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How do you decide when to use or not use cliche?

The most important thing to understand is what cliche is: replacement of thought with a shorthand representation of thought.

Technically, I suppose, all writing is just that, but in the case of cliche, it's a bit more insidious. The tendency of many of us is to whip right through the thought and jot it down.

Cliches are shortcuts. Instead of forming the whole thought, we skip right ahead to the description of the thought neatly provided by common words and phrases. This is the antithesis of poetry, where the thought itself is supposed to be examined and presented in a unique way.

So, it is correct to say, 'it's fine to use them with a twist' -- because then what you're doing is taking advantage of the audience's prediliction to jump to conclusions based on cliche, and then leading them down a new path and opening up a new line of thought.

When a cliche merely fits in the line, both literally and metaphorically, it is the sign of a lazy writer.

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Monkeys

There are no monkeys here. If you're looking for monkeys, go away. Well, actually there are monkeys, but they're of the hairless variety that writes poetry and such. If that's not what you're looking for move along. 

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