Can a story be "spiced up" or "flavoured" with details?

Solution 1:

First, you are free to use such comparisons or figurative uses even if they are not attested. That said, people definitely use spice up (and even specific spices) to describe enlivening up a story or other non-food item. My first result was in the entry for *mirch masala, n." in the Oxford English Dictionary. It's literally a mixture of spices including chili. It also has a figurative use:

2. figurative (in Indian English). Interest, excitement, or piquancy; exaggeration or hyperbole, esp. used to spice up a news story. Cf. masala n. 2, mirch n. 2.

An English lexicographer saw fit to explain this usage by using the phrasing "used to spice up a news story." Indeed, "spice, v." has this meaning in 1b.:

b. figurative. To season, to affect the character or quality of, by means of some addition or modification; usually with with. Also (colloquial) with up, to enliven, to make more interesting or racy.

Recent instances abound! A quick search on Google News for "spice up" featured nonliteral uses in half of the top results:

Out of your other two words, "seasoned" works less well because one common nonliteral use refers to people with more experience (a "seasoned employee"). Meanwhile, I had trouble finding non-literal uses of "flavored," though I've seen "flavor" as a noun used to describe variety, as Merriam-Webster mentions. You could use context to differentiate either of these, but they wouldn't be as well recognized. "Spiced up" is the expression du jour for enhancing a story.

Solution 2:

Those are food-related words, sure, but it is a common to use those to describe writing and all sorts of other things, in the sense of adding "spice" or "flavor" to make things more interesting or evocative (The Free Dictionary, Glean). "Seasoning" is probably less common in that context, but the beautiful thing of metaphor is that you can use words out of their normal place to describe anything you want to, really.

• "My story was fine, but I decided to add some background details for flavor."
• "You could try to spice up the story by describing more of the characters' interactions."
• "The storytelling is a little dry; perhaps it needs a bit more seasoning."