Cliches... Running the Course...

Continuing my perusal of all things cliche, today I have four fresh ones. As a writer, I hear a ton of cliches, but in The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers, there are ones I haven't heard before (and I'm pretty sure a lot of you haven't either).

Grey Eminence: An influential figure in the background. Rogers writes that this saying is based on the life of Francois Leclerc du Tremblay, an adviser to Cardinal Richelieu, who advised King Louis XIII. Francois wasn't famous like the cardinal or the king, but apparently had a lot of unseen influence, akin to the cliche, "behind every successful man is a woman." Reading this my first thought went to Gandalf the Grey- grey in appearance, and a behind-the-scenes guy (at first) in the Lord of the Rings books.

High Dudgeon. I liked the sound of this. It means "a state of considerable anger, resentment or ill humor." I can picture this in a book of high fantasy with knights and swords and treachery. Rogers writes that "dudgeon" means "the hilt of a dagger" and if someone is really ticked, well, you might find him using that dagger against the person who angered them (although the Oxford English Dictionary doesn't agree.

Put the Arm On. This is a complicated way to say arrest, a 'gentler form' according to Rogers, as police officers are considered an 'arm of the law.' It was first used in 1943 by Raymond Chandler when he wrote Lady of the Lake. A second definition is to "borrow money or to ask for a loan." The phrase "putting an arm on him" appeared in the musical Pal Joey by John O'Hara.

Under the Counter. Rogers defines this as something "sold or done surreptitiously; a transaction done somewhat on the sly. The expression arose in World War II when so many storekeepers kept items under the counter for friends or good customers, since so many things were rationed or in short supply."

Photo by Erik Scheel from Pexels

So there you have four more expressions to avoid, although I'm thinking I'll be using  'grey eminence' sometime in my life. It's so old, no one really remembers it, and it was an obscure  British saying, so I think I'd be safe in using it now.

Until next week,


Char

It's Go Time!

(I'm writing this blog on an old dinosaur computer, so forgive me if there are no pretties or I don't respond to comments right away...)



Are you ready? Time to edit! Cut! Revise! Throw out! Scrap! Cross out!

And bleed a little.. (ink...)

I thought the following article on words that should be banned was perfect. (I was going to say 'spot on' but that's become a cliché.) Go here to see Lake Superior University's picks for words we all now hate (but too many people still use).  After your chuckle, make a note to check your manuscript for these types of words; they're overused, slangy, and usually incorrect or non-existent if you subscribe to the Oxford English Dictionary (although some of their entries leave me scratching me head. Just because a lot of people use it doesn't make it a valid word in my mind, but that's another blog.).

And, here are a few more resources to help you edit:

5 Editors Tackle the 12 Fatal Flaws of Fiction Writing by C.S. Lakin

Showing and Telling in Fiction by Marcy Kennedy

Revision and Self Editing for Publication by James Scott Bell


And to add to your already long list of Things to Look For:

Tension- Is it there, do you have enough, is it sustained?

Genre- is it the right one? Are adults telling your YA story?

World building- can people believe that your fantasy world, whether sci fi, folktale, historical, magical, etc. is real by the details you provide or are we asked to just 'believe?'

Because my laptop is on the critical list, I'll be working on a printed out draft that has already been marked up (this should be fun). I know of one critical flaw- that runs through the entire book (yeah, why didn't I see that coming?) so I know it's going to be a long, agonizing, hair-pulling job. But we're in this together, right?

Going by the NaNoWriMo guidelines, if our book is 50,000 words, we would need to edit about 1,724 words a day (Luckily this is a leap year and we have 29 days.) That is roughly 7 pages a day to finish by the 29th. (This might or might not be harder than writing 7 pages a day....)

So good luck! Don't fret! It'll all work out! And you HAVE TO DO THIS, so no backing out. Even if you don't finish by the 29th, KEEP GOING.

And let's cheer each other along.

Char 

Image courtesy of Google Images

That's Hot! No, I Mean Cool. Or Is It Bad?

In generic terms, they all mean good. They're slang, of course, but they've come to be accepted in general English use.

The problem with slang is that it's ever evolving. (I'm still not sure what 'phat' means...). The other day someone on Twitter asked, "Is 'badassery' a word?" I replied she should check out the Oxford English Dictionary, the bible of the English language.

Yep, badassery is a word.

She was thrilled because now she is justified in using the word (wonder if it'll make the copyeditor's cuts...) and it's obviously recognized enough that people should know the meaning. This is one of the few which I think is self explanatory. 'Phat' is not.

Slang- love it or hate it, it's unavoidable.

'Fo' shizzle.'

Char