: Re: Ways of presenting a metaphor/simile/analogy This is something I wrote (adult content—and very bad description of sex): Strangely, it didn't feel much like sex. I felt we were just exchanging

@Pierce369

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By definition, similes always make the fact that you're making the comparison explicit.

He was as slippery as an eel, or else a very slippery thing.
She was somewhat slippier than a bee.

Metaphors on the other hand don't make the comparison explicit and leave the audience to figure this out on their own.

Mike was a lion in the Giants' backfield, roaming through the Astroturf like it was the Serengeti and not merely tackling but physically destroying his prey.

Okay, there was a simile wrapped up inside there, but the overall point was that Mike is not literally a big cat, but a stealthy, hard-hitting linebacker.

It's my experience that we tend to use metaphor a lot more than we realize but otherwise, it's really personal preference and what sounds better to you in a given situation. There is no real hard and fast rule as to when to use the one versus the other. Sometimes you want to be subtle, sometimes you don't.

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