Metaphors Musings and James Lee Burke

Metaphors are a great way of conveying imagery, meaning or mood with brevity and impact.

Rather than a paragraph describing in detail the vines on a spooky house, consider something like this: “Vines, like tentacles, climbed the east wall.” If you don’t like similes: “The vine’s tentacles clung to the bricks …”

James Lee Burke is a master. In Rain Gods (page 5) he uses a simile to describe shell casings, to create a macabre mood and to foreshadow the finding of dead bodies: “Scattered about the churches interior, glinting like gold teeth, were dozens of shell casings.”

Of course metaphors are a great way to convey the feelings of a POV character: “He felt a pressure band tightening around his head.” Or how that character perceives something or someone; for example, the character looks at someone whose “eyes are like marbles pushed into tallow”—same book, at page 201.

As for an image: “a rear like a washtub”— at 150.”