So, it's been a while...

I've been neglecting my corner of the Blogosphere these past many months, mostly because I've been busy writing for a living as a newspaper reporter.
But, in any case, I've had some pretty interesting experiences over the last few months, and learned a lot about writing not as an academic pursuit, or an artistic endeavor, but as a trade, more akin to carpentry than painting.
And one of the things that I have noticed in the world of the working writer is the tendency to fall into cliches.
It's easy, we all do it sometimes, when you've got to slap together a story before deadline and, to be honest, it hardly captures your attention, let alone fires your imagination, it's easy just to plunk some words down on the page.
But I've decided to start compiling a list of cliched leads. A few examples, so far:

X isn't just for Y anymore.
Y is the new Z.
Did you ever wonder where X comes from?

and many more, I'm just starting, but I'm going to be keeping a close watch from now on!