A simile can give your reader a nice jolt. He’s reading along
and suddenly you make a comparison that surprises him. That’s
electrifying. If you say a man’s smile was like a slit in the side-
walk, you used a simile and you gave your readers an image they
can see.
When you use similes, you can make your own words
Fall softly as rose petals.
Gush out like toothpaste.
String and creep like insects!
Get the idea?
What about my client and the book on networking? How would
she use similes to improve her writing?
There isn’t a heading called Networking in the simile book
I have, but there is one called Friendship. One simile we might
use is “Life without a friend is like life without sun.” Maybe
my client would say, “Networking is as important to your life as
sunshine.”
Another simile in the book is “Without a friend the world is a
wilderness.” My client might say something like, “Without learning
how to network, the world is a wilderness.”
Using similes isn’t always easy for me. Browsing through the col-
lection and wondering how I can use these similes feels like swim-
ming upstream in Jell-O. It’s not at all like making instant coffee.
(Notice the two similes?)
The effort is worth it, however. Every one of the paragraphs in
this section was written with the help of my simile book. I feel my
writing is better with similes. And probably clearer. Even though
writing with similes sometimes feels like playing the piano with
boxing gloves, I have to admit a good simile is like a loving kiss on
a dark rainy day. It’s nice.
Warning: Don’t overuse similes. They are handy for putting
some brightness in your writing, but if you overdo it, your readers
will OD (overdose) and pass out. They will mentally fog over and
no further thoughts will get through.
Spice up your articles and letters with a good simile and your
How to Make Your Writing Walk, Talk, and Breathe