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While you have to
wonder about Aristotle’s priorities, when it comes to writing fiction,
mastering metaphors can be critical. Good metaphors are delightful to read and
to write. By finding similarities in two seemingly disparate things, the writer
is able to go beyond the material level and reach into the essence of things.
"The
greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor." Aristotle
For a reader, a metaphor can create an image or explain a feeling in a much
clearer way than direct narrative ever could. I remember reading in some book,
“Her breasts were two small pancakes, and rode high on her ribs.” I forgot the
book, but I never forgot that metaphor because it was such an original
comparison and it made me see her pancake
breasts.
Like the above
example, a metaphor must compare two sufficiently different things. “The Honda
puttered down the street like a horse drawn carriage”, is not a good metaphor.
The two objects being compared are not fundamentally dissimilar. A good
metaphor must also compare two things that readers are used to seeing linked.
Clichéd lines like, “The snow was a cold blanket” or “She ate like a pig,” do
not create images since readers have read them so many times before.
Some people are
naturally good at creating original metaphors; others need to work at it. If
metaphor doesn’t come naturally for you, one good way to improve is to simply
pay attention to the world around you. Try to think, “What does that rose
remind me of?” “What does that man’s face look like?” If you start consciously
asking yourself such questions, your mind will get in the habit of connecting
melons to faces and stop watches to subtlety. They may not all be good comparisons, but you will be headed
in the right direction.
A word of caution;
don’t let your desire to make connections, cause you to link things that really
shouldn’t be linked. In a published book to be left unnamed, the author wrote,
“He sat stolidly beside the corpse, waiting for the medical examiner as
patiently as a man waiting for a turkey sandwich.” Huh? Bad metaphors cause your readers to mistrust you and
your sense of reality. If you think it’s the same thing to wait for a sandwich
and to wait beside a corpse, then maybe you don’t have a firm grasp on the
world. At least not the world in which I’m living.
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