The opening line from W. C. Handy's
“St. Louis Blues” grabbed me last week as a watched an
installment of the Ken Burns film Jazz. Whether
those words are sung by Bessie Smith, Billie Holliday, or Ella
Fitzgerald, they grab me every time. I'm not quite sure what they
mean, but they carry an emotional punch.
Last week I was
editing a lengthy nonfiction book by a writer who never met a cliché
he didn't like. Page after page I encountered worn-out figures of
speech.
Not having the
assignment to rewrite the book, I could only apply Sol Stein's advice
that “one plus one equals one-half.” So when the cliché pared
two terms (above and beyond) I picked one. While the resulting
expression wasn't fresh, at least it was no longer stale.
Listening to W. C.
Handy's lyrics reminded me how much more effectively we can
communicate when we make the effort to craft an original word
picture.
A later line in
“St. Louis Blues” says, “I love that man like a schoolboy loves
his pie.” Nothing exotic, but certainly evocative. Perhaps even on
the same wavelength with Jesus' parables, drawing on a distinctive
but common experience.
Would that more
writers craft phrases that make daisies seem stale.
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