The Voyeur trope, on the other hand, no matter how often it’s been used, still has power if skillfully deployed, especially if the spied-upon scene is transgressive or revelatory.

Maybe it’s also in how it’s used, like someone being sad and its raining outside. Done poorly, it comes across as a cliche. Done well, it seems natural and even inevitable to the mood and setting?

In addition to cliches and tropes, I was wondering about the distinction between a cliche and an archetype. (Taking a shot at answering my own question) Maybe the archetype resonates with us at a deep level, and the cliche is the surface view. Something that’s too cliched never goes deep enough to earn its emotion.

Sam – yeah – really – as long as you can make it work it doesn’t matter how many rules it breaks. Or doesn’t break.

Yeah, exactly. A writer who is being lazy or who isn’t thinking hard about what is going on (or who is very inexperienced) may insert cliches because s/he thinks “they need to go there now to be like these other books.”

Yet a novel like Twilight, which I can’t read, works precisely because of its cliches, which make it a comfort book for its readers.