3 Steps to Avoid Hack Topics & Clichés in Writing (A Warning for Writers)
The last thing any writer wants is for someone to think we aren’t original, or that we’re recycling commonly used phrases and ideas, right? So how do you avoid recycling other people’s writing, whether it’s a plot premise or a turn of phrase? How do you avoid hack topics and cliches? Today, I’m going to share 3 strategies to make sure you’re leaning into your own originality.
Whenever I hear a writing rule I ask why? I’m very skeptical of writing rules, because, for years, I was tyrannized by them.
Most writing rules I think are nonsense—or, at least, they need caveats. “Show, don’t tell,” for example, I have so many issues with. I talk about it all the time in my writing program.
But that’s not for today’s post. Today’s post is about avoiding hack ideas and cliches.
So yes, whenever I hear a writing rule, I ask myself, why? What’s the reason behind this rule?
A “hack idea” I think of as a literary trope: something overdone.
And a cliche is an overused phrase.
Like: she fell head over heels.
He couldn’t believe his eyes.
It went in one ear and out the other.
The reason not to use cliches and literary tropes, or hack ideas, is that, when we hear something over and over, it loses its power…and, for most creative writing, the whole point of writing is for the reader to see/hear/feel something transformative.
It’s also a little bit lazy for a writer to do.
It’s like outsourcing your one job—to write. Like if you were hired make someone a cake, and instead of making it, you just gave them a cake someone else had baked.
All of this said, we tell the same stories over and over again. I’ve heard it said that there are really only seven stories, and every possible story is one of them.
So what’s the difference between telling an archetypal story and being unoriginal, or tropey? And how do you avoid cliches?
Here’s how.
Key #1: Actually write.
I don’t mean to be too sassy with this one—but I do mean to be a little bit sassy.
Remember the analogy I just made about the person hired to bake a cake?
Don’t be her.
You know what cliches are—it’s something you’ve heard over and over.
Once upon a time.
Happily ever after.
He stopped dead in his tracks.
You know when you write these phrases, that you didn’t invent them. These strings of words did not come out of your head.
So…do better. Be original.
We all use cliches sometimes. But when you catch yourself, swap them out. And if you genuinely aren’t sure if something is cliche, well, then, it’s probably not. And if it is, at some point, someone will point it out to you, so don’t worry about that one for now.
Remember: you’re a writer, and a writer finds a way of describing something that isn’t just repeating the same thing everyone else says.
Again, we do this because we want to reader to experience the story we’re telling.
In trying to figure out the right details to use, ask: what does this actually feel/smell like to me? If you’re not living it, close your eyes and try to remember.
One or two really good details beats 20 mediocre ones any day—I tell writers in my program this all the time. Just a couple of really great details can do the work of a dozen mediocre ones.
There is an exception to this tip to avoid cliches—and that exception is: dialogue.
Dialogue consists of words spoken by your characters themselves. For dialogue, our primary rule is: would this character say this?
If the answer is yes, this is exactly how this character speaks, then it’s fine.
So if a character speaks in cliches, the cliches can go in.
But just be sure to ask—would this character speak this way?
Not everyone speaks in cliches…most of us don’t. But some people actually do. It’s kind of funny, too. I have a friend who speaks in cliches a lot. He doesn’t realize he’s doing it, saying things like, she means the world to me, and I find it very endearing.
But outside of dialogue, you don’t want the narrative writing that you’re doing to have many, or any, cliches.
Key #2: Be specific
The uniqueness of your story lies in the specifics.
Specific details that you invent or share from your own life, if you’re writing nonfiction, can never be cliche—because they truly did come out of your brain.
If someone else happens to come up with a similar idea, who cares? It’ll feel different because yours is yours…if there are enough specifics.
Every few months, a writer in my program for authors working on their books will come to me in a panic, and say, “Mary, I have an emergency—I found out someone else is publishing a novel with a premise that’s almost just like mine,” or “Someone is writing a memoir, and she’s basically me!”
I calm them by reminding them that there’s no identical story. Even if premises are the same, the execution will be different.
It can also be a good sign if someone has sold a book like yours to a publisher—it means there’s a market for it!
Key #3: Bring your heart to it
You showing up emotionally as the writer is what makes it feel true, and true things don’t seem hackneyed or cliche.
Because they aren’t hackneyed or cliche—they’re real, and it feels like a real person lived them.
By showing up emotionally, I mean feeling something as you write. Even if you’re writing fiction.
I tell the writers I work with that I want them to be feeling something every 2-3 days that they sit down to write. I know that may sound weird. But what I’m trying to say is that you don’t have to feel something every single time you write…sometimes we just have to get words down, make it through a transitional scene, describe a lake house or a ferris wheel.
But at least one-fourth or one-third of the time, we want to be feeling something.
It doesn’t have to make you cry. You don’t have to be seething, or tearful.
But you also don’t want to feel like you’re doing your taxes. That’s too emotionally removed.
When we feel something as we write, it’s much more likely that the reader will be feeling something as they read.
When I was working on my first novel When You Read This, I rewrote it about 10 times over 6 years before someone finally told me this. It was an editor who read and said, you know what, this writing is really close to perfect—she actually said that—but it lacks heart. And if you don’t write with heart, your story won’t find readers.
I was floored.
But I also knew she was right. From then on, I gave myself permission to write with heart, and it changed everything for me.
Ready to write your book?
Speaking of writers I work with—are you writing a book, or want to write a book?
Because if so, I want to talk to you.
When I’m not writing, my mission in life is to help talented writers write their dream books. I love it. I live for it.
Because before I published my novels, I first had to figure out how to write one. It wasn't easy because none of the writing classes I was taking showed me how to actually write a novel. Not until I had a newborn and very little time to write did I come up with a process.
The process worked. I wrote my entire novel during my 8-week maternity leave. Now, I teach it in my program the Book Incubator and it works for dozens of other writers.
If you're curious to know more, I have a free video walking you through my exact process for writing a book. You can get it by clicking below and answering two questions to apply to the program. You get the video whether you join or not—no pressure to enroll.
Just click below to tell me a little bit about you and your book—you can fill out a form online. I’m so excited to hear from you!
