Today I want to spotlight a collection of writing advice. It comes via OWW, the Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. OWW is a fee-based workshop but this advice is available to all.
These short essays discuss topics on writing in general, how to get your work read (if you’re into workshops like OWW, or the free Critters or Codex, for example), and the publishing business overall. I like Nicola Griffith’s piece about avoiding cliches:*
Don’t write “her heart stopped” unless you mean she died. Don’t talk about saucy serving wenches in an inn where the beef stew is thick and hearty and the ale is fresh, nutty, and strong… Why aren’t “serving wenches” ever tired, middle-aged women? Why is the beer rarely yellow, or thin, or cloudy with sediment?
So true.** There’s a reason the average human lives a much longer and healthier life than their ancestors did just a century ago:
In Japan, 72 has become the new 30, as the likelihood of a 72-year-old modern-day person dying is the same as a 30-year-old hunter-gatherer ancestor who lived 1.3 million years ago.
Modern sanitation, medicine and quality infrastructure (for those handy extras like clean drinking water) for the win!
So, keep a weather eye out for dangerous and terrifying pitfalls you have to escape in the nick of time as you navigate the winding path of language clichés:) But keep writing. Remember, all’s well that ends well! (And that’s just about enough of that;)
While we’re on the subject of advice, I’ll supplement the OWW site and my previous posts on writing advice with a link from Brain Pickings. This collection of wisdom is from a variety of writers, genre and otherwise:
#49: Neil Gaiman’s Advice to Aspiring Writers
“You have to finish things — that’s what you learn from, you learn by finishing things.”
Some of this advice may not apply to you; I tend not to relate to Bukowski, for example. But some of it may, and I hope it’s useful.
Since I’m throwing in everything but the kitchen sink today, let me close with this great post from Elizabeth Bear: “everybody’s scared of things that they don’t understand and all the living they don’t do.”
Accept that there will be a lot of failures along the way, and that you can come back from nearly any mistake that doesn’t involve making a left turn in front of an oncoming semi.
Excellent advice.
Write, rewrite, finish. Do it again.
…………
* Some of the examples are also about uncomfortable -isms. Racism and sexism, for instance, are more problematic than simple clichés and should be resolved at a deeper level. Obviously.
** As a side note, if you’re curious about what and how people ate in the Western Middle Ages, SF Canada writer Krista D. Ball has a detailed and useful book on realism in fantasy food: What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank.
J.R. Johnson 
I sometimes wonder about advice to avoid cliches. It seems to me that a lot of readers like cliches. Thoughts?
I think that readers like to be immersed in a story and it makes sense for writers to use language that draws the audience into the fictional world. I find that more concrete, precise language helps draw a clearer picture. But if a character’s heart actually did stop from fright, heck, go ahead and say so:)
I think that the overarching concept behind “don’t use cliches” is that readers want something unique, be it regarding words, story, character, whatever. I’m just not so sure that’s the case. As a reader, I tend to like reading the same stories with the same characters over and over again.
It just seems to me that uniqueness is kind of overrated.
I’m sure you’re not the only one who feels that way:) Work with what works for you.