What's your favourite metaphor you have ever read? Let me know below! Stay nerdy and go read more of "A Worm Beneath the Skin" here! >>> linktr.ee/timhickson
The Raven. It is similar to the story you discussed with the crow. The raven scares and intrigues the man at first, but then it just remains, the grief remains forever in his home. It is arguably the most famous poem ever and for good reason.
@@nostalji93 No. A metaphor is one statement describing something you would usually call by a different statement, therefore, what one...uhm...."enpictures", is decidedly different, visually, if you can call it that, from what you are SUPPOSED to envision. "man is a wolf", is a very ancient metaphor. Now, take that as an example. If I said "the man made his breakfast", you'd picture a man making breakfast. There is no alternative meaning to glean from that, because it is just a literal description. Whether you "enpicture" (if it's not clear, I'm pretty sure that's not a word.) a man making breakfast or not is irrelevant here, because no metaphor is being made. If in some irrelevant scene I said "the wolf hunted a rabbit", you too would not envision anything other than a wolf hunting a rabbit. No metaphor is being made here, because there is no secondary picture to draw meaning from. However, if I said "man is a wolf, the man makes his breakfast, the wolf hunts his rabbit", you would, if you possess a normal brain, try and almost instinctually create some sort of connection between the two LITERAL descriptions, by trying to connect the two descriptions via some form of logic. What could it be about a man eating his breakfast, that is somehow similar to a wolf hunting a rabbit? It's up to the reader to decide, as metaphors don't usually spell their correct interpretation outright. That's the joy of metaphorical writing, and also some of it's frustration. It's why very often, metaphors tend to also FAIL, because the reader sometimes just plainly doesn't "get" it. Whether that's the reader or the writer's fault will depend, and is quite frankly very subjective. You can't "not get" a literal description of a man eating breakfast, but it's entirely possible that someone might "not get" the metaphorical connection between that description and the one of a wolf hunting a rabbit. As a matter of fact, I used that image as something deliberatly ambiguous. In my mind, a man eating breakfast and a wolf hunting a rabbit are DISTINCTLY different. In a way, my metaphor here FAILS utterly. But in seeing how something fails, you can also understand how something might NOT fail. Let's expand our example here: "Man is a wolf, a man has his family, a wolf his pack, man has his desires, a wolf his hungers, man is capable of kindness and of cruelty, wolf is capable of love and viciousness." You'd probably immediately pick up that as a matter of fact, a wolf and a man are not that different, or perhaps more accurately, have the exact same desires, we just give them different words to cloud their meanings. Of course, man ALSO has hungers, also has love and viciousness. But those sound rather WILD, and we picture a wolf as the very symbol of wildness in our metaphorical example. Metaphors can go in different directions depending on our intent, and sometimes a clever reader can pick apart a metaphor by being a bit too literal and drawing too much of a comparison. Very often, a metaphor goes ENTIRELY one way only. Take my example here, for instance, and go the other way around. Does a wolf have a family? Sure, probably, does a wolf have desires? Of course. Is a wolf capable of "kindness and cruelty", however? Well...maybe. Usually, the target of a metaphor is the secondary description being made subservient to the first, not the other way around. Mine could go several directions, but most only partially so. Describing man as a wolf is decidedly easier than describing a wolf as a man. The point is: metaphors are entirely reliant on TWO very distinct literal meanings being used as a logical connection between them. The connection needs to evoke some central image which can connect those two LITERAL meanings. A man and a wolf are connected, within the metaphor, by perhaps a common attribute of "wild" or "vicious" or "hunter" or "loyal" or "family/pack" but they can never be the EXACT same, which is what makes metaphors tricky. In the video, bad metaphors are given the example of "cerulean orbs" for blue eyes. They are bad, because they are not metaphors at all, they are just descriptions. Trying to look for metaphors here is a quest doomed for failure, as was shown. "Are they orbs because the term "orb" evokes a sense of religiousness or sacredness and perfection?" Probably not. They are probably just literal descriptions of how eyes are literal orbs. The fan fic writers were TRYING to apply metaphor, but misunderstood what a metaphor was fundamentally. They are not literal descriptions, they are connective tissue between two very distinct literal ideas. "Grief" and "giant crow" are not connected terms, UNTIL you bring them together as a metaphor. Because "cerulean" is just a somewhat more specific form of blue, it's not a metaphor, it's just a specification, and one that reeks of "thesaurus" usage, rather than metaphoric creativity. Get it now?
I think one of the strengths of fantasy and sci-fy is the power to use fantastical ways to translate common emotions and situations so as to give voice to some part of our existence
It also sometimes allows you to talk about modern issues with a bit of separation. that hopefully will allow you to reach readers who’d be defensive if you breach a controversial subject more directly
i tend to create metaphors subconsciously and only notice them after the fact, if at all. im writing a story where a character is being raised by a cult with the purpose of letting their demon-god possess and own his body when he becomes an adult, and only later realized that it's a metaphor for what it felt like for me to grow up as a trans person. there's also no way that i could just write about a trans person in the real world going through transphobic trauma, that doesn't work, i would feel bad and i would hate it and it wouldn't be very good. a fantasy story about demonic possession on the other hand, that sounds like a good time! the metaphor removes it far enough from the grim reality and trauma that i can engage with it safely. and again, i cannot do this kind of thing on purpose, it always happens by accident somehow. i guess that's just how my writing process works :)
@@mordcore Exactly! one of my stories is about two magic robots(basically), made by the same person. While one was a personal project, always meant to be her own person, the other was a prototype that was sold to fund the first ones construction. Only later did I realise I just wrote a story about two children who had very different upbringings with the same person, and how as they reconnect they must come to terms with this different side of their parent. And that's when all the childhood trauma clicked into place lol!
At this point it's almost tradition to have a book quote leave me thinking "oh wow, whomever wrote this was cooking", be immediately followed by Tim going "oh I wrote this btw"
so true, I find myself being so pleasantly surprised every time, I feel so proud of how far Tim has come and how his writing really does stand on equal footing with such incredible books!
7:15 except if the reader has aphantasia, lol...I'm obsessed with aphantasia lately, lol, I can't help it...about 4% of readers don't have a mind's eye, so, lol...or was it 1%?...I don't know why I can't remember...yeah, I think it was 1%...
