3 Types of Metaphors and How to Use Them
This will be a swift, and thus simplified, guide to creating precise and thematically relevant metaphors. This is NOT a comprehensive list of all the types, but rather a blueprint for how most metaphors are constructed and what their purposes are. I offer lists of when you can use each type, but these are piffling suggestions, not laws, that are intended to give you an understanding of how the types are commonly used and why.
My goal is to help you understand the rules and knowledgably expand on them, or ignore them with intentionality. That’s all.
Place of Existence
subject + linking verb + prepositional/adverbial phrase
This metaphor will always place the subject within a metaphorical setting.
Classic example:
“(I) (am) (in blood.) Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.” - Shakespeare, Macbeth
When to use it:
To develop immense emotional pressure
“Madness was within me”
“My lips were on the mouth of death”
To create a strong sense of dread
“We were beyond the love of God”
“Wickedness rose at our backs”
In the crafting of an inescapable environment
“He walked among criminals and whores”
“I’ve fallen into the expanse of eternity”
When not to use it:
When your character is in a perfectly safe, secure emotional state.
This type of metaphor will often feel clunky and overworked in this circumstance because it’s a strange emotional speed bump that feels unearned.
When you want to describe a soft, sweet emotion.
This type of metaphor is best used to describe intense, uncomfortable emotions, even when depicting something like love.
Identity
subject + linking verb + noun
Classic example:
“He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if (she) (were) (the sun), yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.” - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
When to use it:
To define a character/narrator perspective on the people and world around them
“The house was a child’s fantasy.”
“His stare drew blood.”
To create an authoratative and absolute image: preconceived notions, first impressions, off-balance power dynamics, mythological imagery, etc.
“Galloping horses of glory”
“”
To give the impression of permanence
“She was our chosen mother”
“The house was our haven”
If you want to create a red herring, you can use this to make something feel weightier than it actually is.
When not to use it:
When you want something to feel fleeting or pliable.
Interactions with very minor, unimportant characters
Travel sequences that you want to fast forward through
In passing descriptions that have nothing to do with plot or theme.
Character appearances is where I most often see this type of metaphor wasted. I do not care that his eyes looked like sapphires, unless that specific description of them will loop back around to mean something later on. And even then…. pick something less cliche.
I also often see this wasted on scenery. I understand wanting to create a visceral experience for the reader, but you will desensitize your reader to your metaphors if you use them without purpose. Either make it count, or choose a different way to describe the thing.
State of Being
subject + linking verb + adjective
This metaphor will always describe how a character is interpreting the world around them.
Classic example:
“Night after night, summer and winter, the torment of storms, the (arrow-like) (stillness) (of fine weather), held their court without interference.” - Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
You’ll notice that the order of this example is different, but what matters is that each of the elements is present in the clause. You can use whatever order you like.
You’ll also note that Woolf transformed what would have been the linking verb into a noun, which is fine. What matters is that if the order were ‘correct’, it would have been a linking verb: (the fine weather) + (was still) + (like an arrow)
When to use it:
During a disruption to the equiliberium or disorientation
“His mind turned barren and placid”
“The room shifted sideways’
When you want to inject action into a noun’s internal state
“The air in here is suffocating”
“Previously reliable memories inverted”
When character action is circumstantially limited, and you’re trying to imbue movement/dimension into scenes that easily stagnate. This could include scenes such as professional meetings, seeing a friend for coffee, interviews, casual walks, etc.
“Kind language was drained from me”
“Walking through a plutonian forest”
As a subtle hint that something is happening below the surface of a calm moment
“Delicious silence swept over them”
“This place was hallowed.”
When not to use it:
During a relaxed or casual moment.
This type of metaphor inherently adds motion/pliancy, which will throw a strange sense of urgency into mellow scenes.
Though, this doesn’t mean you can’t use it during quiet moments, which can still be tense or mentally active.
