Fantasy
Fantasy thrives on the metaphor. Fantasy implies a world of imagination where things exist that do not really exist. In order to bring such things to life, the power of comparison is essential:
“A dragon’s bloodstone is not for good or wickedness; it just is. And it is a thing of great power, for it is its dragon’s death”
The Right Adjective
The right adjective—precisely chosen—can lend greater depth to the noun at the heart of a simile’s comparison. Consider the ways this image would be different if the swimmer being compared to was something other than “reluctant.”
“She crept into the fire like a reluctant swimmer into cold water; first a hand, then a foot.”
Adding Depth to Description
A sentence need limit itself to a single metaphor or simile. Notice the way this sentence is constructed around the rejection of a comparison using a simile that blends seamlessly into a metaphor that in turns acts to reject the rejection. From that point on, the rest of the sentence is practically nothing but metaphorical imagery.
“Perhaps the dragon was not so large as a mountain; but the heavy black cloud that clung around it made it larger than a mountain, and when it first caught sight of them it lifted its wings, briefly, and the sun disappeared, and a wind like a storm wind howled around them.”
Repetition
Dialogue is also an efficient place to use metaphor, as long as it doesn’t go overboard. But if metaphorical dialogue goes overboard, it is best done with absolute commitment and no limitations. For instance, this litany of words—at least two of which are likely a complete mystery to many—provides such insight into the speaker’s opinion of the person being denigrated that the author really did not even need to precede it with “You idiot.” The average reader should fairly easily get the point simply through the repetition of metaphor:
“You bonehead, you mudbrain, you oozog, you stzik! How could you do such a thing?”
Intensifying the Metaphor
The intensity of metaphorical language can be either heightened by or ironically undercut by extending the imagery. This example reveals the power of intensifying metaphor. The image is first established with a single word separated as its own terse paragraph. The single word makes the densely packed paragraph which follows stand out all the more, naturally drawing attention to the abundance of metaphors and similes which the explosion stimulates:
“Exploded.
There was a roar like all the thunder gods come down off their mountain to howl simultaneously in her ears; and winds spun around her like endless spiral staircases, bruising her with their edges. There was torn redness before her eyes, rent with blackness, clawed with white and yellow; she felt that her eyes would be hammered out of their sockets. She staggered forward, still clutching the wreath, the hand that held it outstretched. She could not see floor nor walls nor ceiling, nor anything; only the shards of color, like mad rags of cloth streaming past. Her other hand fell to Gonturan’s hilt, though she knew she hadn’t a chance of drawing her in this vortex of storm; still it gave comfort to clutch at her.”
