User blog comment:Mr. Pengy/Bad times./@comment-4295646-20111213190044

To elaborate on AlixeTiir's advice, there are clichés, and then there are devices and archetypes and techniques and conventions - and none of these latter are inherently bad. A cliché is made when any of them are simply done too much by too many separate works; but any literary hat trick you can now describe as "tired" or "overused" was fresh and original once. Don't shy away from the familiar.

Of course, it's tough to tell if you've crossed the line. :P But that's what you have constructive critique for.