As a songwriter sometimes it's fun to get a little cheeky, make a really complicated obscure metaphor, and trust the chord progression or melody underneath it to carry your listener through the head-scratching :) I think it's okay to get just a little bit self-indulgent or humorous with this kind of thing, if you're providing something else at the same time.
That fits nicely with the nuance Tim included, which is to ask yourself if it fits the tone of both the story and the writing. You're introducing another interpretation of "tone", in a musical sense. The advice still applies. I'm a songwriter myself, who puts a lot of care into my lyrics, and something I'm working to embrace more is letting go of everything making perfect literal sense. If a line fits the music and the theme, it's okay if it would be nonsense if read off a page, because that's not the medium of the song. It's a struggle for me, but a worthwhile struggle.
Maggie Stiefvater is exceptional at this. She often introduces characters with strong, short passages that rely more on metaphor and feeling than physical descriptions. When a ~20 year old is described as "he looked like he should have been holding a cigar", you get an image of what they look like and who they are that you wouldnt achieve with dozens of paragraphs.
I’m so glad you brought up Edith Finch. I played it a few years ago and went in blind. It’s one of those stories that sticks with you. The family’s metaphors make their lives so vivid and real. You feel a real sense of grief as you continue through. I replay it once or twice a year.
Seeing as how grief is literal mental pain with genuine physical effects, that may not even be a metaphor, but an actual literal description. I'd say it's not so much a "failed" metaphor though, just one that lacks sufficient distance between two descriptive terms or statements.
And is painting blue summer skies a handy comparative description for somebody's eyes? Probably not. A failed metaphor. At BEST, you might think that you could get lost in somebody's eyes as a bird might get lost in an endless blue sky. But that's just it. You need to be creative with your writing, as I just did with your own description. My metaphor works. The question is; does the metaphor work for the fan fic writers in question? Seeing as how fanfic is usually just derivative copy-pasted yaoi trash for teen girls, I sincerely doubt there was ever a greater meaning to it other than a literal description of a person's eyes being a specific color of blue and being orb-like, because eyes are literal orbs. An attempt at metaphor was made here without understanding how metaphors work. And of course, metaphors can fail simply on the grounds of it being a cliché, overused one. If the whole "you can get lost in his eyes" bit was cringy to you, that's probably because it's been done to death, and therefore easy pickings. It's not creative. It can work on a technical level, but not neccesarily on an experiental level.
@@RedFloyd469 Cerulean is an _ideal_ pigment for for painting blue eyes! There are really only three good options: cerulean, ultramarine, and Prussian. Cerulean is best for a pale blue.
My favorite discussion of metaphors I've ever encountered was in the book "Writing Better Lyrics" by Pat Pattison. He calls the idea Metaphor keys, where you begin with an idea (lets say power) and then list all the different objects/actions/etc that can be used to represent that idea. By linking the two together you evoke that third backing concept they share, or as he puts it, you play in the key of the metaphor.
I was taught that similes are a type of metaphor in the way that squares are a type of rectangle. Picking out the comment "i know this is a simile and not a metaphor, but ...." would imply that you were taught differently. It's one of those lovely reminders about how complicated language can be that in theory, we could have an argument because we completely agree with each other but don't think words mean the same thing.
No, no, you are correct! But explaining that at the time felt a little pedantic for me-because ultimately, the distinction doesn't *really* matter for what we were talking to. ~ Tim
Metaphors are also one of the most effective tools in teaching - they resonate with all learning types. Because you are bringing in the context of the metaphor yourself rather than being explicitly told the context, it allows the brain of the listener/reader to make the connection themselves. When your brain has arrived at something independently (after being nudged in that direction) rather than being told outright, the thought “sticks” better
My favorite has to be the use of *The Nameless Monster* as a metaphor for the nature of Johan Liebert in the manga-anime Monster. - Oce upon a time, in a land far away, there lived a nameless monster. The monster was dying to have a name. So the monster made up his mind, and set out on a journey to look for one. But the world was such a very large place. The monster split in two, and went on separate journeys. One went east. The other headed west. The one who went east came upon a village. There was a blacksmith who lived at the village's entrance. "Mr. Blacksmith, please give me your name!" said the monster. "I can't give you my name!" replied the blacksmith. 'If you give me your name, I'll go inside you and make you strong," said the monster. "Really?" said the blacksmith, "If you make me stronger, I'll give you my name." The monster went into the blacksmith. And so, the monster became Otto the blacksmith. Otto was the strongest man in town. But then one day he said, "Look at me! Look at me! The monster inside of me is getting bigger!" Munch munch, chomp chomp, gobble gobble, gulp. The hungry monster ate up Otto from the inside out. Once again, he was a monster without a name. Next, he went into Hans the shoemaker. However... Munch munch, chomp chomp, gobble gobble, gulp. Once again, he went back to being a monster without a name. Then, he became Thomas the hunter. But soon... Munch munch, chomp chomp, gobble gobble, gulp. Back he went to being a monster without a name. The monster next went to a castle to look for a nice name. He came upon a very sick boy who lived in that castle. "If you give me your name, I'll make you strong," said the monster. The boy replied, "If you can make me healthy and strong, I will give you my name!" So the monster jumped right into the boy. And the boy became full of vigor. The king was overjoyed. He announced, "The prince is healthy! The prince is strong!" The monster became quite fond of the boy's name. He was also quite pleased with his royal life in the castle. So he controlled himself no matter how ravenous his appetite became. Day after day, despite his growing hunger, the monster stayed put inside the boy. But finally, the hunger just became too great... "Look at me! Look at me!" said the boy, "The monster inside of me has gotten this big!" The boy devoured the king and all his servants. Munch munch, chomp chomp, gobble gobble, gulp. The castle was lonely now with everyone gone, so the boy left on a journey. He walked and walked for days. And then one day, the boy came upon the monster who had gone west. "I have a name!" said the boy, "And it's such a wonderful one at that!" But the monster who went west replied, "Who needs a name? I'm perfectly happy without one. After all, that's what we are - nameless monsters." The boy ate up the monster who went west. At last he had found a name, but there was no longer anyone to call him by it. Such a shame, because Johan was such a wonderful name - If you know anything about Johan Liebert, you'll know why the implications are absolutely horrifying.
