*sigh*
You know the feeling, don’t you?
You’ve poured all your energy into writing an article. You’ve shared your best tips. You’ve edited each sentence.
But despite all your efforts, your article still feels bland. You know a metaphor would add a dash of fun, and a splash of personality. You’ve seen one writer use food metaphors all the time. But how does she do it? How on earth do you dream up a metaphor?
Start with giving yourself permission to have fun, and allow your mind to wander freely. Create a sense of play, and look for connections between two completely different topics. To make a metaphor work:
- Compare things at the same level—a process to a process, or a thing to a thing
- Add details to make the metaphor vivid—if possible, engage different senses
Shall I show you how?
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Example #1: Make your words flow
Clumsy dancers think one step at a time. But professionals dance with flowing movements.
Your content must also flow from one sentence to the next.
Why this metaphor works:
- The flow of words is compared to the flowing movements of dancers
- The phrase Ballroom dancers floating across the dance floor creates a quick visual impression; words indicating movement like floating are sensory, too
Example #2: Writing a practical guide is like cooking for friends
First, you need to know what they like to eat. Do they like spicy food? Is anyone allergic? What if one of the kids has become a vegetarian?
With writing it’s the same. Think about your audience before picking a topic:
- Are they struggling with the problem you want to write about?
- Do they want to solve this problem?
- Can you help them solve this problem or is the problem too big? Can you narrow it down?
Why this metaphor works:
- The process of writing a guide for your readers is compared to the process of cooking for friends
- The metaphor is told as a mini-story, a sprinkling of details like spicy food and allergies brings the story to life
Example #3: Writing vs cooking skills
Cooking mini-skills are pretty clear.
But writing mini-skills seem fuzzier.
Feeling overwhelmed?
Disentangling writing skills isn’t as hard as you think. You can practice them one by one—just like you can practice kneading, mixing, and grinding.
Why this metaphor works:
- Writing skills are compared with cooking skills; and the process of learning to cook is compared with the process of learning to write
- The details of cooking skills are concrete—you can visualize them immediately
Example #4: If my business was a garden …
Why this metaphor works:
- Visiting a garden is compared with visiting a blog
- The details sketch a quick picture, and the word slurping adds an auditory detail
Example #5: Spice up bland text
- Like a chef tastes a dish before serving, you need to know when your content lacks flavor. You have to spot weak phrases.
- And just like a chef grinds a little extra pepper, sprinkles a few coriander leaves, or drizzles extra lime juice, you need to balance the flavors of your writing, too.
Why this metaphor works:
- Boring content is compared with bland food; spices are compared with strong words; and the process of editing is compared to the process of adding spices to food
- Details like pepper, coriander leaves and lime juice make the comparison sensory
Example #6: The Godiva guide to mouth-watering blog post titles
Do you crave opening the box?
Do you imagine biting the chocolate, tasting the sweet cherry mixed with the bitterness of dark chocolate? Or are you anticipating a rich nuttiness? Divine vanilla?
Your blog post titles should be like that box of chocolates.
When your headlines are lip-smackingly good, readers crave reading your post. You get more readers, more tweets, more likes, and more plusses.
Why this metaphor works:
- The anticipation created by a beautiful chocolate box is compared to the anticipation created by a good blog post title
- The sensory details of sweet cherry, dark chocolate, and rich nuttiness make the metaphor tasty; also note the use of the sensory words mouth-watering and lip-smackingly
Example #7: Throw a party on your home page
You open the door, and see a sea of grey suits.
You see lots of faces, but you don’t recognize anyone. You hear a soft murmur. But no laughter. Not even a smile.
You can’t even figure out where the drinks and snacks are. You feel lost. Lonely.
Wouldn’t you want to turn around and leave? Go to a place where you feel welcome?
This happens on home pages around the web all the time.
You’re not sure where you’ve arrived because the home page is fuzzy. You don’t feel welcome, because the design is too hypey or too bland. And worst of all, you don’t know where to click because it’s cluttered.
Why this metaphor works:
- Arriving at a party is compared to arriving on a home page
- The mix of visual and auditory details (sea of grey suits, soft murmur) helps experience the party
Example #8: Ever heard of a weight weenie?
A weight weenie can’t sleep at night, considering the possibilities of shaving another 2 or 3 grams of the weight of his bike. He is relentless in his pursuit of finding the lightest frame, the lightest seat post, and even the lightest holder for his water bottle. A weight weenie complains in dedicated weight weenie forums about the false claims manufacturers make about the weight of parts.
With my hybrid bike, I can’t play in the league of weight weenies. But I do obsess about the weight of words and sentences.
If you want to engage your readers and captivate their attention until the last sentence of your blog post, you need to become a word weenie, too.
