Is there a way to know if a metaphor is bad or not?
The rolling blades sank the ship.
Here, in this example, blades is a metaphor for dangerous waves.
Above the noose I saw the sun.
Here, noose means water. The water is slowly suffocating the narrator like a noose.
The noose slithered around my body.
Here, noose is a metaphor for snake. The snake can suffocate someone like a noose.
All three metaphors are highly questionable at best, so is there a some sort of thought experiment or techniques to help a writer see if a metaphor is good or bad?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/41937. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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First and foremost, a metaphor needs to be understood. When Shakespeare says "All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances", you are not left wondering a metaphor for what the stage is - Shakespeare tells you.
Your metaphors are all locks without a key - you do not tell the reader a metaphor for what each image is. One has no way to guess that by "rolling blades" you mean waves, for example. In fact, you do not even hint that you're speaking figuratively, except that the literal meaning doesn't make a lot of sense. (Assuming a sea monster made of knives is not part of the story.) You'd have to say "waves like rolling blades sunk the ship".
Once you've addressed that issue, are the images good images? Are blades a good metaphor for waves? This question has already been asked here: How to write a good metaphor?
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