eyes
Her heart pounded
Petite and vivacious
White as snow
Black as coal
Soft as silk (or swansdown)
I’m sure you can think of loads more for yourself. And this
doesn’t mean you can never use them, but if you do, you need to be sure exactly
why you are using them. For instance, perhaps you might use them in dialogue,
maybe to show that a character doesn’t have much education, or is an incurable
romantic (there you are, there’s another one!). This is where the clichés
belong to the character and not the writer.
There are also cliché situations, for instance:
Beginning an novel or short story with someone looking in a mirror
A suicide note on the mantelpiece
Someone dropping a glass (or anything) when they hear bad news.
The story that ends ‘it was all a dream’
And don’t forget cliché characters. These and the cliché
situation are often referred to as ‘tropes’. The usual meaning for trope is an
overdone literary device. Think back to Hollywood movies in the forties. How
many Westerns have a dark-haired, often Hispanic, saloon girl. She’s kind and
well-meaning (the’ tart with the heart of gold’ trope), but usually gets shot
protecting either the hero or the golden-haired heroine. Or the gangster/bandit/highwayman/contract
killer who has a change of heart, but who has to die by the end because we’ve
come to like him and we don’t like to think of him languishing in jail. Up to a
point, these tropes help us identify with the film or book. We’re comfortable,
we know that right will prevail in the end. But haven’t they been done to
death? Don’t we groan when we see it happening all over again?
Here
are some more:
The handsome prince
The body in the wardrobe/deep freeze. (anybody remember Francis
Durbridge?)
Twins brought up apart
The butler did it
Finding a long lost letter
The unloved fat boy
The solitary geek
The femme fatale
The picture/ornament under the sink that turns out to be worth a
fortune
The broken down horse rescued from slaughter that turns out to be a
famous show-jumper (I did that one!).
The country house murder with the final dénouement in the drawing room
(only Agatha Christie can get away with this because she was among the first to
do it).
Crime novels abound with them, as
I know to my cost. How often is the body found by a dog-walker? The trouble is,
that’s very often how it happens in real life. So do it once if you must, but
no more than that.
Fantasy and horror stories also
abound with them: the room suddenly going cold, the dog growling into the
corner, the window bursting open, the
lights suddenly going out… there are people who do this brilliantly, but today
it’s all a bit old hat.
One simple adjective to describe all of the above is
‘corny’. Try not to fall into the trap. This isn’t to say you can’t use clichés
or tropes, but if you do, you need to find some way of making them fresh. Maybe
you can use them but subvert them in some way. Maybe Puss-in-Boots’ feet are
being rubbed raw by the boots and he refuses to walk any further, maybe
Sleeping Beauty is male and is rescued by the princess. Existing examples might
be many of the female characters in George R.R. Martins’ A Song of Ice and
Fire’, where, for instance the little girl Arya Stark, orphaned and abandoned
becomes, first of all, an adept swordswoman and then a trained assassin, while
Brienne of Tarth is a typical ‘knight in shining armour’, displaying all the
knightly values of honour and chivalry, yet is a woman, and mocked for her
knightly attributes by the men around her.
But whatever voice or style you settle on, be sure to make
it so fresh that your reader wants to turn every page. After all, that’s why we
do it.