Why this metaphor works:
- What slows cyclists down (a heavy bike) is compared to what slows readers down (the “weight” of too many words)
- Details like the lightest water bottle holder help you picture a weight weenie
Example #9: My imaginary restaurant
A tapas-style menu. With Spanish dishes and a few of my Asian favorites. A good wine list, plus a decent selection of beers from across the world.
I’d have simple wooden tables and chairs. An eclectic mix of art and photographs on the wall. Or maybe I’d ask the local school for a few children’s drawings each month.
When we think about our blog, we tend to think about material things, too. Topic selection, fonts, colors, writing style, post structure. (…)
[But a] restaurant isn’t just about a menu and interior design. There’s something far more important. Something more difficult to describe. It has to do with atmosphere, feeling, and personality.
Why this metaphor works:
- The tangible and intangible aspects of a restaurant help explain the tangible and intangible aspects of a blog, which feels more abstract than a restaurant
- Visual details help you picture my imaginary restaurant
Example #10: Ever assembled a flat-pack bookcase?
Now imagine a flat pack from hell…
You struggle to decide which parts are just packaging. You need to cut loose a few parts because they’re glued together in the wrong place. A few parts are dirty. And a couple of screws are so rusty you need to replace them.
Editing a first draft is like assembling a flat pack from hell.
You need to re-arrange, clean, and polish your first draft.
You need to write the missing parts. And throw away excess parts.
Why this metaphor works:
- The process of assembling a bookcase is compared to the process of editing—the parts of a bookcase (shelves and screws) are like the parts of an article (paragraphs, sentences and words)
- Details like missing parts and rusty screws help visualize the idea of assembling a flat pack from hell
Example #11: The breadmaker technique allows you to blog fast
Add the following ingredients to the bread pan in the order listed:
- ¾ teaspoon yeast;
- 250g granary flour and 150g strong white flour;
- One teaspoon each of sugar and salt;
- 15g butter;
- 270ml water.
Next, add sunflower and pumpkin seeds in the nut dispenser. Press a few buttons. And voilà: 5 hours later your bread is ready.
Ever tasted bread from a breadmaker?
It’s good. Tasty. Yummy.
It’s free from enhancers and additives. And if you use the timer, the lovely smell of fresh bread wafts up to your bedroom early in the morning, welcoming the new day, and teasing you to get up.
Writing blog posts super-fast is like baking bread in a breadmaker. You follow an automatic process with known ingredients.
Why this metaphor works:
- The process of baking bread is compared with the process of writing a blog post—the ingredients of bread are compared with the ingredients of a blog post
- The breadmaking process is described in detail—you can almost smell the bread
Example #12: Imagine you’re an Olympic athlete
You’ve trained innumerable hours. You have the right shoes. The right shirt. Your lucky underpants.
You know the track. You know how to run your race, and you know where the finish line is.
Have you noticed how often sports analogies are used to explain how to run your business?
There’s a huge problem.
When you start running your own business, you’re unprepared for what’s coming. You don’t know the track. You haven’t completed the proper training. You might not even know what the finish line looks like. Let alone understanding how you get there.
Why this metaphor works:
- This metaphor is unusual because it stresses what’s different between running a race and running your business (being prepared vs being unprepared)
- Details like lucky underpants help imagine the preparation for the race
Example #13: Our business path doesn’t have GPS coordinates
We like certainties.
But running a business is not like getting on a flight to Washington, taking the train to London, or driving to the supermarket.
In business, we can’t know exactly who our audience will be. We can’t know exactly what they’ll like to buy and how much they’ll pay for it.
To move forward in business, we have to embrace uncertainty. We have to accept a trial-and-error approach.
Why this metaphor works:
- Planning a business is compared to planning a journey, and the key difference (certainty vs uncertainty) is pointed out
- The specific examples—taking a flight to Washington, taking the train to London, or driving to the supermarket—make the “planning” of a journey concrete
Example #14: Your blog readers are fussy eaters…
If the first sentence is chewy or the first paragraph is bland, they’ll quickly give up. They’ll look for a better treat elsewhere.
So, set the tone with digestible sentences with a promise of more scrumptious goodness to come.
Why this metaphor works
- Blog readers are compared to fussy eaters—both consume either content or food
- The first bite of a dish determines whether you eat on or not, and in the same way the first paragraph of a blog post determines whether people will read on.
Example #15: Imagine a road trip to San Francisco …
Despite a dodgy navigation system, traffic jams, road work, several arguments with your friend, a dirty motel, and a flat tire, you arrive in San Francisco six days later.
You’re exhausted. Your back hurts. Your nerves are frayed.
But you’re just in time for the opening concert.
Landing pages are like that road trip
But there’s one huge difference.
While you were committed to arriving in San Francisco on time, your web visitors are less goal-driven. Unclear directions make them turn around and click away. And that’s when you might lose them forever.
What can you do to create a smooth journey for your web visitors?
