Metaphors
by Kimn Swenson Gollnick
I keep a notebook where I've made it a habit to write down pieces of prose that I enjoy during my reading time. Here you'll find interesting
metaphors, including some used in characterization. This is "show," not "tell." See why you think they are effective, starting
with a quote describing metaphors, by Anne Lamott.
"Metaphors are a great language tool, because they explain the unknown in terms of the known. But they only work if they resonate in
the heart of the writer."
--
Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott (c.1994, Pantheon Books), p. 77
"Eyes closed, [Jack] slipped back into the dream where he
soared within the cavernous Grand Canyon, past fern-decked alcoves and springs that burst from the rock like fountains
of gems. Beneath him the Colorado River unfurled in a ribbon of silver, winding between walls of orange-red rock...."
--Over the Edge, Gloria Skurzynski and Alane Ferguson (c.2002, National Geographic Society), p.3
"'Nevertheless, [a negative character] trait lives
and matures inside [some people] as insidiously as an eel inside a cave, waiting, even anticipating, the times
when it can strike anything or anyone that threatens."
--Envy, Sandra Brown (c.2001, Warner Books), p.363
"Don't blush. Do not blush! The heat ignored her wishes,
sneaking up her neck like a wave of warmth from an open oven."
--
Bookends, Liz Curtis Higgs (c.2000, Multnomah), p.183
"Jonas punched the chilly air, frustration flowing through
his veins like hot water through a radiator."
--
Bookends, Liz Curtis Higgs (c.2000, Multnomah), p.69
"'I'm not your old buddy, got that?' The voice on the
other end of the phone had grown cold and sharp, poised to kill like a sheet of ice hanging from a shingled roof."
--
Bookends, Liz Curtis Higgs (c.2000, Multnomah), p.245
"Ron went purple in the face; he looked like a radish with a bad sunburn."
--Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling (c.1997, Scholastic Press), p.305
Anne Lamott, speaking of a favorite teacher: "Her hair fell to her chair
like a puppet-show curtain." --
Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott (c.1999, Pantheon Books), p.18
"I couldn't believe my eyes or ears. They were shooting real guns at the blond guy! The
good news was they seemed to miss every shot. The bad news was they turned the wall behind him into a pile of splinters. ...It was
just like the movies. Well, except for the part of nearly getting killed. My heart was pounding like a jackhammer on top of a pogo stick in the
middle of an earthquake." --
My Life as a Screaming Skydiver, Bill Myers (c.1998, Thomas Nelson, Inc.), p.5
"[Riding his bike, Albert had] just begun adjusting to the cars [whizzing by] when he
heard the roar of a powerful engine behind him. An empty logging truck blew past, its horn blasting. From six feet away he watched the blur of
black tires and chrome wheels. The air deadened for an instant and then exploded, swirling around Albert like a small tornado, sucking up dust
and leaves and twigs and tossing them twenty feet in the air." --
The Last Man's Reward, David Patneaude (c.1996, Albert Whitman & Co.), p.24
"Mrs. Strickland...had a way of picking up odd scraps of information, the way birds pick up bright bits of cord or
yarn." --
The Mystery Book Mystery, Wylly Folk St.John (c.1976, Viking Press), p.125
"[Elaine Westover had a] slow, smooth voice. It was a voice like raw silk, smooth but with now and then a small
irregularity, like a heavier thread or slub in the silk, to catch the attention." --
The Mystery Book Mystery, Wylly Folk St.John (c.1976, Viking Press), p.192
"I was already so scared that it's hard to believe I could get a whole lot more frightened, but I did. I felt as
though electric ice water poured through every part of my body, clear down to my fingernails." --
Trapped in Slick Rock Canyon, Gloria Skurzynski (c.1984, reissued 1994, William Morrow & Co. Inc.), p.44
"The village of Mitford was set snugly into what would be called, in the west, a hanging
valley. That is, the mountains rose steeply on either side, and then sloped into a hollow between the ridges, rather like a cake that falls in the
middle from too much opening of the oven door." --
At Home in Mitford, Jan Karon (New York Times Bestseller, c.1994, reprint ed. 1996, Penguin Books), p.16
"We turned on a short side street in front of the funny old house where my grandmother lives. The porch sagged in the middle
like a cantalope rind." --
Lost in Devil's Desert, Gloria Skurzynski (c.1982, William Morrow & Co. Inc.), p.11-12
"The mountains were all different shapes. Some of them had tops like upside-down ice-cream cones; others were round and
flattened as though a big hand had squashed them. The peaks of the high mountains in the distance looked like the chipped edges of Indian arrowheads--
they [rose out of each other] like ocean waves."
--
Lost in Devil's Desert, Gloria Skurzynski (c.1982, William Morrow & Co. Inc.), p.33
"Dirty gray clouds piled up one on top of the other in the sky right over my head, and more streaks of lightning
slashed through the sky. The bottom edges of the gray clouds hung down like torn curtains."
--
Lost in Devil's Desert, Gloria Skurzynski (c.1982, William Morrow & Co. Inc.), p.61
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