That sinking feeling

I've been working on this one story for years. It's so fascinating for me to look back and see all the different variations of it, how much it's changed over so much time. Now that I think about it, things were pretty weird way back when I first started writing it. But now I thought I'd finally gotten it to a point where everything seems to be falling into place, and that I'm happy with what I have.

So of course I had to have the realization that everything I'm writing is terribly cliched.

I'm not really sure how I manged to build up this idea of my story as a paragon of originality and taste (Ha!), but I did. And now the house of cards has fallen. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad. I'd much rather know what's wrong with my writing so I can start trying to fix it, as opposed to existing in a comfortable bubble of self confidence and pride and... no no, reality is better. It's just frustrating, because I thought I had it down, and now I realize there's a lot more to be changed. But I'm not going to give up on it. I WILL get this story down, out of pure spite if nothing else.

The biggest cliches I'm picking up on now are the following:

- An ancient civilization leaves behind clues which the characters follow to use their technology in the epic battle.
- The characters go on a scavenger-hunt style quest around the world to pick up the items they need to solve the mystery.

If anyone has any thoughts on these tropes, like examples of books which use or subvert them, or advice on how to use them to my advantage, I'd be ecstatic to hear them. I could really use some advice right now.