Resist the Urge

Dear Authors:

Please resist the urge to use the tired, unimaginative, fluff phrase "resist the urge." SHOW us what the character did or thought instead. And if you can't do that, then rework the scene so that resisting an urge isn't required.

For example, in Kevin Wilson's otherwise imaginative book, The Family Fang, he has one of the main characters with a drinking problem resist the urge to drink before her boyfriend picks her up for a trip. Wilson could have shown more of the character by writing something like, "She locked herself in the bathroom and painted her toenails because she couldn't drink and paint at the same time, and she really wanted to drink."

In Bill Crider's otherwise good book, The Wild Hog Murders, his main character, Sheriff Dan Rhoades, resists the urge to hum a tune from an old 1960s television drama. Okay, but Crider could have written something like, "I thought humming the tune from Bonanza would make it seem like I didn't care, so I said..."

p.s. My daily word-a-day experiment didn't last very long. I'm not good with Obligations, and posting every day is the very definition, but I'll try not to resist the urge when it comes upon me.