Write Wow!

Writing tips and techniques from the publisher of Swimming Kangaroo Books. Send your 3-page writing sample to be critiqued to dindy@swimmingkangaroo.com with the word "critique" in the subject heading. Your submission will be critiqued on the blog, but your name will not be used unless you give permission.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Similes and Metaphors

As posted in the Southern Review

http://www.anvilpub.net/southern_review_of_books.htm

Every year, English teachers from across the country submit their most amusing similes and metaphors gleaned from high school essays. Here are some of the winners from 2007:

bullet He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
bullet She grew on him like she was a colony of E.Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
bullet She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
bullet Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
bullet John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
bullet Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
bullet The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
bullet It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
bullet He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

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