Yes! I remembered the outro to the ending season of the anime version of Monster, where the story you mentioned is shown as woodcut illustrations in a children's storybook. It was a chilling series.
Just brainstorming some alternatives to "cerulean orbs" lol (ft. Other eye colors) His eyes were ones I could swim in. Drown in. They grasped and pulled like a riptide until I was swept away, no longer in control, sinking into their deep blue. All that was left for me was to wait for the monsters hiding at the bottom. Her gaze was the shimmer of the night's first star, peeking out from a curtain of darkening skies. It greeted me faithfully, promising to be my companion until the violent dawn pulled her away. She looked at Mara the way an ancient forest would watch a passing truck, its encompassing green cut short by tar and a highway barrier. He smiled, his eyes a luxurious brown that tempted me to sneak a bite, even as I knew how they would consume me. She stared just past Devon like she'd seen a ghost. Like she had seen that ghost every, single, night. A ghost who had long since become a confidant, even more than any from the living. A ghost, who had sapped the dreams of azure skylines right out of her eyes. Their eyes were iced coffee in a rainstorm. His eyes were diamonds after spending days shoveling through mounds of coal. They watched me like the light from my fridge at 3 am, stale and flickering as I return for the nth time, somehow feebly expecting something new. Btw excellent video as always, you often give great reminders of what can be done with storytelling, worldbuilding, and words
I love Ray Bradbury's style with heavy use of metaphor. I couldn't point to a single passage and tell you "it's using this metaphor to talk about *this*", I just have a deeply held impression like I just woke up from a vivid dream.
I had a poetry professor once tell me never to get caught up in a metaphor over what I am writing about because if the metaphor overtakes the subject it would make more sense just to write about the metaphorical subject. I think grounding metaphor and exploring subjects as they are is the path to rich and involved writing over any clever connection.
Love this video!! One of the things I used to get frustrated by in high school English classes was how metaphors are taught. For example the tears in rain speech is one of the best monologues put to screen but some kid would say “um actually he says ‘like’ so it’s a simile” as if they’re adding something to the conversation and not being needlessly pedantic
Aren't you kind of doing the same thing? It doesn't have to be a great metaphor to be a great monologue. Why do you care if some hypothetical kid wants you to use language specifically, considering specificity is how you communicate clearly? By this dude's own analysis, such a mistake could ruin a metaphor. Seems like you're missing the bigger picture here just because you find someone's behavior a little bit annoying.
"Tears in the rain" has stayed with so many of us, changing more than just Deckard. Considering my own work, I find I don't use a ton of metaphors, myself, not as the author. When I do use metaphors, it's almost always as an expression of the voice of the character, and not myself.
I kind of understand what you mean. I'm someone who can't purposefully write a metaphor. It might happen, it might not. I just write, period. Probably lots of metaphors, just some that I'm just not aware of that I've actually used.
I think I'm just not as affected by evocative language sometimes as other people. I thought the sequel was much better. The original felt very forced, even in the versions without narration.
"Their honey moon was a long shiver" is the first metaphor that comes to my mind. It is from Horacio Quiroga "the feathered pillow" and I don't know if it translates that beautifully but you inmediately understand the protagonist. It reads like a one sentence horror story.
Maybe it's dumb to go from a book with a raven talking about grief to the video game Slay the Princess but here I go. The main character is hidden for most of the game letting us see the world from their pov, there are a few references to their feathers and being a bird or when they reach out and have a lizard like hand, the player instinctively knows something is strange and they're not a usual human. As it turns out they have a sort of bird like head like a corvid. So class, rather than beat you over the head with a yardstick, what does a crow or raven mean to you? Ominous, fearful, maybe passive and common place like any bird, only threatening in mass numbers or if it desires to peck at your eyes, not really noticeable but in the wrong context or if a flock of them is just sitting on your home it's deafening. Realizing you're a monster and unnatural but also wondering how it all fits together especially as the story gets more abstract. What does a princess imply? The game even spells it out towards the end of a run if you ask nicely. Powerful but nascent, holding potential as a monarch, feeling it's owed authority, something you might wish to save, perhaps an outdated power model, vulnerable but probably underestimated, captive but certainly looking for an escape or some other purpose. Rather than hand deliver the meaning of the symbols it lets you draw conclusions and connections to your own ideas of these characters. A lot of players probably want to try slaying the princess at least once but I'd say 80% of first runs have some hesitation, princesses are to be adored and saved not slain, we still have some lingering feelings for her. Then she inevitably beats you to death so you go back looking for revenge with new context to her character. It can be obvious at times but doesn't feel the need to hand feed you what it's trying to imply with each instance but let you see it quickly then have fun with it in the dialogue and other descriptive prose, the cabin you find the princess in and the night sky outside covered in stars. Again you're not trying to find the perfect metaphor but an understandable element that captures the same essence and leads to other conclusions whether clear or from a personal bias that add their own depth, assuming the metaphor fits well.
I'm gonna be honest here I'm currently writing fanfiction and watching videos to do my best I was snacking also so when you started talking about cerulean blue orbs and Wattpad I was so surprised and amused I legit about chocked on my snack. Besides that I think I'll find this helpful for future metaphor writing so thank you!
Another important thing to consider when choosing a metaphor is shared understanding of the analogy. For example, the encyclopaedia metaphor you refer to a few time to me has a different feeling, because my experience with metaphors is very positive: I see them as sources of wonder, support, and guidance. In this context, my initial reaction was to see the objects around the house as a comforting source of memories that ground the protagonist whilst they are lost in grief, which is a very different feeling to the one you describe. It is important for the writer to consider how the audience's reaction to the analogy might be different from theirs, at a cultural level, generational level, or even personal level. To some extent, it is impossible for any analogy to land the same way with every reader, which is another reason why the over-use of metaphors is a bad thing. The more metaphors one use's, the more divergence in interpretation there will be, making the writing feel messy. This is also why natural-world based metaphors are so common, as they have more reliably shared understanding, making them feel overused sometimes. My thoughts are that the best way the reader can account for this is by making the metaphors used character specific: use the metaphor the narrator would use. In this way, whilst the metaphor signifies different levels to the reader, it also indicates to them the character of the narrator (as the third beer metaphor did in this video). This of course applies more to short descriptive metaphors rather thematic metaphors.
