Thinking Outside the Boxes

By Nicki Salcedo

I dislike clichés and when I read them I feel insulted.  It makes me think the author believes I’ve never read another book before.  Don’t get me wrong, I still write about dark and stormy nights and chiseled-chinned heroes, but I delete those clichés during the editing process.  Good writing is never predictable writing.  Surprise your readers and yourself.  When I write I don’t just think outside the box, I think outside ALL of the boxes.

It was a dark and stormy what? What do you think of when you think of rain?  A funeral?  A precursor to a dramatic first kiss?  Why can’t rain signify something happy?  Lightening could mean something exciting is happening instead of something frightening.

What you talking about, Willis? Do not say I love you.  It’s wrong.  I’m sorry.  Think about memorable movies lines that didn’t say I love you.  “You had me at hello.”  “Ditto,” and “I can’t quit you.”  In response to Princess Leia’s I love you, Han responds, “I know.”  Classic.  But in that moment you know he loves her too.  He doesn’t have to say it.

I’m too sexy. Some of us are looking in all of the wrong place to find sexy descriptions of our characters.  He’s seven feet tall and got a chest like a barrel.  His face is so angular, I’m afraid he’s going to cut me.  Forget his eyes, chest, and thighs.  Tell me about his hands, feet, shoulder blades, the dimple in his chin, the scar on his forearm.  I don’t need to know about how much hair he’s got or how much he’s lacking.  What I do need to know is why he’s different from the thousands of other heroes I’ve read before.   Why can’t he be a good cook?  Why can’t we fall in love with him because of the way he takes care of beloved dog or horse?

We love a story because of the unexpected parts.

In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera, the hero considers a red rose, but then deliberates.  His thoughts and actions speak more of his love than a simple I love you:

“A red rose, symbol of flaming passion, might offend her mourning.  Yellow roses, which in another language were the flowers of good fortune, were anexpression of jealousy in the common vocabulary. He had heard of the black roses of Turkey, which were perhaps the most appropriate, but he had not been able to obtain any for acclimatization in his patio.  After much thought he risked a white rose, which he liked less than the others because it was insipid and mute: it did not say anything.”

Try some writing exercises.

1) She sees him across the crowded room (I know a cliché) and the first thing she notices is . . .

2) He catches her before she boards the midnight train to Georgia (yes, another cliché) and tells her that he . . .

3) She had never been so afraid in her life.  It was bright and sunny and she could clearly see the . . .  

Finish the sentences with something unique and post them in the comment section below.  Happy writing!  Want more exercises?