After all, she had no time in her life for witty banter. Although she’d be hard pressed not to set him straight the next time she saw him, she would, as usual, be meticulously polite. That arrogant toad in the condo next to her had parked in her spare stall again.
Rounding the pillar in the parkade, she swore under her breath. Pulling out a tissue, she wiped off the offending goop and threw the Kleenex into the garbage with a perfectly placed curve. Breakfast finished, blood sugar restored, she dabbed on some lip gloss before heading to the elevator, her lips starting to tingle and swell from an allergic reaction the shiny stuff. If she didn’t eat protein for breakfast, she’d be hangry* before noon, and ready, literally, to run someone through. In a dance as old as rush hour, Kate hustled to make her morning eggs. With apologies, but I couldn’t resist a little wince-worthy word play. ***Misuse and overuse of “literally” drives me batty these days, not literally. Make it even more memorable and creative for us, your old, new and future readers.
When in doubt, show us how busy and indifferent she is.Īs I wrote above, these clichés can be welcome to a reader, but it should be every writer’s challenge to forge a new path. If the heroine has no time for love, she wouldn’t even be thinking this or saying it. He acted as if I’d asked him about string theory.
He works at his day job as a nurse and spends all his free time dazzling in the entertainment industry. I have a friend who has no time for love. It’s a deliberate set-up to show us just how radically her world is about to change.
The heroine runs into the hero–literally***.Here, though, Simon Le Bon is hungry but not for food. Instead, I try to think of Duran Duran**. I’ve programmed myself not to wince over this hungry-not-for-food cliché. Let’s just say lovin’ and feasting aren’t the same thing, but comparisons are made interchangeably throughout acts of whoopee. The hero says he’s hungry but not for food.For me, personally, the hustle is a dance as old as time because, for me, that’s when time began.
So really, sex isn’t a dance as old as time. Referring to sex as a “dance as old as time.” You know what’s as old as time? Mitosis! Or if you have another belief: God.Here are some offenses I would urge romance writers to avoid from now on: At the same time, when you’re a voracious reader, these clichés get tired and seem like a quick exit. Every genre has its clichés and I sort of love them because they can be like chicken soup or The Brady Bunch, i.e.