Clinic 46: The Power of Imageries
posted in Writing Clinic |A good cook knows how to use spices and sauces to make food more delicious. But the combination must be right. Too much of any spice can hurt the taste buds.
The same applies to the use of imageries such as similes and metaphors in writing. If used correctly, they add colour and enhance understanding.
A simile states that something is like something else. Here are some examples. Your smile is as sweet as a rose. I feel like an omelette in a frying pan. She is as free as a balloon cut from its string.
A metaphor also states that one thing is like another but in a slightly different way. It pretends that something is like something else. For example, my love is a rose. The moon is a pie. Violence is colour blind. The dawn of a new career is an exciting time. She sailed across the room.
They are both techniques for comparison. They are used to make the abstract visual, the general specific and the complex simple.
Though imageries are handy devices to spice up any type of writing, they can also make it worse. There are two dangers.
1. The imagery may be stale. For example, as busy as a bee, as thin as a scarecrow.
2. It may not work or it may be nonsensical or too far-fetched. Like, for example, I feel like a spaceship hurtling round the earth.
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