Well friends, it's official. I quit my job teaching at the University, so as of December 22, I am exclusively freelancing. I'm free! (Yay!) I'm lancing! (Huh?) So, hey, World: please hire me to write stuff. Please Please Please.
This post about romance cliches from Agent Kristen made me laugh and cringe. Those of us who write genre fiction of all types (Kristen has a companion entry about fantasy cliches) are always in peril of falling into cliche overuse.
Now, to some extent it's hard to avoid them in genre fiction, because one is treading an exceptionally well-worn path. Still, there is nothing more infuriating than opening a book and finding the same tired plots and characters. (I'm not talking about the back-cover copy here -- I mean the actual writing.) I read a fair number of romances, and I prefer historicals, but I am SUPER picky about them. If I'm not impressed or engaged after 2 pages or so, I put the book down, or worse, throw it across the room. Flaccid writing and stale characters make me throw a book every time. (My husband likes to pick these books up where he finds them and make fun of them.)
Even though cliches can be disastrous, ridiculous attempts to circumvent them can be worse. The most memorable metaphor I ever encountered in a romance novel described a man's, erm, equipment as a "fallen tree" with "two ostrich eggs." I swear! When I picked myself up off the floor and stopped laughing, I could only say "ewwww." Ostrich eggs? Get that thing AWAY from me!
I kept that book for a while, but only so I could show all my friends!
On another note, recently, someone asked me to post links to the articles I'm publishing in the Post-Tribune. The website doesn't keep the articles cached very long, so I'll have to set up a Del.icio.us account and post those links. Give me a couple days to get that together, and I'll post them here.
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