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Metaphor resources?

by marciayudkin
8 replies
I have a copywriting student who is somewhat blind to metaphors, and I'm wondering if anyone can suggest a resource that groups related words and phrases according to metaphor.

For example, a headline in my local paper today says, about a Mass. state bill regarding fireworks sales, "Let This Bill Fizzle." The resource I am looking for would enable someone to look up fireworks and list all the things that fireworks do or that you could do with them or about them. It would include "fizzle," "spark," "douse" etc.

Then the student could look up a different reigning metaphor, like navigation and find things like compass, stars, rough seas, hidden obstacles, etc.

Does such a thing exist, apart from a thesaurus?

I am NOT looking for a "power words" collection.

Thanks,
Marcia Yudkin
#metaphor #resources
  • Profile picture of the author ThomasOMalley
    Selma Glasser's book, The Analogy of Related Words, is a helpful resource.

    Unfortunately, this book is out of print and expensive.
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  • Profile picture of the author RRMarketing
    Stephen King - On writing.

    Really basic but it's a starting point.
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  • Profile picture of the author AG Hohwald
    I think people are able to use this kind of metaphorical device quite capably on their own. A thesaurus is all any competent writer would need...even a beginner to creative writing. How hard was it for you to think of compass, stars, rough seas, etc? How hard would it be for anybody?

    The difficulty -- when people have difficulty -- lies not in thinking of a simile or metaphor, but in recognizing the opportunity to use one at all. To remedy this, prescribe a lot of reading, not another reference book. How useful is even the perfect "Metaphorical Word Finder" if you go start to finish in a piece, never noticing you might have used it?

    When you're a working writer, and you start to dissect where a Douglas Adams, or a T.C. Boyle, or a Toni Morrison (or even a Gary Bencivenga!) uses metaphors...how often, and how cleverly...you start to see opportunities for them in your own writing.

    Spotting the opportunity is 90% of the battle. Most writing is so dull and lifeless that even if your students are shoehorning creativity in, it's still going to set them apart from the crowd.
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    • Profile picture of the author marciayudkin
      I think people are able to use this kind of metaphorical device quite capably on their own. A thesaurus is all any competent writer would need...even a beginner to creative writing. How hard was it for you to think of compass, stars, rough seas, etc? How hard would it be for anybody?
      Well, I coach copywriters and I am telling you that I have a student who cannot do this easily on his own.

      Everyone is an individual and everyone has unique blind spots and challenges.

      Another student has great creativity but a really, really hard time understanding how to put herself in the place of the customer.

      It would not be helpful to say to someone, "You should be able to do this. Everyone else can." Instead I am trying to offer resources to help each person along on their acquisition of the necessary skills.

      And even those who are better than average at retrieving metaphorical information can use a memory boost from time to time.

      Anyone else able to be helpful?

      Thanks,
      Marcia Yudkin
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  • Profile picture of the author AG Hohwald
    Sorry if you felt I was being patronizing or confrontational.

    And to be frank, I have very little experience as a working copywriter. Limited to one or two pieces I've done for myself, so far. So far be it from me to step on anyone's educational toes.

    But where I do have a great deal of experience is in teaching creative writing. And what you describe is a problem we see in probably 75% of untrained writers. We used to call it "metaphor blindness." I've seen young writers with excellent technical skills arrive in workshops with absolutely no soul for creative language...students who sound very much like your own...but leave a semester later writing prose that burst off the page.

    What I described above, is what helped them discover and repair their "blind spot" (minus the Gary Bencivenga part).

    Just friendly advice, one professional to another. Thought it might be helpful in case you don't find the resource you're looking for.

    Hope you find a suitable solution for your needs, and your students.
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    • Profile picture of the author Cam Connor
      Not really a "metaphor" resource, but I would recommend "Words that Sell", this is a good investment and can sometimes help get the juices flowing if you're having some writers block.
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  • Profile picture of the author janet beal
    If your student might need more exposure to metaphors, would Bartlett's Familiar Quotations online be of any help? A site called "Online Literature" has it set up as author/work/quote, but using the quote box as a subject query ("rain," "love," "faith" were my first shots) at least would bury your student in lots of other writers' metaphors. Maybe this is too complex but Bartlett's is an old favorite for many things.
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