One of my favorite movie characters is Ms. Perky, the high school guidance counselor in 10 Things I Hate About You. Ms. Perky is a novelist at heart and  routinely takes time out of her novel-writing schedule to counsel students. She’s a perfectionist, taking her time to select the perfect descriptions for each scene.

My favorite: “undulating with desire”.

Really – undulating? I had to look it up in the dictionary. That brings me to today’s a2z letter.

U – (please don’t) undulate with desire

With so many millions of books in print, it’s difficult to write non-cliche ways of describing what it feels like for two people to fall in love. We’ve all read stories where someone’s heart dropped. Skin tingles. Eyes lock on each other. By the time you’ve read as many novels as I have, you’ve pretty much read it all.

It becomes the writer’s challenge to show these common emotions in uncommon ways … but should people really undulate? Or capitulate? Or commutate? It depends.

Writers need to select words that fit into three important categories:

1. Is it a word your character would think/say?
2. Is it a word you really use?
3. Is it a word your readers would use?

As a reader, I find it more distracting when an author throws in an unfamiliar/out of contest word than when I read a familiar phrase. To a certain degree readers expect that books from their favorite genre will read similarly. In romance novels, there’s always a sparkle/light/life when the hero looks into the heroine’s eyes. In suspense novels, hearts pound and pulses race. It’s been written before, but it’s expected. It’s familiar.

As a writer, I strive for a more creative, appropriate, way of describing the familiar, but I also don’t try to force it. If I can’t hear my character say it (and if I have to look up the definition!), I leave it out. The right word might come to me later, but it’s okay if it doesn’t. We think on the things we recognize, things we understand. I often think in cliches – I’m sure my characters do, too.

QUESTION: What do you think? Does there need to be a new way to describe every event, or is there a time to use a familiar phrase?