A short story that uses idioms and cliche
Answers
Idioms Used in the Story
at the drop of a hat = immediately.
by leaps and bounds = very quickly (used with improvement)
copycat = someone or a company who tries to do things like another person or company.
dog eat dog = very competitive.
drive a hard bargain = to make a business deal that is very advantageous for you.
Explanation:
When it comes to creative writing, many of the phrases that are commonly used (especially by new writers and authors) are anything but creative. It is pretty normal to overuse idioms and cliches in writing.
“A creative writing teacher at San Jose State used to say about clichés: Avoid them like the plague. Then he’d laugh at his own joke.”
– From ‘The Kite Runner,’ Khaled Hosseini
Read the following paragraph.
He slept like a log but woke up in the nick of time before the roof collapsed on him. As luck would have it, he escaped. It was the dead of the night and despite having had a near-death experience he was as cool as a cucumber.
If you thought, “so what?” about those lines, I’ve made my point.
Now, let’s try that again:
He heard the rumble of metal and concrete and an unusually loud whirring. He looked up in a daze to see what looked like little tremors from the ceiling fan. With an instinctive agility he could muster but could not explain he hauled himself out of the window in a flash just as the roof came down in a terrifying rain of steel and wood and splinters. He stood outside his chawl in a singlet over a checkered lungi and watched the debris accumulate just as lights came on in the neighborhood. Unfazed he lit a beedi.
Better? Wouldn’t you now want to read about the modern-day Nero in a checkered lungi (you poor king!) who smoked even as his roof came down?