“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Forrest Gump

The above iconic line from the movie Forrest Gump uses a simple metaphor to show the unpredictability of life.

I wanted to improve my writing and inject some heart-thumping drama into my words. One way to do that? Metaphors- those little magic tricks that can transform writing from average to good. After my deep dive into the metaphorical ocean, I surfaced with five tips for crafting better metaphors. Hopefully, you’ll find these useful, too.

A quick recap for anyone unsure of the difference between a simile and a metaphor.

A simile compares one thing to another using ‘like’ or ‘as’, whereas a metaphor compares one thing to another without using ‘like’ or ‘as’.

‘Parenting is like a battlefield’ is a simile.

‘The battlefield of parenting’ or ‘parenting is a battlefield’ are metaphors.

“I felt like a racehorse in a world without racetracks’ from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a metaphor as it conveys the frustration of being full of potential but having no outlet to fulfil it.

1. Metaphors are used to show emotion. 

The two examples below of using metaphors to show emotion are from Revision and Self-Editing by James Scott Bell.

‘Pins pricked her from the inside out.’ 

‘Shock stole her breath.’

In the example below, the verb ‘lengthen’ helps us visualise the mother’s slow movements as she tries not to wake them (from How Fiction Works by James Wood).

‘the tongue of the door slowly lengthen in the lock’ from To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf,

2. A powerful metaphor compares two opposites 

Familiar metaphors such as ‘falling in love’ or ‘surfing the Web’ are so well-known that readers skim over them.

Fresh metaphors excite readers. This is a technique known as defamiliarisation. (From First You Write a Sentence by Joe Moran).

An example of a fresh metaphor is ‘We are all monsters, and we are all beautiful’ from Marie Lu’s book The Young Elite.

‘He was the storm, wild and relentless, while she was the calm, steady and unyielding’ from Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi.

3. The best metaphors reflect the tone of the book, film or TV show

‘Fear is a phoenix. You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return.’ From Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo.

‘The strongest steel is forged through the hottest fires.’ From the Shadowhunter Chronicles series by Cassandra Clare. This reflects the theme of hardship making people stronger.

In the TV show Breaking Bad, the pink teddy bear in the pool symbolises Walter White’s guilt and the collateral damage of his actions—a haunting metaphor for the destruction he causes to those around him.

In The Matrix film, the choice between the red and blue pills represents the struggle between facing harsh truths (red) and living in blissful ignorance (blue)- a metaphor for free will. The red and blue pills are also an allegory for transgender people, where in the 1990s, transgender women were commonly given Premarin, maroon tablets,  for hormone therapy and Prozac, blue tablets, for depression. 

4. Metaphors can be used to reflect the theme 

Some notable examples from movies of how dialogue can metaphorically reflect themes:

• “Take her to the moon for me, okay?” From Inside Out (2015).

‘Take her to the moon’ is a metaphor for fulfilling dreams in the face of personal sacrifice.

• “In times of crisis, the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers.” From Black Panther (2018).

The above metaphor reflects the film’s themes of leadership and global responsibility.

Examples of books where metaphors reflect the theme are as follows:

• “A book is a loaded gun in the house next door.” From Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Books serve as a metaphor for dangerous ideas reflecting the theme of censorship and the power of knowledge.

These examples illustrate how dialogue can transcend literal meaning, using metaphors to provide deeper insight into characters, themes, and emotional undercurrents.

5. How do you create a good metaphor?

The below two techniques are from Revision and Self-Editing by James Scott Bell. 

A) Write the subject at the top. For example, dull eyes. Dull like what? 

List twenty different images, regardless of how stupid these seem. 

Take a look at the list. If none of them work, try again. Write another twenty.

B) Write a description; don’t worry if it’s a cliche, and find ways to make it fresh.

‘She looked a million dollars.’

‘She looked a million bucks tax-free.’ (Harlan Ellison) (from Revision and Self-Editing by James Scott Bell)

And Finally!

There are no rules. Mixed metaphors, where the writer blends two or more metaphors in a single passage, should generally be avoided. But Shakespeare often mixed his metaphors for dramatic effect. 

‘Take arms against a sea of troubles.’ From Hamlet.

Happy writing!