The Original Simile
Here is a little game that you can play.
Its intention is to strengthen
your facility with the original simile. The object here is to think up
a simile that you haven't heard before. Smooth as silk will not do.
Try to think of something smooth that you haven't heard used in that
connection. Chocolate pudding perhaps?
We suggest that you work
quickly. Five minutes for the whole list. If you work quickly enough,
your internal censor will not get a chance to stifle your efforts.
On the other hand you may be the sort that likes to take a lot of time,
that's OK, too.
Step 1
Start by filling in these similes. Let your creativity flow. Don't worry.
We won't be looking at your work.
Step 2
Now we proceed to the twisted simile.
Select six or eight of the most satisfactory similes you just created, and
and mix them up. That is, move words from the right side of the like
or as and connect them with the words on the left side from another
line.
To move the words or phrases
- highlight the words you want to move.
- Select Cut from the Edit menu.
- Click at the point you want the words moved to.
- Select Paste from the Edit menu.
You will find you now have some more interesting similes, if more
peculiar.
For instance, if you had written
as common as dirt
and
as
rich as Bill Gates
That wouldn't be all that interesting, since both of
those are extremely cliché.
When you swap endings, you have
as common as Bill Gates
and
as rich as dirt
This might prove to be more
thought provoking.
Step 3
The third step to this game is to take your twisted similes and play
around with them.
See if you can turn them into a poem.
It helps if you believe that these mismatched scraps of words came from your
subconscious, and therefore might very well unlock some little bit of
knowledge you have been keeping a secret from yourself. You may be
surprised at what you write.
Please Note!!!
If you have been working here on this page, and if you want to save your work,
do the following:
- Highlight all the work you want to save.
- Select Copy from the Edit menu.
- Go into your word processor and open a new document.
- Select Paste from the Edit menu.
- Save your document.
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