Five Big Nevers from George Orwell

In the past week, I listened to two audio books. One uses lots of fresh figurative language--it's a thrilling police procedural, so the attention to comparisons surprised me. The other uses lots of expressions you and I have seen in print before also known as clichés.

They can feel comfy, easing into metaphors or similes that we've all heard before--like pulling on a well-worn sweater. I'm not sure how the second writer got away with using so many clichés in a published work.

All I know is unpublished authors are held to a higher standard than those who have work in print. Yes, rules are made to be broken. However, it's still worth rereading your WIPs and looking for the FIVE BIG Nevers from George Orwell.

Never say never, you say? Valid argument. Then how about rarely.

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

Out of the entire Serengeti of writing advice available on the Internet, I thought these were five predators worth pursuing. (Just so you know, I could have said “pantheon of writing advice,” but then I would be violating number one of the big five, so I tried to go for something fresher since I violated number four in saying “were worth pursuing”.)

If we could at least edit our work adhering to these five rules, our writing would improve. How about you, Scrivengale readers? Are you stalked by any of these big five?