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TJMF Publishing - Open Mike Cafe Editor's Desk Staff Editor Patty Zion |
Part two of the series, Common Errors of Beginning Poets
Trite Writes and Wrongs
How to avoid cliches, generalities, and trite subjects
By Patty Zion
Since people make mistakes, most beginning writers fall into the trap of using cliches, generalities, and trite subjects, despite their love for poetry. Here is a preliminary practice exercise -- can you identify these three pitfalls in the sentence you just read?
fall into the trap - a cliche expression.
love for poetry - a generality.
people make mistakes - a trite subject.
Once we know what these mistakes are, we can address the challenge of banishing them from our poetry. A cliche is an overused expression, for instance, the setting sun, up and coming, cut a rug.
A generality is a wide-scope word or words that take the broad view of a subject. For instance, love, hate, life, happiness, music, nature.
A trite subject is a banal or hackneyed approach to writing. It's the stock viewpoint, the typical way of looking at an issue or story. For instance, people love nature, parents care about their families, kids are cute. While these statements are true, they have been covered so many times, the reader is too accustomed to them. Our fans want more from us - something memorable, something fresh and unspoiled by repetition. We need to present the standard subjects in new ways.
No one is totally free of the tendency to use cliches, generalities, and trite subjects in writing. The reason these weaker methods are so tempting and tantalizing is that we all think this way. Imagine going through one ordinary day without uttering a cliche, for instance. You would have to censor your conversations, your e-mails, and your very thoughts. Cliche is so true, it's also known as truism; it is a part of us.
But that is precisely why we need to avoid using it in our writing. We want the reader to find a first-hand experience in our work. We want to investigate different viewpoints and interesting descriptions, and we cannot achieve these goals when we present only the timeworn banalities that have been spoken thousands of times before.
The first remedy for these nasty criminal mistakes is to be aware that even your own poetry could be harboring some of them. Taking a constant watchful attitude will help you to avoid unwittingly including any of these commonplace style traps in a poem.
Another approach that works is to include all five senses in your work. When you start to show us what the narrator or character is touching, smelling, seeing, tasting, and hearing, it becomes more difficult to use only generalities and cliches. For instance, if you find a reference to love in your poem, you might ask yourself:
What does the narrator physically touch that indicates this love?
What do you hear that tells you love is around you?
What specific aromas and flavors remind you of a forgotten love?
How did your loved one look the last time you were together?
Express these more detailed ideas, and you may not need the word love at all. The love will come to life for the reader without any need for explanation.
Third, refer to objects, not ideas. This, in fact, is the heart of poetry. A poem lives in specific objects - things the reader can see with the inner eye. When words are palpable, they usually escape the generalized style. Find an object that somehow relates to your chosen subject, and draw out every thread of connection. Examine the object from above, below, within, without. Take the object's viewpoint. Move the object to a location where it has never been. Give the object a history. In other words, write the object into something it never was before.
Take a courageous step and investigate some of your existing works with these points foremost in your mind. If you decide to keep a few cliches, generalities, and trite subjects, it will be a conscious choice. And if you get rid of a few, your writing will be one step closer to the, ahem, pinnacle of success!