Trite phrases

[Schwanze1]

Authors,

It's not a clip it's a magazine people pull out of their guns.

Glocks don't have safeties other than the trigger.

Husbands don't always have to be so stupid even us guys feel like they had it coming.

Stress doesn't ALWAYS cause people to grab for X number of fingers of amber, burning etc liquid that he feels all the way down.

Feel free to add your examples of trite phrases that should no longer be seen unless absolutely necessary to the plot.

 

[StillStunned]

As an author, I'd love to hear more of these frustrations and complaints from readers. We tend to write in a bubble, and honest criticism is hard to come by.

I'm not sure that the General Board is the right place for this thread, though: I get the impression that many of the posters here aren't very interested in the story side of Lit. Although I'd be happy to hear otherwise.

 

[Saint_Ann]

Authors,

It's not a clip it's a magazine people pull out of their guns.

Glocks don't have safeties other than the trigger.

Husbands don't always have to be so stupid even us guys feel like they had it coming.

Stress doesn't ALWAYS cause people to grab for X number of fingers of amber, burning etc liquid that he feels all the way down.

Feel free to add your examples of trite phrases that should no longer be seen unless absolutely necessary to the plot.

You go girl!

 

[Britva415]

Characters quoted as referring to a previously mentioned object or topic as "... said [item]."

I do know people who talk that way, but it's highly unnatural in most story settings and from most story characters, as they're characterized.

It's both trite and anachronistic. But it seems to me like people have their characters say it because the writer believes somehow that, since they're writing, the words they write should sound "like writing" and that crosses over to quoted character speech. (And they have an under-formed idea of what "like writing" sounds like, because they write their fiction in a way which is better suited to a court affidavit or a history textbook.)

But, you know, I don't like it in fiction writing either. I don't feel it belongs in narrative at all - I can't think of a genre or style of fiction where it's not out of place, as part of narrative. Quoted text is different - if the story really is about the kind of person who would say this in speech out loud, that's different from the author saying it in the narrative.

Where it does (sometimes) fit in-place is dry jargony text like legal proceedings or maybe certain kinds of technical writing, and even then it's like why are we using this phrase which hasn't been "current" in many, many, many decades.

Any person who ever speaks this way in 2025 comes off as excessively bookish, or extremely clumsy and/or self-conscious in a neurodivergent kind of a way, or just snotty. So that's how characters get characterized when they are quoted in a story as speaking this phrase. Probably not at all what the author is going for.

 

[StillStunned]

But, you know, I don't like it in fiction writing either. I don't feel it belongs in narrative at all - I can't think of a genre or style of fiction where it's not out of place, as part of narrative. Quoted text is different - if the story really is about the kind of person who would say this in speech out loud, that's different from the author saying it in the narrative.

Where it does (sometimes) fit in-place is dry jargony text like legal proceedings or maybe certain kinds of technical writing, and even then it's like why are we using this phrase which hasn't been "current" in many, many, many decades.

Any person who ever speaks this way in 2025 comes off as excessively bookish, or extremely clumsy and/or self-conscious in a neurodivergent kind of a way, or just snotty. So that's how characters get characterized when they are quoted in a story as speaking this phrase. Probably not at all what the author is going for.

I don't think I've ever come across it here on Lit, so I can't say it's a peeve of mine.

But I can imagine a scenario where it would work: self-mocking exposition. Just think of Stephen Fry as The Book in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (do people still abbreviate it to H2G2?). You could have exposition along the lines of, "It is commonly accepted that humans are, by nature, not monogamous. Despite this knowledge, many individuals bind themselves by contract as spouses for the remainder of their natural lives. It should come as no surprise then when those individuals find themselves unable to abide by the terms of said contract..."

Note that I'm not saying anyone should do this, and definitely no-one should overuse it. But there are stories where it would suit the tone. But I suppose the writers who use it a lot aren't likely to be writing their stories with that tone.

 

[Britva415]

I suppose the writers who use it a lot aren't likely to be writing their stories with that tone

Exactly, and that's why I object to it.

Just regular-old, 21st-century people saying it in casual conversation.

I see it at least once a week on Lit. And I don't even read a hell of a lot of stories per week - up to ten, at most.

I guess I just pick "those" ones.