It’s easy to fill your writing with clichés. They’re probably the first thing you think of when you’re groping for a metaphor (quick as . . . a wink!) or trying to express a common emotion (she decided there must be other fish in the sea). Clichés might spring unbidden into your mind as you’re happily typing away.

But resist all temptation! If you use clichés, your readers will be bored instantly. They will stop paying attention at least for the duration of the cliché, and probably for several phrases or sentences after that. Why say the tearstained letter when you could say the letter, salted with furious tears? Why say vanished without a trace when you could say crept away, unnoticed and unmourned?

Rid your writing of all those sayings, metaphors, and turns of phrase you’ve heard on countless sitcoms and read in bad novels. Force yourself to be original.