In my opinion the best way to use metaphor is to is to obscure it, don't tell the reader what the metaphor is but do it in a way that reader understands the the metaphor exists, so the reader pays attention to the story to find out what the metaphor is. One of my favourite stories is sadegh hedayet's "the blind owl". That thing is metaphor to the bitter end. But there were so obscur it's impossible to get it the first time, but that was the magic. As soon as the the book ended I read it again... and again... and again. I knew the writer wanted me to find it the entire book was structured like a crime sense and every word and sentence looked like a clue that if pay attention to it will reveal the meaning of the metaphor. I highly suggest you read it
*Tim describing the crow telling the kids to make a facsimile of their mother* Me: Oh, a Pygmalion plot, I see. Tim: "and then they cook the crow alive--" Me: WHAT.
She held his head in her hand, his eyes locked on her lips. He didn't see the flicker of doubt creep into her eyes. She withdrew. "I'm sorry, I can't", she ejaculated softly. As she fled past the skeleton tree out of sight, he felt all life's colour draining from him, leaving him hollow, except for his two cerulean orbs.
I don't know if you will see this, but thank you! Because you made me realize that learning is so much more than just a grade. Sometimes I forget how fun learning actually is, and you make that little writer writer part of me excited to create!
Thank you for this video. I struggle to understand metaphors and how to write them. With this video I understand better how they are utilized to enhance a story in specific ways
I absolutely love metaphors. It’s the one thing that always came rather naturally to me than that I had to think much about it. And I always loved short stories which tell a story/feeling by creating a metaphorical picture, like the vibe of a difficult talk with family as the uneasy waves of the sea, getting bigger and lashing out here and there, until a large wave comes crashing down and drowning the person as what they dreaded to happen becomes reality (read one like that). I also had a character back when I did textbased online rpg who tried to shield himself from the true reality by translating everything into metaphorical images in their head. I loved writing them but I also always had to go in a kinda special head space where I translated feelings into pictures.
A powerful examination tool I was given for deciding features of characters that you want to explain things about them at a glance was to consider two factors: what the character could change about themselves, and what they could not change about themselves. Wholly, though, it was the things they could consciously modify or repair versus the things they either did not notice, did not want to notice, or could notice and were either unable or unwilling to change about themselves. A character put on pants every day. They washed the pants once a week, but dark stains marked them that never seemed to come out. The holes on the knees were sewn shut, but the missing button at the waist covered by a belt still hadn't been replaced. You decide, as the writer, to add these details. You paint the lines on the road, but the readers choose whether or not to stay between them, or whether they were ever supposed to in the first place.
"Grief is a thing with feathers" brings out my darkest and most terrible fear: the fear of losing my wife forever. She's my everything and I don't think I could go on without her.
Funny thing about the lottery. I have read it a few years ago. I have a very bad memory and have read it in another language, but I still instantly recognised the story. It manage to instill a sentiment of horror long before the reveal, and the metaphores it use contribute a lot to the unnerving atmosphere.
I don't usually do well with listening to long form content cause ADHD struggles but for some reason, I find your tone and cadence plus your writing style in spoken form to be really engaging. I'm sure I'll be just as drawn in when I read it.
I would say the worm is metaphor jail. It's way over used for body dysmorphia; but as someone who's transitioned, I'm a bit more aware than the average reader. It's new to someone. But still...
“Fane in the Dark Pharaoh’s Name, Palace of the Mad Apes’ Reign, Lands where Chaos unbindeth the Threads of Fates Thane” - Inscription on R’Lyeh, Gate of Madness, Irregular at Isekai Academy 02: Have You Seen the Violent Sign?!
Yet again I am reminded that everyone who says The Raven is supposed to be horror but it just doesn't hit the same way because we've been desensitized has never actually read the poem. It's grief. "My soul from out that shadow... shall be lifted -- Nevermore!" The only things the speaker does is dwell on the past (from the "many a volume of forgotten lore" they are reading at the start to "borrow... surcease of sorrow -- sorrow for the lost Lenore..." to the pining and reminiscing) and begging the raven to... not be the emblem of their grief, basically. They'd rather be completely isolated and alone than live with this constant reminder of how their life has been torn apart.
Notes for me :P Methaphors can draw connections between two entities, and thus connecting the tree with the emotions we get from a skeleton. ^^ This can lead to unintended connections. Be wary of those Sometimes the right move is instead a more deep and specific description to do the exact same thing. The new-ness about them make can make what's around the metaphor more memerable. Good metaphors ought to be more compex than just x is y, but actually ingrain it into the entity
Writing good metaphors is much like taking a shit. It depends on what the creator takes in -the sights, sounds, touche and other experiences-, how the material is treated inside the person and even then must be put out at a proper place and time. Hope it helps! ☺️
One of my favorite bands of all time, The Amazing Devil, masterfully uses metaphor in every song. Their song ‘Farewell Wanderlust’ is possibly the best example of this, so here’s two verses from it: “You don’t know it yet But I’m the Cupid of things that you just couldn’t get; that you struggle to say I’m the saint of the paint that was left in the pot I’m your angel ellipsis, your devil of dots Every time that you fumble, I’m the laugh from the back When you think about him, my wings start to flap When you make a mistake, my feet lift from the floor And when you lie there awake every night, love, I SOAR” Of course, this is on the more poetic, abstract side, but even so these two verses build up imagery that can easily be transposed into prose, in a show-not-tell sort of way, if desired. But The Amazing Devil’s lyrics across their whole discography is a treasure trove of metaphor inspiration for your own writing, I would HIGHLY recommend taking a listen (or a look at their lyrics, if you’re not a fan of contemporary folk music lol)
Tim's metaphor video was the third glass of milk . . . The one you drink because you can't stop, because the first two were cold and refreshing, and because this one demanded imbibation - to become part of you. And just like chain guzzling glasses of milk, some metaphors become upsetting the more deeply one drinks of them.
“Her eyes were cerulean orbs. That is to say, her eyes indicated the same power that cerulean orbs have. Their subtle glow marked her as a seer of the past, a person who divines the future by using patterns of the past. She was the person he was looking for.” Admittedly, this is still literal in some sense, but this person is effectively only interested in the power of this person and she has the power of cerulean orbs - to divine the future by studying patterns of the past.
