Memories jumped him like muggers in the darkness.Sense of menace, like the purr of a puma feasting on an elk.Stuck out like a leg in a cast, like a dick on a female statue (or, as I’ve read: like a blue dick on a pig).Enjoy these (and the occasional metaphor thrown in): I’ve started collecting the ones I read that I like, hoping they’ll spark my imagination when the need arises. They also seem to benefit from alliteration, though that isn’t required. If you look at the tried-and-true ones above, you’ll notice they’re pithy and quick:

OK, there’s one more rule about similes: Make them concise. Not a minute had passed before a passerby made a joke about “if it was truly yours, it’ll come back to you…” He punched that person.

#5 – His hair soared in the wind like a captive egret, finally released into the wild.

#4 – Her eyes were as blue as the ink in my pen, that trickled its life’s blood gently down the front of my pocket, as I tried in vain to get her attention.

#3 – The snow fell like billions of breadcrumbs, promising a flurry of activity and a huge pile of shit in the aftermath.

Soon we found out that he wasn’t THAT sort of a pig.

#2 – She was as nervous as my guinea pig, Mittens, when we turned him loose in the hog-stall last winter.

#1 – Being with him was like sitting through a Twilight Marathon, all sparkles and self-loathing.

It’s harder than it looks to create a simile that works. I’ve seen contests on writer’s blogs for similes and most leave me bored, if not disgusted. We are challenged to come up with new comparisons no one has heard before. Similes are as much about displaying the writer’s facility with her/his craft as communicating. Wait–no self-respecting writer would use those. Simile–the comparison of two unlike things using the word ‘like’ or ‘as’. They evoke images far beyond the range of words. They are like spice to a stew, or perfume to an evening out. They say more in 5-10 words than a whole paragraph.

Spark love your email again