: Re: How to Write a Good Metaphor I struggle with metaphors. My attempts are either so wild that no-one understands them, so lame that they break down really easily or so normal that they are indistinguishable

It's a brilliant answer from Amadeus (as always). I'd like to add a technique for when you cannot find a metaphor/simile that hasn't already been overused: distracting with detail.

For example, say I want to describe a man listening to me intently. If I were to write:

Iâ€™ve never met anyone with such focussed attention; he's a bird of prey.

That's a clichÃ©. But you can distract the reader from it with detail:

Iâ€™ve never met anyone with such focussed attention; heâ€™s a bird
of prey and Iâ€™ve snapped a twig in the undergrowth.

Instead of seeing the bird of prey, a boring comparison, the reader sees a mouse, stepping on a twig, alerting the hawk to its presence and endangering its life, which is far less boring, yet still the same boring metaphor.

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: How do I ratchet down expectations in a genre that seems to have gone gonzo? I've done worldbuilding and extensive plotting for a Book 1 based around a "detective" (not a literal detective

@Annie587

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: Create looping patterns within the dialog, such as the order that people speak, and little mannerisms within their speech. Then repeat the pattern a few times. You don't need to be too rigid

@Annie587

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: Archetype or Stereotype? After feedback on character design for my visual novel, my grizzled Noir Detective is drifting into an Old Jazz Musician. There's a reason I post the artwork: what

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: What is this hairstyle called? Now, here is the hairstyle in question: The character in the image has nothing to do with the question itself. It simply was the closest depiction about the

: Re: How to Write a Good Metaphor I struggle with metaphors. My attempts are either so wild that no-one understands them, so lame that they break down really easily or so normal that they are indistinguishable

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: How do I ratchet down expectations in a genre that seems to have gone gonzo? I've done worldbuilding and extensive plotting for a Book 1 based around a "detective" (not a literal detective

: Create looping patterns within the dialog, such as the order that people speak, and little mannerisms within their speech. Then repeat the pattern a few times. You don't need to be too rigid

: Archetype or Stereotype? After feedback on character design for my visual novel, my grizzled Noir Detective is drifting into an Old Jazz Musician. There's a reason I post the artwork: what

: What is this hairstyle called? Now, here is the hairstyle in question: The character in the image has nothing to do with the question itself. It simply was the closest depiction about the

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