I write screenplays. I often think I don't use metaphors, since screenplays are designed to efficiently tell the reader what must be seen and heard. While watching I realized that I use metaphors all the time. In one story I introduce two characters by the condition of their name badges, instantly communicating the difference in experience between the two. In a screenplay, if it can't be seen, heard or acted, leave it out. If a single object, sound or action can communicate more than the words required to describe it, maybe you can use it.
By the time it noticed the blue ball becoming larger, the dragon was already knifing through its atmosphere. Wrapped in a heat remote and alien to living worlds, the earth gave way, groaning noisily at the intrusion well after the enormous beast passed beyond its plates; slower, much slower than can reasonably be expected from an impact like this, and complaining the entire time, the ground shifted... It was different now, not better or worse, but new and exciting. The seas came over for a look, tentatively exploring a gap which wasn't there this morning. A warmth from deep down chided the water and carried it back up until joining the sky, where they argued in high tones at being pushed by too much of themselves in the same place. The dragon blinked and felt a familiar sensation as far as it could sense. It took a sort of long look around, and then went, exploring its bright molten home. I like writing the inanimate with a little bit of personality. It feels more real, somehow
I do have the world building books but haven't read them yet. If the sale on the novel is still going next week, I'd love to grab it. But I'm too strapped to get anything extra this week.
Something that I find fascinating is metaphors on a small scale. We fight illness. We climb out of depression. We run from the past. Using a separate action to relate to a task. The issue is that the actions carry over. Some people refuse to fight. Some feel like they could never climb. And some are too tired to run. These things don't map very well to the metaphor, because the words may be percieved differently. Why is 'up' a good thing. Why is 'forward' positive. Language is incredibly frustrating. Our metaphors map both ways, as time passes
As soon as I had finished cleaning my face, I barfed into the sink, which caused it to clog up, and before I could get the damned faucet turned off, the whole thing began to overflow onto the bathroom floor like some kind of perfect metaphor. -Jack Townsend
In your worm under the skin metaphor, I thought you were literally describing Morgellon's disease at first. It sounded so similar to the description a woman I know gave me as she was explaining what she was going through. She wasn't speaking metaphorically though, she truly feels that there are bugs under her skin.
Emotion, not metaphor holds the deeper meaning, metaphor is merely the language which transmits the emotion in a way that people can understand. Yet true art is created by emotion, metaphor is what I use in lieu of proper English words to describe expression.
I use to hate metaphors because they felt like an overly complicated means of saying whats usuallyobvious; "The curtain are blue because she's sad" type stuff.
Fantastic video. Really helpful for myself. Two examples of writers using metaphors well i feel are. Slay the princess (game). They use extended metaphors. And only one character ever uses metaphors as they speak. Bryce o'connors series. Tue wings of war. This irsh eriter does not use metaphors alot but i do think they they qre used well MOST OF THE TIME. His last book of the series so far may be susceptible to metaphor jail on a few occasions. All in all a good book series still
I like it when magic is used as a medium to make metaphors more real and tangible to the world. it is one of the main reasons why Elden ring is my favorite world
Speaking of different tools in different media, one of my favorite metaphors in games is in Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons, simply because it involves the actual controls and can only work or even exist in this medium. Spoilers follow, in case anyone wants to avoid spoilers for a 12 year old videogame. I forget most of the plot, and the game was a bit gimmicky: two brothers go out on a journey to find medicine for their sick father (I think). The gimmick: you have to control both characters at once, using one of the two analog sticks for each one. We explore, encounter dangers, solve puzzles and problems that can only be solved by the two working together. So far, so expected. Important: the younger one can't swim and/or is afraid of water. At a certain point nearing the end, the older brother gets killed, and you actually feel this loss because you suddenly only use one half of the controller. But the real punch comes a little bit later: on his journey back home, the surviving brother, the one who's afraid of water, has to swim across a river. You try to do this, and it just doesn't work. Until, that is, you not only use his controls, but also those of the dead big brother, giving him the strength to conquer this obstacle. Whichever way you interpret that, I think it is simple and works very well, and is one of, if not the best example, of a metaphor using the specific tools of the medium.
What's your favourite metaphor you have ever read? Let me know below! Stay nerdy and go read more of "A Worm Beneath the Skin" here! >>> linktr.ee/timhickson
Not a metaphor but a simile from A Christmas Story: "She looked at me as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears."
"Smells are like hotline to a memory."
Isn't any word a metaphor? Any term enpictures an idea. Sorry high af.
The Raven. It is similar to the story you discussed with the crow. The raven scares and intrigues the man at first, but then it just remains, the grief remains forever in his home. It is arguably the most famous poem ever and for good reason.
@@nostalji93 No. A metaphor is one statement describing something you would usually call by a different statement, therefore, what one...uhm...."enpictures", is decidedly different, visually, if you can call it that, from what you are SUPPOSED to envision.
"man is a wolf", is a very ancient metaphor. Now, take that as an example.
If I said "the man made his breakfast", you'd picture a man making breakfast. There is no alternative meaning to glean from that, because it is just a literal description. Whether you "enpicture" (if it's not clear, I'm pretty sure that's not a word.) a man making breakfast or not is irrelevant here, because no metaphor is being made.
If in some irrelevant scene I said "the wolf hunted a rabbit", you too would not envision anything other than a wolf hunting a rabbit. No metaphor is being made here, because there is no secondary picture to draw meaning from.
However, if I said "man is a wolf, the man makes his breakfast, the wolf hunts his rabbit", you would, if you possess a normal brain, try and almost instinctually create some sort of connection between the two LITERAL descriptions, by trying to connect the two descriptions via some form of logic. What could it be about a man eating his breakfast, that is somehow similar to a wolf hunting a rabbit? It's up to the reader to decide, as metaphors don't usually spell their correct interpretation outright. That's the joy of metaphorical writing, and also some of it's frustration. It's why very often, metaphors tend to also FAIL, because the reader sometimes just plainly doesn't "get" it. Whether that's the reader or the writer's fault will depend, and is quite frankly very subjective.
You can't "not get" a literal description of a man eating breakfast, but it's entirely possible that someone might "not get" the metaphorical connection between that description and the one of a wolf hunting a rabbit.
