Clichés – how can we avoid them and do we really have to?

Clichés become clichés because they do what they do rather well. There isn’t anything else quite like a bull in a china shop. Nothing could be nastier than having a ton of bricks fall on you. Putting a spanner in the works probably works better than throwing a wooden clog into the machinery --- that act which gave us the word sabotage, form the French word “sabot”.

Plots and stories can be clichéd too, yet it is good for our psychological health to consume the same story over and over. Christopher Booker, anyway, tells us there are only seven stories, Arthur Frank offers us three and Robert McKee provides a template that will structure any story. Part of our enjoyment of stories comes from recognising this pattern over and over.

Language, too, has to repeat so that we understand it.

Modes of Diversity

Malorie Blackman had quite a hard time recently when she made a plea for diversity in children’s literature. She was horribly edited so that it came out as if she talked about nothing else. This was followed by a lot of racist responses to the article. (Should it call itself that? No self-respecting journalist would.).

Newsletter 1 September 2014

I’m busily getting ready for the new academic year at the university yet it still a little less hectic than the teaching weeks will be. The new students need quite a bit of attention in the first few weeks as do the students who still have pass marks missing.
I’ve taken a few odd days off here and there, mainly to use up remaining leave. I find these odd days very useful. I don’t look at university emails on those days though I might do a little forward planning. They’re useful for catching up on such tasks as paying cheques into the bank, getting a picture framed and sorting out a new phone. Plus they give me a taste of how life will be when I retire in two years’ time. Of course, I won’t retire from writing – in fact, I’ll probably get more done.
I’m suddenly making some very exciting connections. I can’t say more at the moment, but I should be able to in a few weeks’ time. Watch this space.