Gut Check

Most writers pride themselves on being imaginative, on doing things that others haven’t tried before. But even the best of them can fall prey to cliché, as Bookgasm discovered when it started to record the number of times novelists--especially those penning crime and suspense fiction--refer to the “solar plexus.” “There are tons of places on the human body where it hurts to be hit, but ‘solar plexus’ seems to be the fave,” BG explains. To prove its point, the site has added a Solar Plexus Watch page, on which can already be found these gems, with more to come:

“Another second and he would wheel oh so unexpectedly and put a move on Bishop, probably a punch to the face or the solar plexus.”--DAMNATION STREET by Andrew Klavan

“By the time I boarded, Ali was nowhere to be found, and I was left feeling as if I’d been kicked in the solar plexus.”--POWER PLAY by Joseph Finder

“A pair of hands built for wrapping around glass mugs clamped under my solar plexus and squeezed.”--AMERICAN DETECTIVE by Loren D. Estleman

“Authors, consider yourself on full alert!,” concludes Bookgasm.