John had been sleeping like the dead when his alarm clock screamed like a Banshee at him. It was 1:36 P.M., and John had planned to be up bright and early that morning. His eyelids were as heavy as lead as he wracked his brain for excuses. It had been the mother of all lost weekends. Now he had to pay the piper—he'd missed 1st period again, and the hand of doom was heavy upon his grade in the class.

Here’s a list of 25 cliché statements. They’re antiquated, lazy, and unimaginative. We need to revamp them. One way of revamping is to explore the cliché in more depth. Take, for example, #11 “in the twinkling of an eye.” In a sentence, we’d say, “It happened in a twinkling of an eye.” What is that referring to? An eye that bats eyelashes quickly? What if we wrote: “It happened quick as a flutter of lashes.” Doesn’t that sound better?

Or, take #5, “bull in a china shop.” We’d say, “He ran around like a bull in a china shop.” What is that referring to? An aggressive mammal breaking things in a dainty, delicate location? What if we wrote: “He crushed things like an elephant trouncing a trinket store.”

Finish the list yourself. Rewrite each cliché, infusing new life into the antiquated expression (you don’t need to do #5 or #11 again, so you have 18 to do).

1. absence makes the heart grow fonder
2. as white as a sheet
3. at the drop of a hat
4. between a rock and a hard place
5. bull in a china shop
6. cool as a cucumber
7. end of the road
8. eyes like a hawk
9. free as a bird
10. home is where the heart is
11. in the twinkling of an eye
12. it's a small world
13. no point in crying over spilt milk
14. playing with fire
15. raise the roof
16. red as a rose
17. shop till you drop
18. slept like a baby
19. throw in the towel
20. wearing your heart on your sleeve