Avoiding Stereotypes and Cliches in Writing

 

By Mindy Lawrence

The old woman had long black hair and wore a conical hat. She had a black cat named Esmeralda and friends she practiced with at midnight in the forest.  Tell me, is there any other kind of witch? Not according to many people.

Books, plays and movies all have a habit of stereotyping different groups. The writers who produce the words for these works sometimes use cliches and stereotypes to advance their stories. When this happens, characters become the same old same old, and not accurate. Every witch isn’t an old woman with warts in a black dress. She can be a he. She can be a scientist, or a teacher, or a mayor.

An archetype and a stereotype are not the same. An archetype is a template (prototype) on which to build your character. Stereotypes tend to show a lazy writer who is not sure how to let a character develop his/her own way. They are oversimplified, overused, and preconceived. These are generic and have no creative punch.
 
According to New York book Editors (https://nybookeditors.com/2019/04/6-tips-to-avoid-writing-cliched-characters/), you can do these things:

•    Focus on your characters origin story.
•    Deeply describe your characters.
•    Allow you character to bare more than one emotion.
•    Let your characters have motivation for their actions.
•    Show your character’s fears and flaws.
•    Give your characters strengths.

Make your characters more than one dimension. Flesh them out and make them breathe.


Interesting Articles Online:

6 Tips to Avoid Writing Cliched Characters
https://nybookeditors.com/2019/04/6-tips-to-avoid-writing-cliched-characters/

Stereotypes to Avoid When Writing your Next Book
https://www.bealubooks.com/avoid-stereotypes-when-writing/

3 Stereotypes to Avoid
https://www.authorlearningcenter.com/writing/fiction/w/character-development/2874/3-stereotypes-to-avoid---article

The 8 Worst Cliches in Fiction
https://ryanlanz.com/2016/06/02/the-8-worst-cliches-in-fiction/

Strong Female Character Cliches to Avoid (In Writing and Beyond)
https://samanthaheuwagen.com/strong-female-character-cliches-to-avoid-in/

How to Write Diverse Characters (without Stereotypes)
https://pshoffman.com/character-creation/write-diverse-characters/

How to Write Non Stereotypical Characters
https://www.wikihow.com/Write-Non-Stereotypical-Characters

5 Ways to  Break Stereotypes in your Writing
https://www.inspiredlinesediting.com/blog/5-ways-to-break-stereotypes-in-your-writing

Mindy Lawrence is a writer, ghost blogger, and artist based in Farmington, Missouri. She worked for the State of Missouri for over 24 years and moved to Farmington in 2020.

She proofread the Sharing with Writers newsletter by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and wrote “An Itty-Bitty Column on Writing” there for ten years. She has been published in Writers' Digest magazine and interviewed by NPR’s All Things Considered.

Getting Rid of Tattletale Words in Your Résumé

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of
The Frugal Editor: Do-it yourself editing secrets for authors:
From your query letter to final manuscript to the marketing of your new bestseller

People in all walks of life work mightily on perfecting their résumés and other career-building documents and then forget one vital step. An editor. Preferably an editor versed in all the elements of writing including grammar, punctuation, storytelling…wait! Storytelling?

Yes. And some other surprises like marketing—and a little knowledge about psychology won’t  hurt either.

The list is long but it can be shortened by thinking “experience.” A broad range of experience. So, no, your high school English teacher may not be your best choice. Nor, your mother who “did really well in English.”

There are a whole lot of tattletale words you shouldn’t use in your résumé or related documents like biographies, proposals, query letters, and media kits. All of these documents are designed to convince the reader of your ability to do the job—your expertise—and to nudge your career (or product) toward success.   

So what are those words? And how do they relate to storytelling?

Ambitious is one of the most frequently used tattletale words. It seems like a wasted word doesn’t it. A couple more that mean little because of overuse or are downright laughable are highly motivated or responsible. That you are writing this document is an indication that you are ambitious.

This is where that storytelling thing comes in. You tell a little story that subtly shows the responsible, ambitious, or highly motivated aspect of your work habits. Using the age-old writers’ motto, “show, don’t tell,”  will keep your reader from asking—often with a touch of irony—what makes you ambitious. King Midas was ambitious. Maybe your reader assumes your father got tired of seeing you playing video games and you got ambitious only when it looked as if the couch would no longer be a good place to park yourself.

So what is your story? Tell about the upward movement in your chosen career or even between careers—how one informs the other and gives you knowledge and a dimension that no other applicant is likely to have.

Hardworker and go-getter seem as useless in a résumé or query letter as ambitious. It’s like tooting your own horn. The person reading it might ask, “Who says?”

Overblown adjectives. Words like exciting and amazing—even when they describe results or projects—are anathema. They have the same problem as hardworking above. I call this the awesome syndrome. They are words that tempt a reader to scoff. Instead tell a story about the extra effort you put into a project and the difference it made. Or quote one of the rave reviews you received from one of your supervisors in a periodic assessment, recommendation, or endorsement.

Team player has been a cliché for decades.. Instead choose a group project you’ve worked on and tell about your contributions. Or just list some of the ways you might have helped another department or division. And, because human brains have been wired for stories since we sat around the fires we made in caves, make it into an anecdote if you can.

Think out-of-the-box is also a cliché-ridden no-no. It’s storytelling time again

Microsoft Word. I’m proud that I can produce an entire book using Word from its Contents to its Index to its Footnotes. I love that I don’t have to spend time learning another program. But there’s no point in telling people that I’m an expert at Word. Everyone is. Of course, I can use it prove another point like how well I have managed to adapt its features to new, advanced project and tell how much time I saved by doing that rather than learning a new program. I might mention how much more professional it looked even as I saved that time. And I might mention that my project got rave reviews.

