More and more authors nowadays are producing books, thanks to the booming electronic publishing industry. With increasing competitors jostling for readers’ attention, the imperative of making your work stand out is a golden rule a writer must never ignore. One surefire way to make your work garner audience is to avoid clichés. To force-feed your readers with a tested but boring trope means that you are offering nothing new. So why then would they bother to read your work, if they can read the same cliché in other works?

You’ve been around, and you are no stranger to clichés. But for review, a cliché is an overused phrase, expression, or a theme in fiction. Clichés need burying, but some writers will not let them rest in peace. 

Are you still reading? Good. Here’s a rundown of reasons why you should steer away from clichés:

1) Your story will lack originality. Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t mean that you should too. This is a common cognitive bias that writers succumb to. Do you want to make your audience read hackneyed expressions and ideas? Do your own thing. It sounds like a tall order, but an original book reflects a dedication to the craft--it becomes a genuine product of individuality. You may not stand out, but the intrinsic value that you have offered something that may “wow” a reader is priceless.

2) Your reader does not learn anything. Most writers write a story to entertain or because they have something to share with the world. That’s very noble. But in both cases, you owe it to your readers to make them look at the world through a different window. Clichés will only transport them back to bland expressions and ideas that have long lost their zest. 

3) It makes your writing substandard. In the early days of electronic publishing, self-published authors were deemed as an unholy alliance. Many jumped into publishing without much care for the quality of the elements that go into the workings of a good book. The writer as an artist must push himself to make his book or story better than his last one. If you say that you have no delusions of literary grandeur, that’s your business. But the judgment of your audience is what will label you as a good or bad writer.

4) You are drawn to the lazy side. Clichés happen because the writer is too lazy to tackle the blank page and fill it with good words. What is the purpose of calling yourself a writer if you do not have the drive to compose an original group of words in varying structures? If you depend on using words and expressions that others have written before, you might find yourself cultivating a bad habit that could devolve to plagiarism.

So are you a writer or a copyist? Trust your imagination and creativity. Learn from what others have done successfully, but this must inspire you to write in a way that does not rely on clichés and turn off your readers.