Monday, July 5, 2010

Like a... like a... like a...

Going back through my work I notice a hell of a lot of analogies. The layout of the room, the weather, facial expressions or behaviour all seem to include an analogy in some shape or another.  This gets me thinking - are analogies a help or a hindrance to creative writing?

Do they really help set the scene or just block some of the reader´s imaginative flow?

Take the following example.

Scene : An old woman and a young boy are sharing a train compartment.

He turned on his mp3 player, the music blaring in the silent compartment. She looked  across at him, her face screwed up like a piece of old newspaper. ¨Would you keep it down!¨.

OR

He turned on his mp3 player, the music blaring in the silent compartment. She looked across at him. ¨Would you keep it down!¨

For me, the little newspaper addition gives me quite a nice visual, however I could probably imagine it without the analogy included.

Anyway, I am looking forward to your ideas. See if you can guess the following analogies. Feel free to post your own!



6 comments:

Rosaria Williams said...

Analogies keep the scene real! I dropped in from The Smitten Image. This is a very interesting topic you're approaching.

Lia Victoria said...

Like a (fish) out of water and a fly on the wall?

Don't have a clue about the cow.

Interesting topic! :]

wordsareforwriting said...

Hey Lia. Here are the answers!

1) A duck to water

2) A bull in a china shop

3) A moth to a flame.

beth said...

i love analogies or metaphors....they make me keep reading and wanting more :)

Hilary said...

Analogies can be wonderful and colourful but can easily be overdone. I've put books down because I've felt that an author is just trying to prove how flowery she/he can make their words rather than portray a the precise image. Love the visuals. I would have thought that the first one was "Like water rolling off a duck's back" Fun stuff

Lia Victoria said...

Oh! Haha, I was quite off :]