Just stop. Please.

“Hone your craft.”

Stop it. It was clever the first three times I heard it in, oh, 1993. Now, after 3,409,320 times used and an interwebz in which I can document every instance, it’s way past cliché.

You’re writers (or editors or agents). Find a different way to say it, because at this point, every time you say it, you sound like a parrot without an original thought in your head.

2 thoughts on “Just stop. Please.

  • July 17, 2009 at 8:13 pm
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    Totally agree. And it doesn’t even use alliteration. How about these?

    Fix your flashback!
    Overhaul your objects!
    Grind your grammar!
    Mend your metaphors!
    Polish your paradigm!
    Whet your Writing!
    Sharpen your sentences!
    Acuminate your adverbs!
    Recitfy your rhetoric!
    Prime your prose!

    Hmmm. These were a lot funnier in my head.

    Reply
  • July 17, 2009 at 8:15 pm
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    I was about to bop you on the head before the “funnier in my head” line.

    Then I snorted water all over my keyboard.

    Reply

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