WRITING PROMPT: UNUSUAL ANALOGIES
A PROMPT FOR SHORT FICTION OR POETRY:
Writing prompts can do more than get our juices flowing. Using the impetus of the prompt, the author wiggles through a tiny crack in reality, to a place of inspired imagination.
Not all prompts are a giant turn-on. Not all prompts interest everyone. Some seem ho-hum. But neither am I excited to use all of the exercise equipment at the gym. The more exercises I do, however, the more I work a range of muscles.
The same is true with doing writing exercises, following prompts. When we work our imagination muscle, we improve our skills — description, construction, development. And we expand our repertoire—breadth, depth, and the magical ability to connect with the reader.
The following prompt can help you develop depth in your writing, create surprise, and keep a reader excited for more.
PROMPT
Write a story or poem that creates an unusual analogy.
EXAMPLE:
She was a secret staircase . . .
PROCESS:
Select your subject:
“She” – a woman unnamed
“My love . . .” or other metaphysical concept
“Sorrow” – or other emotion
Something else
Select an analogy:
Reach for something off the beaten path, unusual – something you wouldn’t normally associate with your subject.
“She” — She hid in the corner like a secret staircase in an old house: unexpected, slightly dangerous, curiously tantalizing.
“My sorrow” — My sorrow was a museum after closing time, a keep, holding hollow echoes of what once was relevant.
“My love” — My love a smuggled seed in winter, small enough to hide, stubborn enough to become a forest in spring.
Imagine an analogy and then try its opposite:
She was accessible, like a staircase, taking me to great heights. Versus: She hid in the corner like a secret staircase . . .
Love is large, like a forest, but it starts small. Versus: My love a smuggled seed . . . become a great forest.
Example — from novel: Song of Solomon
Subject: “She”
Analogy: Beer
Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon” –
“She was the third beer. Not the first one, which the throat receives with almost tearful gratitude; nor the second, that confirms and extends the pleasure of the first. But the third, the one you drink because it’s there, because it can’t hurt, and because what difference does it make?”
Here are my attempts to follow Morrison’s example:
She was the 5th flight of stairs. Not the first one, the thigh and calf muscles cheerfully take two at a time; nor the second flight, that proves the prowess of the bounder. But the fifth, the flight you climb not for exercise but for spite, because pain is supposed to make you stronger.
She was the moon. Not the stars the dreamers reach for to hitch a ride on. Not the Milky Way that carries us to new territory. But the moon, the sphere you can reach with a ladder, you can practically touch with your hand.
Go ahead, give it a try! Or try something else.
Just Keep Scratchin’!
