Writing Tools

My American Heritage Dictionary defines the word touche as an interjection "used to acknowledge a hit in fencing or a successful criticism or an effective point in argument."

I thought of that word recently as I read a rapier column by Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post about the memoir of Mary Cheney, vice-presidential daughter and self-acknowledged lesbian. Check out the lead:

Near the start of her memoir, being published this week, Mary Cheney tells the story of her first political assignment. It was 1978, Dick Cheney's first run for Congress, and 9-year-old Mary was detailed to stand outside campaign headquarters, proudly wearing a sandwich board that read "Honk for Cheney."

The body of the piece summarizes the great conflict in the life of Mary Cheney: her sexual orientation and support of same-sex marriage versus her loyalty to her parents and their conservative political beliefs. Marcus ends the piece:

It's awfully easy for an outsider to say what Mary Cheney should have done when family loyalty collided with personal conviction. Those who would judge her choices ought to walk a mile in her sandwich board.

Touche.

The writer takes a cliche ("walk a mile in her shoes" or "walk a mile in his moccasins") and tweaks it, so that something stale becomes something fresh, something old is rejuvenated.

There's your writing tool: Avoid cliches in general [see Tool 16], but if you use one, tweak it. For memory's sake, let's give this touched-up cliche a name by turning that opening interjection into a noun: Call it a touche.

The first touche I remember reading came from my friend Neil Skene, who once wrote a great story about an elephant, Colonel Joe (always get the name of the elephant) that escaped from the circus and disappeared into the Florida wild. Here's his classic paragraph from a Dec. 3, 1977 edition of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times:

A bad wheel bearing forced one driver to unload Colonel and two other elephants. They were nervous and excited. It was Colonel's big chance, and he did the Baby Elephant Walk into the wilderness. Some searchers wondered whether Colonel now knows he misbehaved, but is simply afraid to come back and face the music.

So, from now on, replace that cliche with a touche.

-- Roy Peter Clark, vice president & senior scholar