Some frequently used words like synergy have become a way to insert some humor into a résumé and that has become as much of a cliché as the overuse of the word. Marco Buscaglia picked this word out of the hundred (if not thousands) of popular words I call business-ese. You can avoid them by reviewing your copy and purging anything that sounds officious including most words with more than three syllables.

Think in terms of relationships, colleagues in other departments, associates in competing companies, respected academicians, mentors beyond your teachers. Though a good story can take even that kind of mentorship out of the humdrum and into an Aha! Moment.

Before you send off your paper, go over it. Find all the weak verbs—is, be, do—and use your thesaurus to strengthen them and to make them more accurate.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson was an instructor for UCLA Extension's world-renown Writers' Program for nearly a decade and edits books of fiction and poetry. She  is the author of the HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers including The Frugal Editor  and The Frugal Book Promoter. They are both USA Book News award-winners and both have won several other awards. Her How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically: The ins and outs of using free reviews to build and sustain a writing career.is the newest book in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Her The Great First Impression Book Proposal is a booklet that can save anyone writing a proposal time reading tomes because it can be read in 30 minutes flat.

Carolyn is the recipient of the California Legislature's Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award and was honored by Pasadena Weekly for her literary activism. She is also is a popular speaker and actor. Her website is www.HowToDoItFrugally.com.

MORE ON WRITING AND BOOK MARKETING

SEO for Authors Series: The Basics
10 Tips to Starting a Writing Career Later in Life
What are Your Writing Strengths and Weaknesses?

You're an Amateur Writer If

All writers want to look like experienced, sophisticated writers. We all rush to get that first draft down on paper, but then comes the time to self-edit and rewrite our manuscripts. There lies your opportunity to slow down, have another cup of coffee, and spruce up that first draft.

            The following points are things you might want to avoid because they make you appear like an amateur or a weak writer:

            1. Avoid the use of -ing and as constructions. They can sometimes make two

                actions seem simultaneous when they are physically impossible.

                Example:  Rushing into the house, I put on a fresh blouse and skirt.

                Should be written:  I rushed into the house and put on a fresh blouse

                                                and skirt.

                Example:  As I put the kettle on the stove, I turned to face him.

                Should be written:  I put the kettle on the stove and turned to face him.

   If you just have to use that -ing phrase, try putting it in the middle of the sentence.

   Then it is less conspicuous.

   .

            2.  Avoid the use of clichés. I do not even have to explain this one. There is nothing,

                 in my opinion, that will make you look more like a weak or amateur writer

                 than this.

            3.  And then there is the adverb, the -ly word. This, I have to admit, is one of my

                 biggest downfalls. I love them, so I struggle with myself to get rid of them.

                 Now do not get me wrong. An occasional one can be forgiven. When you use

                 a weak verb and an adverb, you are using two weak words in place of one strong

                 one.

           

                 Example:  Angrily she shut the door behind her.

                 Should be written:  She slammed the door behind her.

                 Now there can be an exception to the rule for the sake of affect.

                 Example:  She kissed him--slowly, longingly.

            4.  Avoid a lot of short sentences. Try stringing some of them together with a

                 comma. Just do not overdo it.

           

                 Example:  “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”

                 Should be written:  “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”

            5.  Using a lot of italics and exclamation marks should be used only to convey

                 your character is shouting. Otherwise, the writer appears very insecure. Just

                 let the dialogue and description convey all the emotion needed.

            6.  Another stylistic device that can make a writer come across as an amateur is

                 flowery, poetic figures of speech or metaphors.

            7.  Are your sex scenes too explicit? You may want to leave a certain amount

                 of details left to your readers’ imagination. They do quite well with this, you

                 know. No heavy breathing, please.

            8.  Profanity has been so over used that it no longer has any shock value and

                 can turn your reader off. Now if it is a characteristic of your character, then

                 by all means use it. Otherwise, it is simply a sign of a small vocabulary.

Faye M. Tollison

Author of:  To Tell the Truth

Upcoming books:  The Bible Murders

                              Sarah’s Secret

Member of:  Sisters in Crime

                     Writers on the Move

www.fayemtollison.com

www.fayetollison.blogspot.com

www.fmtoll.wordpress.com

www.writersonthemove.com

Life is a bowl of....

Recently, I re-read one of my post and discovered the phrase “best laid plans”.   I would have preferred a different phrase.  Do clichés ever find their way into your writing.  How about…..

• Fit as a fiddle
• Tip of the iceberg
•  A monkey’s uncle
• The grass is always greener 

If any of these phrases have ever “wormed their way into” your writing, than consider trying CLicheCLeaner.

ClichéCleaner is an inexpensive program that highlights passages in your text that are either clichés, overly-used common expressions, or phrases of your own that you have repeatedly used within the same document. ClichéCleaner includes a list of nearly 7000 unique clichés and common expressions that are compared against your text. 

ClichéCleaner does not remove your clichés or over-used phrases or alter your document, so it you’re “dead set” on keeping a cliché  remember “to each his own”.  If your writing needs to be "tightened up", consider trying ClichéCleaner.  It's inexpensive and the site offers a free trial of the program.  Is there a cliché that you enjoy using in your writing?

_____

Mary Jo Guglielmo is writer and intuitive life strategist.  

For more information check out  www.donorth.biz
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