Figuratively Speaking

This post contains the current challenge ... just follow the link to read the entire post, including the writing prompt and directions.

When I was a teacher, my eighth-grade students often had trouble when it came time to learn about metaphors and similes and other types of figurative language. Confusion crumpled their usually smooth, blank paper faces. “How can a flower be a smile?” they said. “A flower doesn’t even have teeth!”

So I told them that’s why it’s called figurative language. You have to figure it out. And after a while they did figure it out, and they would write very sweet and clunky similes and metaphors that were totally, utterly meaningless.

There’s more to writing similes and metaphors than picking two dissimilar objects and linking them together with or without words such as “like.” Figurative language can do so much more than just pretty up your writing. The best figurative language is rich with meaning. It adds illumination and depth and helps the reader understand something without your having to hit them over the head with it.

To illustrate the point, I read Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street with my students, which is full of masterful metaphors and similes. In one of my favorites, the narrator describes her mother’s hair: “My mother’s hair … is the warm smell of bread before you bake it.” It is a beautiful metaphor that is loaded with meaning. To me, it speaks of nourishment and nurturing and warmth and safety. Of hearth and home and love and other delicious things.

This week's writing prompt:

For this week's challenge, you may write on any topic, in any form. Just try to include one or more meaningful similes and/or metaphors (or other kinds of figurative language) to your writing.

Posting:

Email your entry to me at giennawrites(at)gmail(dot)com. Include a short title, your name or pen name, your fifty words and a link to the rest of your entry.

If you do not have a web site, or do not want to post your writing on your own site, you may submit up to 200 words and I’ll post your entry here in its entirety.

Check the FAQ for more information.

Recommended Reading:

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.

Dictionary of Literary, Dramatic, and Cinematic Terms by Sylvan Barnet et al.

Walking a Fine Line

by Robert

One day a coed walked into the classroom some fifteen minutes late and had to walk right in front of the professor. He stopped what he was saying and just watched her for a second before saying, “I’ll bet you’re about as nervous right now as a whore in church.”

Click here to read more of "Walking a Fine Line."

Potential

by AB

But this house, this house called to me. I would see it while I was out with friends or just strolling through the neighborhood and it would grab me like that guy who catches your eye from across a crowded room. It winked, I smiled. I had to know more about it.

Click here to read more of "Potential."

Grape Juice

by StuckHereWithNoTV

I’m not a flashy margarita, nor am I an exotic chai tea. I’m not a sophisticated cosmopolitan nor am I the-beverage-next-door orange juice. No, I’m just that bottle of grape juice sitting contentedly in the corner while its outgoing friends like milk and coffee occupy the more visible shelf space.

Click here to read the rest of Grape Juice.

Vanity or Flair

by Juliet

For vanity’s sake, she doesn’t mind if she is a hefty spring roll. She wears those dresses so tight like there is no air left inside her body. She (dis)graces the pathway like those pompous grimy cats adorned with blisters and grease. She feels like everybody cherishes how she looks.

Click here to read the rest of "Vanity or Flair."