As a matter of fact, I used that image as something deliberatly ambiguous. In my mind, a man eating breakfast and a wolf hunting a rabbit are DISTINCTLY different. In a way, my metaphor here FAILS utterly. But in seeing how something fails, you can also understand how something might NOT fail.
Let's expand our example here:
"Man is a wolf, a man has his family, a wolf his pack, man has his desires, a wolf his hungers, man is capable of kindness and of cruelty, wolf is capable of love and viciousness."
You'd probably immediately pick up that as a matter of fact, a wolf and a man are not that different, or perhaps more accurately, have the exact same desires, we just give them different words to cloud their meanings. Of course, man ALSO has hungers, also has love and viciousness. But those sound rather WILD, and we picture a wolf as the very symbol of wildness in our metaphorical example.
Metaphors can go in different directions depending on our intent, and sometimes a clever reader can pick apart a metaphor by being a bit too literal and drawing too much of a comparison. Very often, a metaphor goes ENTIRELY one way only. Take my example here, for instance, and go the other way around. Does a wolf have a family? Sure, probably, does a wolf have desires? Of course. Is a wolf capable of "kindness and cruelty", however? Well...maybe. Usually, the target of a metaphor is the secondary description being made subservient to the first, not the other way around. Mine could go several directions, but most only partially so. Describing man as a wolf is decidedly easier than describing a wolf as a man.
The point is: metaphors are entirely reliant on TWO very distinct literal meanings being used as a logical connection between them. The connection needs to evoke some central image which can connect those two LITERAL meanings. A man and a wolf are connected, within the metaphor, by perhaps a common attribute of "wild" or "vicious" or "hunter" or "loyal" or "family/pack" but they can never be the EXACT same, which is what makes metaphors tricky.
In the video, bad metaphors are given the example of "cerulean orbs" for blue eyes. They are bad, because they are not metaphors at all, they are just descriptions. Trying to look for metaphors here is a quest doomed for failure, as was shown. "Are they orbs because the term "orb" evokes a sense of religiousness or sacredness and perfection?" Probably not. They are probably just literal descriptions of how eyes are literal orbs.
The fan fic writers were TRYING to apply metaphor, but misunderstood what a metaphor was fundamentally. They are not literal descriptions, they are connective tissue between two very distinct literal ideas. "Grief" and "giant crow" are not connected terms, UNTIL you bring them together as a metaphor. Because "cerulean" is just a somewhat more specific form of blue, it's not a metaphor, it's just a specification, and one that reeks of "thesaurus" usage, rather than metaphoric creativity.
Get it now?
I think one of the strengths of fantasy and sci-fy is the power to use fantastical ways to translate common emotions and situations so as to give voice to some part of our existence
It also sometimes allows you to talk about modern issues with a bit of separation. that hopefully will allow you to reach readers who’d be defensive if you breach a controversial subject more directly
Definitely. The power of abstraction!
~ Tim
This is literally one of the greatest reason these genres exist!
i tend to create metaphors subconsciously and only notice them after the fact, if at all. im writing a story where a character is being raised by a cult with the purpose of letting their demon-god possess and own his body when he becomes an adult, and only later realized that it's a metaphor for what it felt like for me to grow up as a trans person. there's also no way that i could just write about a trans person in the real world going through transphobic trauma, that doesn't work, i would feel bad and i would hate it and it wouldn't be very good. a fantasy story about demonic possession on the other hand, that sounds like a good time! the metaphor removes it far enough from the grim reality and trauma that i can engage with it safely. and again, i cannot do this kind of thing on purpose, it always happens by accident somehow. i guess that's just how my writing process works :)
@@mordcore Exactly! one of my stories is about two magic robots(basically), made by the same person. While one was a personal project, always meant to be her own person, the other was a prototype that was sold to fund the first ones construction. Only later did I realise I just wrote a story about two children who had very different upbringings with the same person, and how as they reconnect they must come to terms with this different side of their parent. And that's when all the childhood trauma clicked into place lol!
At this point it's almost tradition to have a book quote leave me thinking "oh wow, whomever wrote this was cooking", be immediately followed by Tim going "oh I wrote this btw"
so true, I find myself being so pleasantly surprised every time, I feel so proud of how far Tim has come and how his writing really does stand on equal footing with such incredible books!
It shocks me every time but then I realize oh, of course!
I read your comment before watching the video and was still shocked when it happened
7:15 except if the reader has aphantasia, lol...I'm obsessed with aphantasia lately, lol, I can't help it...about 4% of readers don't have a mind's eye, so, lol...or was it 1%?...I don't know why I can't remember...yeah, I think it was 1%...
“ grief doesn’t go away, it just becomes a dusty book on your shelf” damn that’s good 🎉
Language will never stop being the coolest thing ever to me
There's another world in which I continued with linguistics.
~ Tim
As a songwriter sometimes it's fun to get a little cheeky, make a really complicated obscure metaphor, and trust the chord progression or melody underneath it to carry your listener through the head-scratching :)
I think it's okay to get just a little bit self-indulgent or humorous with this kind of thing, if you're providing something else at the same time.
That fits nicely with the nuance Tim included, which is to ask yourself if it fits the tone of both the story and the writing. You're introducing another interpretation of "tone", in a musical sense. The advice still applies.
I'm a songwriter myself, who puts a lot of care into my lyrics, and something I'm working to embrace more is letting go of everything making perfect literal sense. If a line fits the music and the theme, it's okay if it would be nonsense if read off a page, because that's not the medium of the song. It's a struggle for me, but a worthwhile struggle.
Maggie Stiefvater is exceptional at this. She often introduces characters with strong, short passages that rely more on metaphor and feeling than physical descriptions.
When a ~20 year old is described as "he looked like he should have been holding a cigar", you get an image of what they look like and who they are that you wouldnt achieve with dozens of paragraphs.
If that’s the case, then I don’t know what the hell she’s talking about.
Tim's video on place descriptions is very good at introducing you to doing this, if anyone wants further advice.
I’m so glad you brought up Edith Finch. I played it a few years ago and went in blind. It’s one of those stories that sticks with you. The family’s metaphors make their lives so vivid and real. You feel a real sense of grief as you continue through. I replay it once or twice a year.
