Is Romance cliché?
In a recent wonderful post by Tessa Dare about love and fairy tales, she made a claim that her own work was full of clichéd phrases. I'm here to dispute that. Oh, yes, the occasional cliché can be found in her work. But it is infrequent and deliberately placed.
Hence the inspiration for this blog. Romance writers are not just about clichéd phrases. Witness the opening sentence of Kathleen Woodiwiss's "clichéd" book, The Flame and the Flower:
Somewhere in the world, time no doubt whistled by on taut and widespread wings, but here in the English countryside it plodded slowly, painfully, as if it trod the rutted road that stretched across the moors on blistered feet. Clichéd phrase or fresh writing? I call it fresh.
Here's one of my favorite fresh phrases from one of Tessa Dare's works :
His hand darted out, and he caught the fluttering scrap of white effortlessly, as though it were a dove trained to fly to his hand.
From Courtney Milan:
He drove into her like hard rain falling on a river.
From my own work:
The sound of his name tumbled from her lips like a coin into a well, a golden weight laden with wishes that plummeted straight to his core.
As romance writers I believe we must work even harder than "literary" folks to write fresh. After all, everyone expects us to fall short.
Here are some examples of clichés I'm sorry to say were in my manuscript and had to be cut:
Her mouth formed a perfect "O".
If this was a dream, she didn't want to wake up.
But I still keep a rare cliché when it suits me. Check out the first page of Twist of Fate and you'll be hearing about the hero's "sun-bronzed chest", which replaced "muscled chest", which was just too too cliché for me. Okay, maybe it's the same difference. But Christian's sun-bronzed chest stays until an editor (cross your legs) makes me cut it.
I notice Kathleen Woodiwiss does give her heroine blue eyes the color of sapphires, but it's such a beautiful book, I'm okay with that.
Here's your challenge: Tell us a fresh phrase from your own work, or your cp's work, or an admired author's work, or all of the above. Show us how wonderful romance can be when it's done well. Then fess up. Tell us a cliché you cut from your own work if you dare. :-)
9 comments:
This is my "not cliche":
Finding her earlobe, he nipped it, eliciting a shudder of longing that seemed to make her body curl in upon itself.
My CP loved the latter bit of this and I admit I thought it was pretty good. That's precisely how I feel when Mr. Burke puts his mouth on my ear. Oh dear, I know this isn't Tessa's blog, but it is TMI Tuesday!
Great post (as usual), India!
Okay, wait - If you're going to quote me, it's:
"His hand darted out, and he caught the fluttering scrap of white effortlessly, as though it were a dove trained to fly to his hand."
I don't know that The Flame and the Flower is cliched, because it was really the first of its kind, wasn't it? Elements have been reused and replayed so many times, they've become cliches though. I do love that sentence.
I like using cliches in fresh ways, if that makes any sense. There's hard to find much new to say about love, but that's kind of the great thing about it.
India, I know I go "wow" over fresh descriptions of yours all the time. But for ever pair of "crazy tiger eyes", I think you're allowed a "sun-bronzed chest". ;)
Darcy, I can feel that shudder now! Nice work. And regards to Mr. Burke!
Tessa, so sorry about the misquote. I think I misquoted myself too, I think his name "tumbled" rather than fell from her lips like a coin into a well. Your writing is of course so so much better than my misquote. But the point is that line was so fresh and so memorable that all these months later I can still remember it enough to misquote it.
Dang, I bet I misquoted CM too. We'll have to wait and see If I got it right.
Sorry I'm late to the party! It's been a crazy couple of days. India, one of the things I love about your writing is that it's full of non-cliches. I especially love the way your description can be so beautifully evocative with just a few words. There ware so many things I could choose; here's something I picked just at random:
A curtain of darkness demarcated the beach from the world beyond.
Great WIP quotes! I'll be back when I can think of some good cliche/not cliche examples =)
Aw thanks, Courtney.
Erica, don't ya hate when someone's blog makes you work for a response?? :-) Looking forward to your examples.
Well, here's the best I could do given my current exhaustion....
"Instead, he sat in a chair that appeared to be an invention from the Spanish inquisition, in his foyer. He cursed whatever former relative believed the chair added to the ambience."
Not probably the best, but the best I could find while sifting through my WIP at the moment. I'm sure I've been fresher somewhere.... I am strangely reminded of my mother telling me not to be "fresh" as a child. LOL!!
I love everyone's examples. They're all lovely. Romance writers are so clever. At least the ones I know.
I recall both Tessa's and Darcy's lines, they hit me that hard. For myself, I found a passage rife with both cliched and non-cliched phrases:
“I am patient in all things,” Edward replied smoothly.
Oh, but Genevieve wasn’t! Lord Montborne had found them. Where had he come from? How much had he heard? And why, oh why, was he there at all?
“Indeed,” Lord Montborne drawled past her to Edward, “you were about to patiently sit there and tell Miss Morelle about my business.” Too much, then. He’d heard far too much. His hearing must be excellent, or else she and Edward had not bothered to disguise their conversation.
“Allow me,” Lord Montborne continued, eyes cut crystal and voice as sweet as sugar. “Gossip is one of my many vices and there are few who know me better than myself.”
Edward indicated Lord Montborne was welcome to join their conversation. “Please, enlighten us. Mayhap next time, I will be able to get the story straight.”
“It’s not so much a story as a tale of woe. Love and loss, uncertainty; knowledge that has passed all tests. Watching would have torn out your heart, Miss Morelle, and even you might have been called to act.”
Genevieve clutched her parasol. “Even me?”
Lord Montborne leaned against the tall curricle wheel. “Running, Miss Morelle, rarely solves the problem.”
Marnee Jo, laughing out loud at the great Spanish Inquisition chair! I can so picture it. Wonderful description!
Lacey, way to combine cliche and noncliche for fabulous effect! I should try that! Eyes cut crystal and voice as sweet as sugar. Nice job!
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