So, um, I've got a lot of clichés in my second novel. On purpose.

Source

There's one thing I despise in writing fiction: RULES. Yes, I know that if certain rules are followed, you're more likely to get an agent or publisher to sign you on, especially this business of creating a good 'hook' in your first chapter. I guess that is one rule I try to follow the best I can. BUT. Who's to say that a good book can't be written with a few of these rules broken?

See, I'm experimenting with a little rule-breaking in my second novel. Well, it's not REALLY rule-breaking, but I guess I'm poking fun at a rule. But let's just say I'm breaking a rule and humor me a bit, huh? ;o)

So what rule am I breaking?

clichés

I have a character in my new book, Ailish, who likes to speak in quotes and clichés. In fact, she even quotes about clichés at one point. She says:

Well, sweetheart, like the talented Evelyn Waugh said, ‘to be oversensitive about clichés is like being oversensitive about table manners.'

(Context: her daughter is complaining about her constantly using clichés because she's a literature professor. But the thing I'm most proud of here is the fact that they're sitting down to eat dinner, and Ailish has just groaned about her daughter ripping a piece of bread off with her hands instead of using a knife.)

See, this is me sticking my proverbial middle finger up at the cliché rule without really breaking the cliché rule, despite there being quite a few in my ms. I've made it a character trait. Smart, huh? (tell me I'm smart pretty please with a cherry on top *fluttering eyelids until you say I'm smart* ;o)


How about you? Have you ever got fed up with the rules and tried to find a way to poke fun at them in your writing?


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