Fun fact:
That last bit of the monologue of "tears in the rain" was ad-libbed by the actor.
Yeah that is wild
I forget where I heard it, but regarding grief "is not a wound that heals, but a pain that you grow accustomed to"
Seeing as how grief is literal mental pain with genuine physical effects, that may not even be a metaphor, but an actual literal description. I'd say it's not so much a "failed" metaphor though, just one that lacks sufficient distance between two descriptive terms or statements.
she cerulean on my orb til i go to metaphor jail
That sounds... Like something I don't want to imagine.
Oh I get it, the blue represents unfulfilled desire
Shouldn't it be two orbs?
@@blugger it's a metaphor, you wouldn't get it /silly
sorry about your surgery
Cerulean isn't just _any_ blue. It's a particular _type_ of blue. It's ideal, for instance, for painting blue summer skies.
And is painting blue summer skies a handy comparative description for somebody's eyes? Probably not. A failed metaphor.
At BEST, you might think that you could get lost in somebody's eyes as a bird might get lost in an endless blue sky. But that's just it. You need to be creative with your writing, as I just did with your own description. My metaphor works. The question is; does the metaphor work for the fan fic writers in question?
Seeing as how fanfic is usually just derivative copy-pasted yaoi trash for teen girls, I sincerely doubt there was ever a greater meaning to it other than a literal description of a person's eyes being a specific color of blue and being orb-like, because eyes are literal orbs. An attempt at metaphor was made here without understanding how metaphors work.
And of course, metaphors can fail simply on the grounds of it being a cliché, overused one. If the whole "you can get lost in his eyes" bit was cringy to you, that's probably because it's been done to death, and therefore easy pickings. It's not creative. It can work on a technical level, but not neccesarily on an experiental level.
@@RedFloyd469 Cerulean is an _ideal_ pigment for for painting blue eyes! There are really only three good options: cerulean, ultramarine, and Prussian. Cerulean is best for a pale blue.
I don't think she/he is defending the poor intent of cerulean eyes methapor, Is just a believer of Cerulean Supremacy @@RedFloyd469
My favorite discussion of metaphors I've ever encountered was in the book "Writing Better Lyrics" by Pat Pattison. He calls the idea Metaphor keys, where you begin with an idea (lets say power) and then list all the different objects/actions/etc that can be used to represent that idea. By linking the two together you evoke that third backing concept they share, or as he puts it, you play in the key of the metaphor.
It makes me so happy that you have become more and more confident in pitching your products. I’m glad to see you proud of what you write
I was taught that similes are a type of metaphor in the way that squares are a type of rectangle.
Picking out the comment "i know this is a simile and not a metaphor, but ...." would imply that you were taught differently.
It's one of those lovely reminders about how complicated language can be that in theory, we could have an argument because we completely agree with each other but don't think words mean the same thing.
No, no, you are correct! But explaining that at the time felt a little pedantic for me-because ultimately, the distinction doesn't *really* matter for what we were talking to.
~ Tim
Metaphors are also one of the most effective tools in teaching - they resonate with all learning types. Because you are bringing in the context of the metaphor yourself rather than being explicitly told the context, it allows the brain of the listener/reader to make the connection themselves. When your brain has arrived at something independently (after being nudged in that direction) rather than being told outright, the thought “sticks” better
I have the catalog for the end of humanity book and I didn't realize it was you! It's a favorite of mine!
Aw thank you this actually meant the world to me to read
0:46 - I thought it was an opossum!
DUDE I THOUGHT SO TOO😂😂
Same!!
swear it was a little mouse
That's a whole other metaphor. Or is it?
My favorite has to be the use of *The Nameless Monster* as a metaphor for the nature of Johan Liebert in the manga-anime Monster.
- Oce upon a time, in a land far away, there lived a nameless monster.
The monster was dying to have a name.
So the monster made up his mind, and set out on a journey to look for one.
But the world was such a very large place.
The monster split in two, and went on separate journeys.
One went east.
The other headed west.
The one who went east came upon a village.
There was a blacksmith who lived at the village's entrance.
"Mr. Blacksmith, please give me your name!" said the monster.
"I can't give you my name!" replied the blacksmith.
'If you give me your name, I'll go inside you and make you strong," said the monster.
"Really?" said the blacksmith, "If you make me stronger, I'll give you my name."
The monster went into the blacksmith.
And so, the monster became Otto the blacksmith.
Otto was the strongest man in town.
But then one day he said, "Look at me! Look at me! The monster inside of me is getting bigger!"
Munch munch, chomp chomp, gobble gobble, gulp.
The hungry monster ate up Otto from the inside out.
Once again, he was a monster without a name.
Next, he went into Hans the shoemaker.
However...
Munch munch, chomp chomp, gobble gobble, gulp.
Once again, he went back to being a monster without a name.
Then, he became Thomas the hunter.
But soon...
Munch munch, chomp chomp, gobble gobble, gulp.
Back he went to being a monster without a name.
The monster next went to a castle to look for a nice name.
He came upon a very sick boy who lived in that castle.
"If you give me your name, I'll make you strong," said the monster.
The boy replied, "If you can make me healthy and strong, I will give you my name!"
So the monster jumped right into the boy.
And the boy became full of vigor.
The king was overjoyed.
He announced, "The prince is healthy! The prince is strong!"
The monster became quite fond of the boy's name.
He was also quite pleased with his royal life in the castle.
So he controlled himself no matter how ravenous his appetite became.
Day after day, despite his growing hunger, the monster stayed put inside the boy.
But finally, the hunger just became too great...
"Look at me! Look at me!" said the boy, "The monster inside of me has gotten this big!"
The boy devoured the king and all his servants.
Munch munch, chomp chomp, gobble gobble, gulp.
The castle was lonely now with everyone gone, so the boy left on a journey.
He walked and walked for days.
And then one day, the boy came upon the monster who had gone west.
"I have a name!" said the boy, "And it's such a wonderful one at that!"
But the monster who went west replied, "Who needs a name? I'm perfectly happy without one. After all, that's what we are - nameless monsters."
The boy ate up the monster who went west.
At last he had found a name, but there was no longer anyone to call him by it.
