It was a dark and stormy night... and other clichés

I was writing the other day (no, really, I was!) and it got me to thinking.  As a writer, you hear over and over again to avoid clichés.  But why are they so bad?  After all, they became clichés in the first place because they were so well-loved, right? They are overused because they work.

Let me backtrack a little.  In the scene I was writing, the dashing hero and the object of his desire are running through a sudden rainstorm.  They stop underneath a tiny store window awning and, overcome with emotion, give in to temptation and fall into each other's arms in a passionate kiss.  You see where I'm going with this, right?  You can practically hear Gene Kelly singing in the background for goodness sakes.

I've been staring at it for hours, knowing I should scrap it.  It's cheesy, over-the-top romantic, and utterly cliché ... and I kinda love it.  I can't seem to hit the delete button.  So, like I said, it got me thinking.  Some of my favorite books from big-name authors are teeming with clichés.  How do they get away with it?


I think it's because they own it.  They knew it was cliché when they wrote it, and they did it anyway.  They put their own spin on it, or they paid homage to the original, or they had fun with it, but they used the cliché when it fit, and the strength of their writing made it work.

With that in mind, I think I'll keep the scene.  Heck, maybe I'll poke a little fun at myself and have the musak playing "Singing in the Rain." 

What do you think?