Why this metaphor works
- A web visitor’s journey is compared with a road journey—both feature similar “road” blocks, but while the road traveler is committed to arriving, the web traveler is less committed
- The story of the road journey helps experience the trip
Stop doubting your creativity
When I started using metaphors, I didn’t see myself as a creative writer.
Hell no.
I didn’t even think of myself as a writer yet.
So stop doubting yourself. You don’t need a special talent. You don’t have to be a creative genius.
What you need is the courage to experiment.
So set yourself free and try different ideas.
Add a dash of fun to your posts. Entertain your readers. And make your message sticky.
Recommended reading on metaphors:
The persuasive power of metaphors (introduction)
How to create fun metaphors
Try these creative techniques to add pizzazz to your writing
Absolutely wonderful post about metaphors. I really enjoyed reading it. Thanks!
Thank you, Ramesh. Happy writing!
Excellent post! Thanks so much!
Thank you, Eva. Happy writing! 🙂
Hello Henneke, your post has been extremely helpful in ushering my writing from poetry to fiction in a very fun way. When writing longer pieces I imagine I should take care not to over use this tool, but just enough to keep readers engaged. Thank you.
I’m happy to read this post was helpful to you, Tania. Thank you for letting me know!
It was a good post, but a lot of these phrases are not metaphors, they are smilies. If you compare using like or as then it is a simile. Metaphors carry more weight than a smile and shouldn’t be used interchangeably given the right situation in a piece of writing.
Yes, they’re similes (and analogies). But the principle about creating similes and metaphors are the same. If possible, remove the word “like.”
You just opened up my mind to enhancing my writing skills. Hello creative writing!!!
Woohoo! Happy writing 🙂
Hi Henneke,
I am a jewelry designer and not a blogger, but I often write my own marketing copy and send out emails telling my list about new items, sales, etc. I’ve been reading your blog posts and have found them full of the kind of writing I aspire to, especially this post on metaphors. But I find that writing about my jewelry in a fun and compelling way is really hard and I’m never satisfied with the results. Do you have examples of writing for a product like jewelry that no one has to have but enhances how you present yourself to the world?
Jewelry is interesting because you can share the stories of what inspired you to design a particular piece. But you can also talk about how wearing your jewelry might make people feel. You may find inspiration on the J Peterman website. I’ve quoted one of my favorite examples as number 12 here.
Metaphors can be used to create a better impression and excite the readers’ senses. However, I have not been using them much in my posts. Looks like I should start using them. Thanks for this stunning post! I just happened to stumble while browsing on Scoop it!
Try a metaphor once and see whether you like it! Thank you for your compliment, Abhijeet. I’m glad you enjoyed this post.
Hey Henneke
When it starts drizzling, I just go out and raise my head to feel the droplets touching my forehead and cheeks. It’s so refreshing. While reading the examples, I had the same feeling. Every example has ignited the spark within to write posts in an engaging way.
I also try to incorporate metaphors in my post. But, it takes time in coming up with a good comparison. I’d like to share the metaphors of my two favorite posts. In the first post, I had compared evergreen content with old aged wine and target audience with marshmallows. In the second one, which I wrote for HuffPost, I had explained the concept of stress management with the help of condom.
You have gained a new follower. This is far by far the most enchanting article I have ever read.
Happy to meet a fellow metaphorian, Yatin 🙂
Thank you for stopping by!
Thanks a lot for sharing this useful way of thinking.
You’re welcome. Have fun with your metaphors!
Wow!
Your latest post is inspiring to say the least (actually they’re all inspiring)
I know I don’t use metaphors as much as I should. This is probably because I tend to take shortcuts. Coming up with good metaphor ideas takes extra time and energy. Shame on me.
Recommitting now.
Thank you
Yes, it can take time to come up with metaphors. What I find works best is to pick a topic and create an outline. Then leave it until the next day or so. When I go out for a walk or wash the dishes, I find myself thinking about the blog post and coming up with ideas for metaphors.
With a little practice, you get ideas for metaphors faster. But in the beginning, it can take some time. I think it’s worth the effort. Have fun!
And thank you for sharing this post. I appreciate it 🙂
I’m delighted with your blog. I am a Brazilian writer who seeks to improve the metaphors of her texts. Simply incredible
Thank you, thank you, Luise. I’m glad you enjoyed this. Happy writing!
Hi Henneke, you really do have this writing lark mastered don’t you? So many lessons in this post. Thank you.
Thank you, Joan. I’ve been practising hard in the last years 🙂
Another great post Henneke, I really enjoyed the no-fluff post full of useful examples. I am both creative writer and copywriter and I think the two can mix well together. You’ve shown a few great examples of that and the framework you use is so simple but powerful! Thanks and keep it up!
Thank you so much for your kind words, Antoniya. I appreciate it! 🙂
What makes your posts so great and useful, is that you are specific in your examples. I appreciate it a lot.
