When we are reading, we often remember short phrases or sentences that somehow made something fresh again for us. That captured an image or a feeling vividly. The opposite of that is when we run across the same tired cliche we have heard a thousand times (and yes, I deliberately used a tired cliche to describe that) we get bored, or it leaves no impression.
If you want to make your writing pop, its important therefore to try and exorcise cliches and say things in a fresh way. How do we do that? As with most skills, we need to practice.
One exercise I have found useful is to take an object and describe it in one sentence. Every day I describe it again. Just one sentence per day, for 30 days. But it must be different from all prior sentences. Sometimes I pick something simple like a pen. Sometimes the view outside my window, or the people at the cafe. The latter two are usually easier, and might be better types of challenge to start on, as they do change. With a pen, or my coffee mug, I am struggling by day 5. But the creative ways and patterns you start to exercise makes it easier when you face this same problem in editing your own writing.
Give this challenge a try and let me know in the comments how it went. Did it help? Any other exercises you do to work on this aspect of writing skill?
Gideon P. Smith 