An Analogy Is Description Multiplied

Do you know what an analogy is?

I bet you do, even if you don't think you do. Here's one my husband was fond of using to describe his irrigation clients:

"Dealing with my worst clients is much like dealing with a screaming pre-schooler. They want what they want (green grass in the middle of a drought) right now, and if you don't give it to them, they throw a tantrum."

Why would you use such a drawn out way to describe annoying customers?

Because it creates a vivid picture in your reader's mind.

And that's what you, the author, want to do, right?


When A Student Is An Oyster

Analogy is what a writer does to transfer the idea of one subject to another subject, making the two seem alike (analogous), even when they're dissimilar. It's closely related to metaphor and simile . Relating two things that are not the same in a way that makes the connection between them clear.

Here's an example I found, that really rang true to me. It came from Sydney J. Harris in an article titled "What True Education Should Do", written in 1964. (If only more teachers would take this one to heart!)

"Pupils are more like oysters than sausages. The job of teaching is not to stuff them and then seal them up, but to help them open and reveal the riches within. There are pearls in each of us, if only we knew how to cultivate them with ardor and persistence."

He creates a clear image of helping students find the "pearls" within them, rather than trying to stuff our ideas of what they should be down their throats. (Parents could heed this, too!)

And by doing this, he's created a lasting impression. Much more than if he'd said, "You shouldn't try to cram everything by rote into a student's head. You should help them think for themselves and discover their strengths and weaknesses."

Which makes it clearer to you?


Isn't That a Lot of Trouble?

Why would you go to the trouble of coming up with such a figure of speech when you can say it in plain language?

At it's best, analogy helps us problem-solve, remember things better, be more creative, make clearer decisions, identify places, objects and people... the list goes on.

Babies learn to recognize a face by the standard features nearly every face they see has. Cover that by a mask missing one feature, say a mouth, and the baby will quickly look away because it doesn't fit his understanding of a human face.

So analogies are worth creating. Your readers will understand what you're communicating even better, you'll stir their emotions even more. Who doesn't want to do that as an author?


Let's Build a House

Let's put analogy into action with novel writing:

A novel is like a house. Without a firm foundation (plot and characters) it will crumble.

Or maybe this one's even better:

The best recipe for creating a great novel is to be sure all of your ingredients are present in the correct amounts, added at the right time.

Certainly you can "see" a picture in your head of building a book, or stirring all the ingredients together properly. This makes the idea of writing a novel more concrete, even though you've used a longer string of words to do it.

This is exactly what you want to do when you use analogy in your novels. Make your readers understand you more deeply and vividly.

But not just any analogy will do. You must create analogies that fit your genre, your setting, your plot and your characters. Or you'll toss your readers out of your world in one sentence. They'll get up, shake themselves off and go find something less annoying to do.

In the same vein, don't overuse it, either. Your entire novel can be an analogy for something else (if that's what you like to write), but only superficially. If every paragraph is full of that kind of prose, you're still going to tick off your readers and make them leave.

So use it in moderation (just like any other literary device, like alliteration), and you'll be happy, your readers will be happy, and your pocketbook will be happy.