I’ve always remembered something Russell Baker wrote in his final column for the New York Times.
The column was a love letter to newspapers and included this wonderful paragraph: “At my friend Harry’s house, I discovered the New York tabloids. Lots of great pictures. Dick Tracy! Plenty of stories about condemned killers being executed, with emphasis on what they had eaten for their last meal before walking – the last mile! The tabloids left me enthralled by the lastness of things.”
Is “last mile” a cliché? Sure thing. Would I have been tempted to redline it out? Probably. But it also leaves you with a lasting image. So do “crossing the Rubicon” “the die is cast,” “tilting at windmills,” the shirt off your back,” “beyond the pale,” “blood on your hands” and “Achilles’ heel.”
On the other hand, I still remember the reaction when as a young reporter I was roundly and deservedly mocked for writing the “win-win situation” in a story when a simple “benefitted both sides” would have done just fine.
George Orwell famously implored writers to “never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen house.”
So, a bad cliché is lazy, cringe worthy and even detrimental. But I would argue that a good cliché can, when used wisely, provide vivid imagery that evokes emotional depth due to its rich historical, literary, or cultural significance imagery and emotional depth.
One of the lessons I try to teach young writers is the necessity of focusing on the reader and not being bound strictly by the rules of convention. That includes, slipping in a good cliché from time to time if it helps the reader.
Here are three tips for when to use a cliché:
🟧Understand your audience. A cliché should resonate culturally and contextually. 🟦
🟧Deploy clichés intentionally, for emphasis or humor—not because they’re the easiest route. 🟦
🟧If you’re breaking a cliché by tweaking or subverting it, make sure your twist enhances reader engagement rather than confusing them. 🟦
What are the cliches that bring back the lastness of things for you? And which ones would you never use even under the Sword of Damocles?
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