Metaphor Mini-Challenge
Nov 18, 2019
“In its most basic form, a metaphor is a collision between ideas that don’t belong together. It jams them together and leaves us to struggle with the consequences.” -
Pat Pattison: Writing Better Lyrics: The Essential Guide to Powerful Songwriting
We’ve all struggled from time to time with lyrics that feel stale. We may know exactly what we want to get across, but can’t figure out how to say it with color, depth and emotional complexity.
There are many ways that we can improve our lyrics, but incorporating metaphor is like adding spices to an unseasoned dish. You go from having something that’s edible but bland, to a dish that everybody clamors for a second helping of.
Here are some classic examples:
“I want to live, I want to give. I’ve been a miner for a heart of gold.” Neil Young, Heart of Gold
“I got that sunshine in my pocket, got that good soul in my feet.” - Justin Timberlake, Can’t Stop the Feeling
But metaphors can be tricky.
They’re creative and non-technical, and therefore a little bit of magic and inspiration is certainly involved.
So, how do we learn to write metaphors?
Well . . . when learning how to write better songs, we use exercises like mini-challenges, free-writes, and writing with restrictions to train our writing muscles. Then when inspiration strikes, we are prepared and practiced! We have the skill and muscle memory to harness that bolt of creative energy and get a great song out of it.
The same theory applies to writing metaphors.
We can do certain exercises that train our minds to think metaphorically and see opportunities for powerful “collisions” of words, as Pat Pattison puts it.
That’s what this exercise is designed to do. It’s actually adapted from his book, and we highly recommend reading the entire thing.
But for now, let’s get down to it and write some metaphors!
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Metaphor Mini-Challenge
Step 1: Pick a noun that you feel has some intrigue and depth.
Ex. Highway.
Step 2: Identify an emotional characteristic you associate with that noun.
Ex. Highway: Solitude
Step 3. List 3 verbs, 3 adjectives & 3 nouns that relate (even loosely) to the emotional characteristic you’ve associated with your noun. Get creative!
Ex. Solitude
Verbs: marches, echos, remembers
Adjectives: lonely, vast, silent
Nouns: skyline, full moon, tumbleweed
Step 4. Create at least 3 interesting metaphors using combinations of these words or your initial noun. (Remember that, in order for it to be a metaphor, there needs to be some conflict between the two words. It should not make literal sense. For instance, “vast skyline” would not be a good combination because vast is an adjective that literally describes skyline.)
Ex. The lonely skyline looms over the highway.
Ex. The tumbleweeds echo voices of past travelers.
Ex. I watch from the highway as the full moon marches across the sky.
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You can see that this is an easy and effective way to practice the art of creating metaphors. Use this as a trick when you’re stuck with lyrics or as a daily practice to improve your metaphorical writing.
We hope you enjoy this exercise! If you do, post your results in the comments below and we’ll enter you to win 10% off one our future workshops!
Happy writing,
Allie & Bess
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