Metaphors, Analogies, and Similes, Oh My!

Metaphors, Analogies, and Similes, Oh My!

We all have our personal reading preferences, whether we acknowledge them or not. Things that make us click “buy” on Amazon after checking out the “Look Inside” feature or buying a book from the local bookstore after reading the first few pages. Sometimes it’s simply a specific genre, sometimes it’s themes we are drawn to, sometimes it’s an author’s voice, or maybe it’s a particular author for whom we’ll click “buy” automatically for each new release without bothering to “Look Inside.” 

For me, the deal maker or breaker for my book purchases and recommendations is language—swoon-worthy analogies, similes, and metaphors. These gems are collectively known as “figurative language.” I confess I didn’t know this before, but a writer comrade, who happens to have an MFA, enlightened me.

These are the jewels that catch my eye every time, no matter the genre. I may have opened a new book and am lightly reading along thinking—this is good, this is interesting, great dialogue, I can’t believe the character just did that. But if I come across a pitch-perfect analogy, simile, or metaphor, I’m done for.

If you were a fly on the wall, you would observe me as I set the book (or Kindle) down, take a deep breath, and close my eyes, letting the pleasure rush over me. And I admit it, sometimes I burn with envy. Why couldn’t I have thought of that? Being able to express what a character is thinking, feeling, anticipating, regretting, seeing, smelling, hearing with just the right words strung together, by comparing that to something unexpected, is an enviable talent.

Hit the right note and it’s a Beethoven symphony. Do it wrong and it’s fingernails-on-a-blackboard cringe worthy. (See what I did there? An example of a really bad use of cliched figurative language.) I work diligently to hit the right notes in my writing. Sometimes I hear a symphony, other times I cringe.

For this post, I wish I could have gone through every book I own and chosen the best metaphors, analogies, and similes to share, but that would be a task too great. What I can do is share with you a few that I felt worked well from the book I just finished reading, from a couple of my favorites, a few from my book that was just published, When Robins Appear, and the book I’m currently working on.

Just so we’re all on the same page and because I find that the definitions for figurative language tend to get muddled in my mind, I’m providing them from a MasterClass here. “A simile is saying something is like something else. A metaphor is often poetically saying something is something else. An analogy is saying something is like something else to make some sort of an explanatory point. You can use metaphors and similes when creating an analogy. A simile is a type of metaphor.”

Still confused? Me too. For me, it’s a sometimes-I-know-it-when-I-read-it situation. But, regardless of what you call it, if it creates a clear vision in my mind and won’t let go, it has done its job. While I may get blasted by the grammar aficionados out there, if it has the intended effect, I don’t really care what it’s called. So, I’m providing some examples here without labels. I’ve chosen them because they stood out to me or, in my own writing, I felt like it conveyed the feeling I wanted it to.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

“He leapt off the railing, the blackberries in his lap scattering to the deck like buckshot.” 

Blackberries as buckshot? That would never have occurred to me, but it really works and it’s in keeping with where the story takes place.

When Robins Appear by Densie Webb

“I hate sirens at night, slicing through the silence, sharp as a scalpel.” 

This is the first line in my novel and I must have changed it a thousand times. But I think it conveys a visceral feeling of dread, which is what I was going for.

When Robins Appear by Densie Webb

“This parenting business provided all the adrenaline rush of a bungee jump, with me not knowing if the cord would bounce back, yanking me to safety, or snap, plunging me to an agonizing end.” 

This is also in my novel and it’s one of my favorite lines. If you’re a parent, I think you’ll relate.

My untitled work in progress

“My thoughts were jumping around like a hoard of hyperactive kids let loose in a bouncy castle. 

I’ve experienced that before and, for me, it recreated that confused feeling.

Post Birthday World by Lionel Shriver

“He would know with absolute certainty who had rung, heard his voice, been stricken by an opaque terror, and thrown the receiver to its cradle as if it might bite.” 

I’m reading along and it’s like okay, it’s one of those calls that you dread, but then being so afraid of who’s on the other end that you react like it might bite? Genius. 

The Light We Lost by Jill Santapolo

“There are so many kinds of secrets. The sweet ones you want to savor like candy, the grenades that have the potential to destroy your world, and the exciting ones that are more fun the more you share them.” 

Secrets as candy. Secrets as grenades. Wow. Perfection.

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

“The helicopter bucks through chunky air, each drop like a hand slapping a jar, trying to dislodge the last peanut.” 

This is totally unexpected, but can’t you just feel it? 

The March King’s Daughter by Karen Dionn

“I liked the way the nails screeched before they let go, like an animal caught in a trap.”

It’s basically a PhD level of “fingernails against a blackboard.” It’s disturbing (much like the book). But I heard it. And now I can’t forget it.

The Never-Open Desert Diner by James Anders

“To the left of the door, as if mourning for Superman, stood a black metal and glass phone booth.”

One of the more unusual, but it works! It tells you so much about the setting and the time period of the diner.

How do you feel about the use of figurative language in novels? Feel free to share some of your favorites, with or without labels.

—

The fiction bug bit her several years ago and she now has three novels, You’ll Be Thinking of Me, Le Reméde and When and Robins Appear. She also recently had her essay: “Boob Job Regrets: In Appreciation of Your Previously Small Chest,” included in an anthology compiled by Randy Susan Meyers, titled Women Under Scrutiny: An Anthology of Truths, Essays, Poems, Stories & Art. All proceeds from the anthology go to Rosie’s Place in Boston, a sanctuary for poor and homeless women. And her flash fiction piece, The Prank, was in the top ten finalists for Women on Writing’s Summer 2019 Flash Fiction contest.

Website: densiewebb.com

Email: densie.webb@gmail.com

Instagram: densiewebbbooks

BookBub: @densiewebb

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/2I1DoPF

Amazon: https://amzn.to/355CCsu

Twitter: @dlwebb

WHEN ROBINS APPEAR

With a lucrative freelance career and a loving family, Deborah Earle has a life many women would envy. But her daughter, Amanda, is heading to college soon, and Deborah worries about having an empty nest. She thinks another child might be the answer. Her husband, Richard, however, may not be willing to start over so late in life.

Amanda is excited about attending NYU next year, but she meets Graham, a handsome older boy, falls hard, and considers postponing her education to stay close to him. Her mother takes an instant dislike to Graham, but Amanda refuses to let her keep them apart.

As Deborah watches her daughter rush headlong toward heartache on an all-too-familiar path, the secrets lurking in Deborah’s past continue to echo in her present. When tragedy strikes, Deborah faces a future she could never have imagined.

 

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/2I1DoPF

Amazon: https://amzn.to/355CCsu

 

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips