Make a list of significant life events – birth, death, graduation, marriage, having children, starting your own business. Next, come up with a metaphor for each of these events. Remember: a metaphor is when we say one thing is another thing. A simile is when we say one thing is like another thing.
Metaphor: Life is a dance.
Simile: Life is like a box of chocolates (as a metaphor, this would be life is a box of chocolates)
Tip: Choose metaphors that are visually interesting. Metaphors for life as a dance or box of chocolates are both concrete and easy for readers to visualize.
Bonus exercise: Write a poem about one of your life events using only the metaphor you have chosen. When it’s done, your poem should be a bit ambiguous; a reader will wonder whether the poem is literally about the metaphor or metaphorically about the life event.
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