First, thanks to Sharon for last week’s post. She’s absolutely right – you don’t need to be recognised as an ‘expert’ to offer valuable advice to other writers. You just need a lively mind, good ideas, an understanding of how the writing world works and, of course, empathy and the desire to help.

This week’s post is going to be something  of a rag bag because I’ve been reading lots of interesting bits and pieces over the past few days.

First up is a piece I read in the Sunday Times by Stig Abell about clichés. One fact that was included in the article was fascinating: “It (the word cliché) comes from the past participle of the French verb ‘clicher’, meaning ‘to click’. It is printers’ jargon for a stereotype – a printing plate that allowed a single page of type to be reproduced endlessly – derived from the noise it made slotting into place.” The plate gradually got worn down after much usage – just as a cliché is a phrase repeated so often its meaning gets degraded! Read the rest of this entry »