Sep 23, 20215 min read

Top 4 Ways Your Teen Can Use Impressive Metaphors For Creative Writing

Updated: Sep 8, 2023

What are Metaphors?

and

Why are they so important in your teenager's writing.

- They help your teenager to SHOW not TELL the story.

- Make their stories more interesting to read.

- Allows them to explore their imagination and allows the reader to do the same.

- Develops your teenager's creativity.

We use Metaphors subconsciously in our everyday lives. And it is a great way to bring our teenager's stories to life!!

Here are some examples:

What goes around, comes around

Meaning = Whatever you put out in the universe, you will get the same in return.

What goes up must come down

Meaning = You will have good days and bad days.

There is always a silver lining

Meaning = There is always a reason why something happens.

Let's break the ice!

Meaning = Make the first move.

I can eat a house!

Meaning = I am sooooo hungry I have a massive appetite, right now!

So a Metaphor is a direct comparison to something else.

So here are some tips on how your teen can use Metaphors with ease so they can write interesting stories that don't only tell the story but show the story!

So in this instance, the more descriptive the story, the better!!!

1) Get them to start with simple examples

This is a nice starter activity if you are homeschooling your teenager to get 4 - 5 examples of Metaphors so your teenager can understand what they are and how we often use them in our everyday speech.

Like the examples earlier on this blog post.....

Let's recap!

What goes around, comes around
What goes up must come down
There is always a silver lining
Let's break the ice
I can eat a house!

Once you have a few examples, then you can give them a challenge and get them to write some of their own.

2) Let them change Similes into Metaphors

Getting your teenager to understand how to write a simile or metaphor for their story could be a frustrating task. Also, getting them to understand the difference between Similes and Metaphors.

These two writing techniques are very similar but different in certain ways.

For example,

A Simile uses the word 'as' or 'like' to compare something/one to something/one else.

A Metaphor is a direct comparison that doesn't use the word 'as' or 'like'

For example,

Simile = "I ate the pizza like a pig".

Metaphor = "I ate the whole pizza all to myself. I am a pig!"

3) Show examples of Metaphors from books

Most books use metaphors to express, describe or explain something without literally giving too much away.

It's a great way to express your point creatively.

One of my favourite books that uses an Extended Metaphor is the novel is 'A Monster Calls' by Patrick Ness.

It is about a monster who calls on a boy called Conor every night after midnight where he has this recurring nightmare.

But this recurring nightmare is a Metaphor for what Conor is currently going through in his life, which he needs to confront.

So, if you would like your teenager to see a simple example of an Extended Metaphor I recommend this book or poetry is always a good option too!

4) Get them to write a description using an Extended Metaphor.

When your teen has written a few examples, why not get them to write a story!

It could be a narrative story or a descriptive story.

You could even get them to choose one example and write a freewriting story about that one example.

If you need to know more about freewriting please go to my other blog post which highlights the top benefits to free-writing and what it is:

https://www.chamatuition.com/post/top-11-benefits-of-free-writing-for-your-child

Check out an example of freewriting from one of my students, who managed to write an Extended Metaphor and Personification.

Don't you think it is awesome?

The determined water droplet

It was at 15:13 that I woke up surrounded by other droplets like me, at 15:13 that I started to wonder what I was doing here. Suddenly, like someone pulling the plug of a bath (I had experienced that last year), I fell. I was meters high, falling and falling. Then...SPLAT. I landed on someone’s bright green umbrella. It had bright pink spots and was covered with droplets just like me. We were carried across the expanse of the city, passing giant apartment blocks and finally ending up at a small side street. I was then swept off the umbrella, till I finally landed on the ground next to a huge object. It towered over me like a….tree. No, it couldn't be. It was a tree. The sole purpose of being a water droplet was to finally end up nourishing one and living in it for eternity.

I was so close, but there was one problem, it was getting colder, and I could already see the other water droplets freezing up. To freeze was the death of a water droplet. To freeze was to never achieve the goal of living in a tree. The goal that was meters away. I was never going to sink through the ground as a slowly forming icicle. I had to think fast, so as fast as rolling would let me, I started to make my way over to the house. I dodged all the crevasses, slipped down the bumps to finally collide with another water droplet. We merged, and continued the journey, jumping onto the back of a passing rat, which scuttled into a pipe on the side of a house. We leapt off and started climbing up and up until we were swept away by boiling water. Our bodies transformed into a floating cloud, and the nightmare of freezing, disappeared

We rose up and up, and towards the gutter. But there was a problem, we were cooling down fast and were about to turn back into water droplets even before leaving the gutter. Time slowed down, as we made our way towards the exit. Suddenly, we realised that it was too late, and we slowly transformed into heavy water droplets. But, at the nick of time, we merged into another water droplet, catching our fall. We fell down the side of the house and onto the dirt. Having just been a cloud of steam, we were still hot and slipped through the ground easily. A root caught us and dragged us in. We had done it! We finally ended our life-long journey slowly rising up and up the tree. I separated from the droplets I had merged into and finally settled into a leaf.