How To Write Prose Like a Poet

I have spent a lot of time in this section on narrative and desriptive writing teaching you how to write prose simply, with the minimum of fuss and adornment.

Do that and you will seriously increase your chances of novel writing success.

Descriptive writing, however, is the one area where you are allowed to be a little more fanciful and discover your inner poet.

And the best way of writing prose like a poet is to use figures of speech. The most important figures of speech are, of course, similes and metaphors. In fact, they lie at the very heart of great descriptive writing.

Learn how to use them well and you will be well on your way to learning how to write prose like a poet...

• Used well, similes and metaphors can transform a description.
• Used badly, or used too much, they can kill your prose.

What Are Similes and Metaphors?

Both metaphors and similes compare one thing with another. A simile says that X is "like" or "as" Y...

• Her skin was as smooth as cream
• Her hair felt like silk
• Her eyes were as blue as neon

With a metaphor, X actually becomes Y. Metaphors are transformative...

• Her skin was made of cream and her hair of the finest silk
• The man was a beast
• His whole life had been a roller coaster ride

What is the purpose of similes and metaphors? They enable you to describe things in your prose that would otherwise be impossible to bring so vividly to life using so few words.

Take "the man was a beast"...

Literally, of course, he is no such thing - he is a human being. What the metaphor implies, though, is that this man has the qualities of a beast - strength, aggression, lack of intelligence, and so on.

Using a metaphor allows you to say all of this, and more, in just four or five words.

Generally speaking, a simile is weaker than a metaphor. "Her hair felt like silk" is not as powerful as "Her hair was silk". But both figures of speech have their place in good descriptive writing, as I will now explain...

When to Use Similes and Metaphors

If a simile is the poor cousin of a metaphor, why not dispense with them altogether and use only metaphors? For the simple reason that a metaphor in the wrong place can stand out awkwardly, like a man wearing black tie to a burger bar.

Take a look at this example...

There are three figures of speech here. Two are similes ("like they were mirrors", "like a pioneer") and one is a metaphor ("the world had turned into a fairy tale").

Now, the similes could easily have been written as metaphors with a little reworking...

• The snowy roof tops were mirrors angled to the dazzling light of the sun, and it was thirty seconds before she could see clearly.
• The snow on the driveway was untouched by human footsteps, and Mary became a pioneer as she trudged towards the front gate.

But it would have been too much.

The climax of this paragraph is the final metaphor, in which the world isn't merely like a fairy tale but actually becomes one.

For this final image to carry maximum weight, everything must build towards it without overshadowing it, and that is why it is best to keep the two earlier figures of speech - the two similes - as low key as possible.

Note, though, that there are no rules about any of this. It is impossible to say that you should use similes under certain circumstances and metaphors under others.

You simply have to trust your instincts as an artist and, for better or worse, do whatever feels right to you. Learning how to write prose like a poet ultimately comes down to trusting your ear.

Next Step: Keep reading for some Simile and Metaphor Examples...