How to create fantastic metaphors.

10 Great Metaphors from Popular Music

• Example #1: Hound Dog (By Elvis Presley)
• Example #2: The Dance (By Garth Brooks)
• Example #3: I’m Already There (By Lonestar)
• Example #4: Hotel California (By The Eagles)
• Example #5: Waterfalls (By T. L. C.)
• Example #6: Everything (By Michael Buble)
• Example #7: Firework (By Katy Perry)

Examples of dead metaphors include: “raining cats and dogs,” “throw the baby out with the bathwater,” and “heart of gold.” With a good, living metaphor, you get that fun moment of thinking about what it would look like if Elvis were actually singing to a hound dog (for example).

1. Choose a character, object, or setting. Say, for example, you’re going to write a metaphor about a soccer goalie.
2. Focus on a particular scene you’re describing.
3. Now think of some other objects that share characteristics you identified in Step 1.
4. Take your metaphor and expand on it.

A simile is a figure of speech that compares two different things in an interesting way. The object of a simile is to spark an interesting connection in a reader’s or listener’s mind. An example of a simile is: She is as innocent as an angel. An example of a metaphor is: She is an angel.

A controlling metaphor is one that dominates or controls an entire literary piece. This literary device is frequently seen in poetry. It is similar to an extended metaphor, which extends over a large portion, but not all, of a literary piece.

A controlling image is similar to a stereotype; an image that is used to incorrectly represent a group of individuals based on racist or sexual notions. The photos to the right are some past and present controlling images in society. Many of these represent traditional gender stereotypes and reinforce racist ideology.Azar 21, 1396 AP

As defined in our glossary, a mixed metaphor is a succession of incongruous or ludicrous comparisons. When two or more metaphors (or cliches) are jumbled together, often illogically, we say that these comparisons are “mixed.”

: a figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often introduced by like or as (as in cheeks like roses) — compare metaphor.

The confusion in using like or as is caused by a lack of understanding of the words’ roles. In formal writing, like is used as a preposition, telling where, when or how the noun in the sentence is doing whatever it may be doing. As is used as a conjunction, joining two clauses.

In a formal environment, “as to” will usually be more suitable regardless of whether you respect or disrespect the subject, while in an informal situation “as for” will be preferred so that you don’t sound “stiff”.Tir 17, 1393 AP

Sometimes writers use words to mean exactly what they say and nothing else. These exact meanings are called literal meanings. Figurative language goes beyond the literal meanings of the words and creates images in the reader’s mind.

Literal language is used to mean exactly what is written. For example: “It was raining a lot, so I rode the bus.” In this example of literal language, the writer means to explain exactly what is written: that he or she chose to ride the bus because of the heavy rain.

other words for literally

• actually.
• completely.
• directly.
• plainly.
• precisely.
• really.
• simply.
• truly.

It’s a way to place emphasis on what they’re trying to say. It becomes a figure of speech, and often what follows is not meant to be taken literally.

It’s a value-neutral term absent of any inherent emphasis or largesse. Correctly, “literally” should be used when a turn of phrase usually employed in a metaphorical sense enjoys a rare moment of non-metaphorical applicability: the phrase becomes true in a literal, words-meaning-exactly-what-they-say sense.