How do you avoid cliches?
Avoiding cliches in your writing is advisable. Cliches tend to cheapen your writing by using bland, repeated phrases or “moves” that have been heard so many times before that they don’t affect your audience. Whether you’re creating music, writing words, or creating any other art, it’s worth avoiding those cliches.
But how do you avoid them? The only way to avoid cliches is to know them. Be educated in your language (visual, musical, verbal) and the history of your art, so that you know the cliches. Expose yourself to all sorts of art, high and low, to expand your vocabulary.
You really have to know how they work, so probably you should try them out – use them in your study. Maybe you don’t want to use them in the work you share, but as you experiment you can try out different cliches. Once you know how they work, you’ll know how to avoid them when you don’t want them.
It’s not possible, really, to completely eliminate cliches. These phrases exist because they work, and at some point, you’ll need them to work for you. But if you know how they work and how to use them, you can allow them carefully into your work, where they can enhance your creative voice without undermining your impact.