Craft Glossary · term

Clichés & dead metaphor

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Plain English: Phrases so worn they no longer create an image ("heart pounding", "blood ran cold", "time stood still", "a shiver down her spine").

Rule: Replace the cliché with the specific physical truth of this character in this moment, or cut it.

Fail: Reaching for the nearest stock phrase for any strong feeling — the path of least resistance, and exactly the statistically-likely path an LLM takes.

Arjuna Badger Press · Craft Library

Glossary · Doctrine · Anti-patterns · Triptych form · LLM tells

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