September 14, 2020 Issue

James Wood, in his How Fiction Works (2008), says, “Is specificity in itself satisfying? I think it is.” I think it is, too. I think it’s one of the key elements of effective writing. In this week’s New Yorker, Wood elaborates his theory of specificity, focusing on its opposite – cliché. He says,

Cliché is our original sin, the thing we all try to escape, but the offense is not merely aesthetic or musical; it is epistemological—cliché blocks our apprehension of reality. In place of singularity, it substitutes commonality; in place of the private oddity, it offers the shared obviousness. [“Reward System”]

That “cliché blocks our apprehension of reality” is inspired. How do you avoid cliché? Seek specificity.