I am back from my long break from blogging. Sorry about the unexplained absence. I have been starting my A Levels and boy, are they stressful and encumbering! I haven't had any time to write, really. Anyhow, I do not think I will be able to blog on this as fluently as I once did, so expect some more lengthy silences.
Well, I think I owe you another piece of advice, since I am back :)
Use metaphors and similes as well as other techniques you can think of to spice up your writing! Using these will make the reader more interested and it will also make your work more inspiring. For instance, if you only said:
"I hate my homeland. It's so boring. I get lost in the streets all the time because they're always changing and being rebuilt,"
the tone may become monotonous thus your reader will quickly lose interest and engagement. However, if you tart that narrative up a bit:
"I hate my homeland. It is a lost, foggy continent on a dark, mysterious sea"
it sounds more inspiring and appealing. Instead of simply stating that their homeland is "boring" and "always changing" hence making the person "lost," they compare it to a "lost, foggy continent" on a "dark, mysterious sea." The idea that it is lost reflects how the narrator is feeling and the adjective "mysterious" suggests that the homeland is hiding its own identity and is not what it seems. This extends the idea of the person feeling lost. If you're interested, the technique used in the previous quote is: a metaphor.
A metaphor is commonly known as: stating that something is something that it is not. But I like to aim for more technical terms. A metaphor is where you compare two things, when literally they are not the same, and effectively suggest that they possess the same qualities. For instance, "My dad is a bear." Let's assume that we understand that the "dad" is not a "bear." Therefore, this statement is untrue, but a message is sent. Comparing the dad to a bear implies that they both have similar characteristics. Because the dad is being compared to the bear, the bear dominates this common ground between them both. Bears are widely known for being violent, vicious and aggressive, therefore we assume that the dad has these qualities. This idea of the bear dominating the common ground is linked into what a metaphor consists of. We're about to go into even deeper detail, so try to get your head around it!
In a metaphor, you have the canon, figure and ground.
Canon: the subject being compared to the object. (Dad)
Figure: the object that the canon is being compared to. (Bear)
Ground: this is the common ground between the canon and the figure; the dad and the bear.
So now you understand metaphors, I think you'll have no trouble at all with using them in your writing. Remember, metaphors are not similes, though. A simile is still comparing something to something else, but it is not saying that they are the same, in a literal way. Similes usually use the word "like" to link the two objects together. For example, "My dad is like a bear." This still creates the same pictures in our minds as the metaphor does, but I like to say that metaphors are more powerful because they defy reality and truth, therefore their meanings are more conspicuous.
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