Reject clichés and first-level creativity .
Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print,” writes George Orwell in “Politics and the English Language.” Using clichés, he argues, is a substitute for
thinking, a form of automatic writing:
“Prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house.”
That last phrase is a fresh image, a model of originality .
The language of the people we write about threatens the good writer at every turn. Nowhere is this truer than in the world of sports. A postgame interview with almost any athlete in any sport produces a
quilt of clichés:
“We fought hard.”
“We stepped up.”
“We just tried to have some fun.”
“We’ll play it one game at a time.”
It’s a miracle that the best sports writers have always been so original. Consider this description by Red Smith of one of baseball’s most famous pitchers:
This was Easter Sunday , 1937, in Vicksburg, Miss. A thick-muscled kid, rather jowly, with a deep dimple in his chin,
slouched out to warm up for the Indians in an exhibition game with the Giants. He had heavy shoulders and big bones and a plowboy’s lumbering gait. His name was Bob Feller and everybody had heard about him.
So what is the original writer to do? When tempted by a tired phrase, such as “white as snow, ” stop writing. Take what the practitioners of natural childbirth call a cleansing breath. Then jot down the old
phrase on a piece of paper . Start scribbling alternatives:
white as snow
white as Snow White
snowy white
gray as city snow
gray as the London sky
white as the Queen of England
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