I guess it comes back to a cliche of a different sort: Don't judge a book by it's cover. ;)
*snerk* Indeed. I'm willing to give almost everything a chance.
Our clichés discussion: feel free to quote me! I'm honoured.
Since then I've done a lot of proofreading for a friend, and for a published author (in exchange for her proofreading Atlantis). And a lot of reading about editing & revising, too (if you don't have it yet, you should get "Getting the Words Right" by Theodore Rees Cheney - you'll love it).
My short-cut to when clichés or figurative language aka "purple prose" have gone wrong has become: "As soon as I notice that something's wrong, it's *wrong*." (The difference: clichés gone wrong usually only make me yawn, because if we've them once, we've seen them a thousand times; wrong metaphors or similes are worse - they make me laugh!)
I think the test of really good writing is if the words are so *right* that they actually allow me to forget that I am reading letters on a piece of paper or on the screen.
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rosecarmine
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-09 07:03 am (UTC)*snerk* Indeed. I'm willing to give almost everything a chance.
Our clichés discussion: feel free to quote me! I'm honoured.
Since then I've done a lot of proofreading for a friend, and for a published author (in exchange for her proofreading Atlantis). And a lot of reading about editing & revising, too (if you don't have it yet, you should get "Getting the Words Right" by Theodore Rees Cheney - you'll love it).
My short-cut to when clichés or figurative language aka "purple prose" have gone wrong has become: "As soon as I notice that something's wrong, it's *wrong*." (The difference: clichés gone wrong usually only make me yawn, because if we've them once, we've seen them a thousand times; wrong metaphors or similes are worse - they make me laugh!)
I think the test of really good writing is if the words are so *right* that they actually allow me to forget that I am reading letters on a piece of paper or on the screen.