Figurative Language

Using FL adds to a reader's understanding by comparing something known to something unknown.
It is stylish and often creative which are techniques reader's seem to enjoy. It is  stylistic, adds color, livens writing, and makes it vivid.

Use
One example (simple)
Whole paragraph (extended)
Whole essay - (TV as a disease)

Types:
Metaphor
Comparison not using like or as.
ex: 
School is  prison
 Her attempt to play chess was a bad joke
TV as a drug of society
 Sports is an addiction

Simile
Direct comparison using like or as
He paced the floor as nervously as an expectant father did.
She charged through the store like a wild animal in  search of food.

Personification
Giving human qualities to inanimate objects.
The trees waved violently in the angry breeze.
 My car knows when I need it the most, because on those days it usually refuses to start.

Misuses:
Broken
Do not follow
Cooking Pasta is an art form not unlike painting: we need to mix our ingredients carefully a dash of  oil, a sprinkling of parsley, and a pinch of garlic.
Mixed
Peter the Great single-handed, booted Russia  into progress.
Far-fetched
Molly sat with her head in her hands and her eyes on the floor.
Cliché/Dead
dog tired
pretty as a picture
cute as a button,
strong as an ox
down in the dumps
lightning fast