Writing Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for the craft of professional writing, including fiction, non-fiction, technical, scholarly, and commercial writing. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Can we use personification this way?
Say
His bold eyes swam through the forest.
Instead of saying:
He boldly ran through the forest.
I am wondering if this type of metaphorical language is accepted, or there are clear rule against such liberal use of figurative language.
There are very few 'rules' in writing. There are conventions. For example, diaries usually use the first-person narrative perspective. Conventions can be broken if you have a good reason to do. In fiction, there is no convention against using figurative language.
However, you do need to consider whether an image works. For me this one doesn't because when I think of swimming I think of arms, legs, water and splashing. I can't see eyes doing breaststroke, for example.
