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Figurative Language

The joy of writing 56,000 words in thirty days on the story of my life was simply too exhausting and too much fun to describe in detail. 

Indeed the sleep deprived nights, aching muscles, sore, gritty eyes, and coffee irritable temperament that had my husband thanking his lucky stars that he went to work each day is something that Stephen King might be pushed to describe. 

Suffice it is to say that when November 30th rolled around and I had submitted my document with word count intact, I thanked God I still lived.

When at last my certificate of "Winner-hood" arrived, I was ready to start again for the coming year. 

Have a wonderful time, accomplish something and get something in return--what else could a writer wish to receive.   Come out this year and have fun.   dorry  NanoMo Writers Month

 Figurative language: All language that involves figures of speech or symbolism and does not literally represent real things

 1. Hyperbole: This is an exaggeration, deliberate and exaggerated, used for effect.

 Used effectively, this device helps the author needs to create in the reader’s mind the importance of the concept or idea.

“I could eat a million of these.”

“I wish I were a fly on the wall.”

 Note: This device is close to another writing device, Idioms, described later.  It is the exaggeration of the comment that makes the difference.

 2. Onomatopoeia: Imitative: imitative of the sound associated with the thing or action denoted by a particular word. Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound it represents.[i]

 Appropriately, this word, in itself, has a wonderful sound and this is one way to remember its use.  Words such as these help the writer to avoid unnecessary punctuation to create the effect.

Some examples are swish, whoosh, crack, splash, wow, gush, buzz, crash, whirr, clang, hiss, purr, squeak, mumble, hush and boom. 

 3. Similes: A figure of speech that draws a comparison between two different things….and contains the word “like” or “as”.

 Similes relate to Metaphors [see below] in that they both compare two or more items.  The basic difference between the two is the words ‘like’ or ‘as’ or ‘as if’.  One of these words is required for a proper simile, but not found in a comparative metaphor.

Some examples are, “as white as a sheet”, "fresh as a daisy," "tough as leather," "comfortable as an old shoe," "it fits like the paper on the wall," "gay as a lark," "happy as the day is long, pretty as a picture."

 4. Metaphors: The use of a word or phrase not meant literally but to make a comparison to somebody or something. It draws a comparison between two different things…yet does not contain the word, ‘like’ or ‘as’. 

A metaphor is actually a condensed simile, for it omits "as" or "like." It leaves more to the imagination. It is a shortcut to the meaning and sets two unlike things side by side allowing the reader to see the likeness between them, sometimes without mentioning the name of the item.

 Some examples are ‘He is a pig.’, ‘Thou art sunshine.’, ‘Her hand is a slender ivory sculpture’ and consider these comparisons,  ‘a steely gaze’, ‘purple prose’, ‘an ironclad attitude’, ‘frigid disposition’, ‘a hot temper’. *

5. Personification:  The attribution of human qualities to objects or abstract notions or a representation of an abstract quality or notion as a human being, especially in art or literature. In more natural language, personification is giving human qualities to animals or objects.

 This may be one of the more common devices even though, as writers, we may not realize we are using it.   Some examples are ‘a smiling moon’, ‘a jovial sun’, words providing human qualities to inanimate objects.

In "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath, for example, the mirror is the "I" in the first line.

“I am silver and exact.
I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful….” **

Sylvia Plath wrote the entire poem as a personification.  The mirror has taken on the characteristics of a human.

 6. Idiom: A fixed expression with a non-literal meaning.  In other words, an idiom is a fixed, distinctive and often colorful expression.  ‘Heart of gold’, in which the meaning of the phrase can’t be understood from the individual words or from a combined meaning of them.

 Often confused with a metaphor, this language is actually quite different.  For example in the idiom ‘at the eleventh hour’ the words are not comparing anything, but rather using a colorful expression, usually well known, to say to say one thing yet mean something different, ‘at the last minute’.

Here are some more… ‘as easy as pie’, ‘bad-mouth’ (as a verb), ‘a piece of cake’, ‘call it a day’, ‘catch one's eye’, ‘catch some Zs’, ‘can't make heads or tails of it’, ‘jump all over him’, ‘jump the gun’, ‘raining cats and dogs’, ‘read her mind’, ‘rub him the wrong way’, and one of my favorites, ‘until hell freezes over’.  A great internet link for a complete listing of Idioms is http://www.eslcafe.com/idioms/id-list.html

 7. Allegory: A work in which the characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically expressing a deeper, often spiritual, moral, or political meaning. 

 Less understood by writers, this language could be a powerful tool in the author’s kit. The underlying meaning of a story has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy. Stories labeled as literary are often allegories. Thus, an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. A couple of examples would be Fairie Queen by John Spenser or Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan.***

8. Paradox:  A self-contradictory statement or, in other words, a statement or proposition that contradicts itself. A paradox reveals a kind of truth, which at first seems contradictory. An example of this figurative form of language is ‘Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage’. 

 How about this paradox, ‘This sentence is false.’  Is that sentence true or false?

Consider, if the statement is false then it is true and, if the statement is true then it is false. 

As an appropriate ending, check out this paradoxical notice-****

 Is this a paradox?  

 Hope this helps at some point in your writing.   dorry

 Debbie Wilson’s WSJC Writers Monthly Meeting Program

 Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

 * The Family Website of the Nellens,   http://www.tnellen.com

 **The website for the background and poetry of Sylvia Plath, http://www.sylviaplath.com

 *** I think this is the author, but don’t quote me.

 ****Information on the paradox, http://www.wordsmith.demon.co.uk/paradoxes/#catch

   A wonderful source for creative thinking, mental robotics and learning to 'think out of the box'.  Highly recommended--learn to place the feed on your blog, homepage or website.

http://feeds.braingle.com/braingle/mind