Figures of speech are words and phrases not intended to be taken literally. Most familiar ones — the apple of my eye, life is a bowl of cherries, hungry as a horse — have been used for so long that all connection to their literal sense has been lost. They don’t bring a vivid image to mind. They’re clichés. Avoid them.

If you want to make readers see something or understand something the way you saw or understood it, stop and think: How does it strike you? Were those strawberries more fragrant than any perfume? Were they plump like juicy red marshmallows?

Don’t force it. It’s better to do without figures of speech than to write foolish ones: