Cliches are bad. Archetypes are good.

Both are the same thing. They are characters, subjects, places, or whatever you are writing about, that are familiar enough to your readers that they recognize them easily as people, things, places or whatever that they already know.

The difference between a cliche and an archetype is not what it is, but how good the description is. How well the writer did his/her job.

That’s it. That’s the difference. The only difference.

So —- don’t worry about whether you are creating a cliche or not. Just write the way you feel like writing. Do the best job possible. Check and recheck your writing. Think about your story.

Then forget it and let your readers decide whether what you wrote was a cliche or an archetype.