Good writing, compelling writing is fresh, original and authentic. Cliches drain your writing of those qualities most of the time but not always.

My advice is when in doubt avoid them, but if one feels right to you, sit with it a while before you delete it. It might just be the best wording for the point you’re trying to make.

Another point is that cliches are, many times, the identifying voice of a character in your book. You see, we all use cliches in our speech, so you wouldn’t want to strip the dialogue of all cliches. Leave them in the conversation when they add to the personality of individual characters.

When using clever wording in your book, a good goal to keep in mind is to keep it fresh and try for original phrasing rather than the phrasing you hear every day.  It’ll make your book more interesting for your readers.