A Simile That Looks Like...

I have more or less gotten through the second draft of my novel. I am going back now to the beginning. A theme was shouting out to me from the moment I started I believe, but now it is even more apparent, so I am trying to build it into the story in a subliminal kind of way. I don’t want to hit my readers over the head but I do want the ending to make sense, a kind of mixture of aha and of course.

I’ve been finding that I am getting a little better at working slowly. As an Aries, I tend to get impatient and want to rush through passages and get through the whole thing essentially. So I am putting the breaks on.

One example of putting the breaks on: Over my Barry’s Tea very early this morning, I was trying to think of a clever and appropriate simile to describe something. Right now, I forget what. I sat here at about 6 am staring at the curtain, waiting for something. To be honest, up to now, I have really tended to avoid similes and just get on with the story unless something jumps out at me. I find they can draw attention to themselves and the writing and I’m not about that. I think they can be brilliant though in humourous writing. Of course, I’d love people to think I’m a brilliant wordsmith, but I know better (ie. I’m not).

Anyway, after sitting staring into the darkness waiting for something, I realized that what I was describing wasn’t even an honest and real description of the thing or person. One of the first books I ever read about writing, Brenda Ueland’s If You Want to Write, told me not to go for the cliche description, and to actually see what it is I am trying to describe.

So, I abandoned my simile search and looked at what I was describing and realized I was way off––I had totally invented something dumb––which was probably why I was having such trouble with a metaphor. When I actually sat with it and described the object/ person in mind, it seemed to unclog the artery and let me get on with it.

Anyway I stopped working this morning when I arrived upon a paragraph that started in such a non-visual and cliche way that I nearly barfed and threw in the towel. I consoled myself by reminding myself that those words weren’t mine. That they had been quickly pulled out of the air to get over with a scene. I am now looking forward to working on that paragraph and knowing that I will make it that much more palatable for the reader and me.