A metaphor is a figure of speech that creates an analogy between two things or ideas by describing them as being the same. Metaphors are very useful when you want to paint a mental picture of your setting. They help to create vivid imagery while also promoting word economy. In addition, the choice of metaphor can help to establish the mood for a given scene, as the following two examples show.

        The math wing hallway stretched on for miles. It was like a parade route, and I was the clown, smiling my way through bruising elbows and hard shoves, acting like it was all so funny when really I just wanted to hide in the bathroom and cry.

Now take a look at the same setting described with different imagery.