Many thanks
Paer
Glad to hear that, Paer. Happy writing!
You’re always great with metaphors Henneke. I always follow your tips and try to implement those on my work.
Happy writing 🙂
Thank you, Sajib (also for all your tweets!)
Happy writing to you, too 🙂
A wonderful series of illustrations on how metaphors add depth and color to a blog post.
Thank you, Saleem 🙂
Hi Henneke,
Educating article with clear examples on how to generate metaphors. Always enjoy reading your easy to follow and functional tips
But did you really have to include The Godiva Guide example there? You made me desperately crave for dark chocolates! No time to go out for shopping because I have to work on my Enchanting Marketing Copywriting Course assignments today 🙂
I’m sorry! 🙁
I’m allergic to chocolate, so it doesn’t cause any cravings for me.
Thank you for, yet another, awesome post! Everything you write is super-helpful, engaging, and relevant to writers/business owners keep it coming!
Great! Thank you, Kristen 🙂
Thanks Henneke, you always give me something to think about. You’re like a spark that ignites my thinking engine!
Nice metaphor!
Hi Henneke,
Awesome post as usual. I particularly like the way you tied the metaphors to other posts you had written for further perusal. This post is definitely a keeper.
Thanks for giving great value.
I’m off to share this now.
Cheers.
Thank you, Ruth. I’m glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for sharing!
Enchanting post, as always. Henneke, I totally love this metaphor idea. In fact, my own website’s About page has one:
Choreographing the perfect message is a painstaking and intricate dance.
Each step is deliberate, planned and controlled.
Pouring over endless word possibilities and selecting the ideal words for the context is the norm.
Finally, finessing the message, and positioning the words in the appropriate spot,
all to evoke the intended feelings. Ultimately, the intent is to impact and influence the audience, for a purposeful, targeted outcome.
Thanks for your wisdoms. It’s great to learn I’m not the only one who does this. ?
Nice!
Nice article. I’m going to try to incorporate metaphors into my writing more often. Since we are all wordsmiths here, aren’t most of these examples more correctly called similes, not metaphors?
Yep, it’s a mix of metaphors, similes and analogies. I once explained the difference (https://www.enchantingmarketing.com/how-to-use-metaphors/), but was a little too lazy here. In a way, the difference doesn’t matter so much to me. What’s more important is to use fresh and vibrant figures of speech.
Thanks for stopping by, Sue
Wonderful post! I particularly like the “weight weenie” image. I thought you were going in a different direction and it’s especially cool that you went with a twist.
I also like the way your idea drives the metaphor, not the other way around. It’s all too easy to fall in love with a metaphor and then write all your copy around it. And it’s equally easy to be lazy and grab stale metaphors that we see over and over. In the early days of coaching the bicycle metaphor (“I’ll ride alongside”) was everywhere.
A memorable post that should be kept as a reference tool. I’m going to tweet it and will be referring to it in some of my course modules.
Yep, so true. I’d rather have no metaphor than a stale metaphor. You can refresh a stale metaphor quickly by adding a few details.
Thank you for sharing, Cathy. I appreciate it!
So helpful! As always you have made the abstract concrete! Love it! Thanks and blssings to you.
Thank you, Kelly. Happy writing!
I am so gonna use these metaphors one-by-one over my next 14 posts.
Rinse and repeat.
Thanks!. 🙂
Yes, sure. Feel free to use these to inspire your own metaphors.
Hey Henneke
Really great post here and a lot of great examples of metaphors. I really understood and could see the imagery you were trying to get across. And these were all out of thin air?
In a few of my recent posts I’ve been writing for the New Year, I played around with some metaphors. I can only hope that they’ll fully convey the message I want to get across. But it takes practice, right?
And in this post, you showed how well you can do it with the right amount of practice.
– Andrew
Yep, all out of thin air.
🙂
I’s effing annoying. You are like the northern light – can’t be improved or commented upon.
Ha! Nice metaphor. 🙂
Hello Henneke,
This was an unexpectedly nice post. Love metaphors, but didn’t have a clue there were so many. Now it’ll be easier to categorize them and better use them for my writing- thank you for that. Must admit that we use them all the time in the architecture world but never thought to be as powerful for writing.
However, on the bad side, a metaphor is quite dangerous. If you use the wrong example, you’re dead, and your credibility on that subject is over. So one has to be careful too 😛
The options with metaphors are endless. And you’re right to point out that you need to choose the right comparison. You don’t want to, for instance, create a negative association for something that’s positive. When you admire someone’s flexibility in yoga class, you don’t want to compare her with a tangled heap of cables.
Thank you for stopping by again, Virginia! 🙂
Metaphor if added with right proportion of words,
makes the bland article grand
Thanks Henneke 🙂
With best regards and love,
Singaravelu
You’re welcome.
Happy writing!