I know I risk sounding like an English teacher when I use the words “figurative language.” The phrase may sound frightening but figurative language will make your writing more interesting evocative and memorable. And who doesn’t want that –even in non-fiction? Here are some examples of figurative language:
• allusion
• hyperbole
• metaphor
• oxymoron
• personification
• paradox
• simile
I read widely and follow many forms of media, keeping my eyes and ears attuned to figurative language so I can share a piece of it with you each week.
Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about two metaphors from Steven Galloway…. I read the Steven Galloway novel The Cellist of Sarajavo in 2013 and found it slow going. Set in Bosnia, in the 1990s, when 22 people are killed […]
The figurative language of Steven Galloway… Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a simile from Martin Cruz Smith… I read, a lot — a minimum of 52 books each year. (See my latest summary here.) That’s why I find it relatively easy to round up
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today with a simile from Clive Thompson… I discovered journalist and writer Clive Thompson when a colleague forwarded to me a video in which he spoke. (Thompson was addressing the urgent question: which is the best implement
The figurative language of Clive Thompson… Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about some metaphors and similes from Dana Goodyear… I live in Vancouver, Canada which is geographically considered to fall within a coastal rain forest. Trouble is, we haven’t had any rain to speak of
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similes and metaphors from novelist Joshua Ferris… I’m a relatively fast reader but it took me more than two months to get through the novel The Unnamed by Joshua
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a metaphor from Karen Auvinen… A few years ago when I was travelling with my family in England, we saw a fox in the backyard of the house where we were staying (in
The figurative language of Karen Auvinen… Read More »
Reading time: Just over 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of metaphors and similes from Richard Wagamese. My friend Ellen recommended to me the 2009 book Ragged Company by Ojibway author Richard Wagamese (pictured above). This tale of a group of homeless people who win a $13.5 million lottery
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a metaphor from Bob Morris… My mother died 10 years ago last month. I still remember the inexorable hours I spent in her hospital room, comforting her, feeding her and negotiating with doctors.
The figurative language of Bob Morris… Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a metaphor from Logan Hill. I started watching the TV show Mad Men rather late — at least a year after the series had begun in 2007. Impressed by the acting, the set design, the
The figurative language of Logan Hill… Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a simile from Jean Dominique Bauby… The 1998 memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly won me over when I read it earlier this year. The book allows a French editor — in his own
The figurative language of Jean Dominique Bauby… Read More »
