Top Tip - avoiding cliche

I reckon the one thing that will improve anyone's writing straight away is if they read through what they've just written and see if any of it sounds familiar.

Myself, I strive constantly to write sentences which say something in a new way. I would never want to describe coffee as 'muddy', the sea as 'glittering', my heat as 'breaking', eyes as'twinkling', sky as 'clear', skn as 'soft' etc etc.

We don't realise how many of our words are linked together through familiar patterns. It is always disappointing to read something that uses familiar links of words. It's like the writer hasn't spent the time thinking enough, or is happy enough to let other people do the describing for him/her.