Such a shame, because Johan was such a wonderful name -
If you know anything about Johan Liebert, you'll know why the implications are absolutely horrifying.
Yes! I remembered the outro to the ending season of the anime version of Monster, where the story you mentioned is shown as woodcut illustrations in a children's storybook. It was a chilling series.
Just brainstorming some alternatives to "cerulean orbs" lol (ft. Other eye colors)
His eyes were ones I could swim in. Drown in. They grasped and pulled like a riptide until I was swept away, no longer in control, sinking into their deep blue. All that was left for me was to wait for the monsters hiding at the bottom.
Her gaze was the shimmer of the night's first star, peeking out from a curtain of darkening skies. It greeted me faithfully, promising to be my companion until the violent dawn pulled her away.
She looked at Mara the way an ancient forest would watch a passing truck, its encompassing green cut short by tar and a highway barrier.
He smiled, his eyes a luxurious brown that tempted me to sneak a bite, even as I knew how they would consume me.
She stared just past Devon like she'd seen a ghost. Like she had seen that ghost every, single, night. A ghost who had long since become a confidant, even more than any from the living. A ghost, who had sapped the dreams of azure skylines right out of her eyes.
Their eyes were iced coffee in a rainstorm.
His eyes were diamonds after spending days shoveling through mounds of coal.
They watched me like the light from my fridge at 3 am, stale and flickering as I return for the nth time, somehow feebly expecting something new.
Btw excellent video as always, you often give great reminders of what can be done with storytelling, worldbuilding, and words
I love Ray Bradbury's style with heavy use of metaphor. I couldn't point to a single passage and tell you "it's using this metaphor to talk about *this*", I just have a deeply held impression like I just woke up from a vivid dream.
I had a poetry professor once tell me never to get caught up in a metaphor over what I am writing about because if the metaphor overtakes the subject it would make more sense just to write about the metaphorical subject. I think grounding metaphor and exploring subjects as they are is the path to rich and involved writing over any clever connection.
7:45 "she was the third glass of milk- the one you that leaves you with gastrointestinal distress and two days of regret"
"She was the third glass of milk, nobody likes milk that much - you obviously have nothing else to drink."
Love this video!! One of the things I used to get frustrated by in high school English classes was how metaphors are taught. For example the tears in rain speech is one of the best monologues put to screen but some kid would say “um actually he says ‘like’ so it’s a simile” as if they’re adding something to the conversation and not being needlessly pedantic
Aren't you kind of doing the same thing? It doesn't have to be a great metaphor to be a great monologue. Why do you care if some hypothetical kid wants you to use language specifically, considering specificity is how you communicate clearly? By this dude's own analysis, such a mistake could ruin a metaphor. Seems like you're missing the bigger picture here just because you find someone's behavior a little bit annoying.
"Tears in the rain" has stayed with so many of us, changing more than just Deckard.
Considering my own work, I find I don't use a ton of metaphors, myself, not as the author. When I do use metaphors, it's almost always as an expression of the voice of the character, and not myself.
I kind of understand what you mean. I'm someone who can't purposefully write a metaphor. It might happen, it might not. I just write, period. Probably lots of metaphors, just some that I'm just not aware of that I've actually used.
I think I'm just not as affected by evocative language sometimes as other people. I thought the sequel was much better. The original felt very forced, even in the versions without narration.
"Their honey moon was a long shiver" is the first metaphor that comes to my mind. It is from Horacio Quiroga "the feathered pillow" and I don't know if it translates that beautifully but you inmediately understand the protagonist. It reads like a one sentence horror story.
Maybe it's dumb to go from a book with a raven talking about grief to the video game Slay the Princess but here I go. The main character is hidden for most of the game letting us see the world from their pov, there are a few references to their feathers and being a bird or when they reach out and have a lizard like hand, the player instinctively knows something is strange and they're not a usual human. As it turns out they have a sort of bird like head like a corvid. So class, rather than beat you over the head with a yardstick, what does a crow or raven mean to you? Ominous, fearful, maybe passive and common place like any bird, only threatening in mass numbers or if it desires to peck at your eyes, not really noticeable but in the wrong context or if a flock of them is just sitting on your home it's deafening. Realizing you're a monster and unnatural but also wondering how it all fits together especially as the story gets more abstract. What does a princess imply? The game even spells it out towards the end of a run if you ask nicely. Powerful but nascent, holding potential as a monarch, feeling it's owed authority, something you might wish to save, perhaps an outdated power model, vulnerable but probably underestimated, captive but certainly looking for an escape or some other purpose.
Rather than hand deliver the meaning of the symbols it lets you draw conclusions and connections to your own ideas of these characters. A lot of players probably want to try slaying the princess at least once but I'd say 80% of first runs have some hesitation, princesses are to be adored and saved not slain, we still have some lingering feelings for her. Then she inevitably beats you to death so you go back looking for revenge with new context to her character. It can be obvious at times but doesn't feel the need to hand feed you what it's trying to imply with each instance but let you see it quickly then have fun with it in the dialogue and other descriptive prose, the cabin you find the princess in and the night sky outside covered in stars. Again you're not trying to find the perfect metaphor but an understandable element that captures the same essence and leads to other conclusions whether clear or from a personal bias that add their own depth, assuming the metaphor fits well.
This feels like something that should've been made a long time ago, Tim.
Have never found such good videos as yours on writing. 🖤
I'm gonna be honest here I'm currently writing fanfiction and watching videos to do my best I was snacking also so when you started talking about cerulean blue orbs and Wattpad I was so surprised and amused I legit about chocked on my snack.
Besides that I think I'll find this helpful for future metaphor writing so thank you!
Another important thing to consider when choosing a metaphor is shared understanding of the analogy. For example, the encyclopaedia metaphor you refer to a few time to me has a different feeling, because my experience with metaphors is very positive: I see them as sources of wonder, support, and guidance. In this context, my initial reaction was to see the objects around the house as a comforting source of memories that ground the protagonist whilst they are lost in grief, which is a very different feeling to the one you describe.
It is important for the writer to consider how the audience's reaction to the analogy might be different from theirs, at a cultural level, generational level, or even personal level. To some extent, it is impossible for any analogy to land the same way with every reader, which is another reason why the over-use of metaphors is a bad thing. The more metaphors one use's, the more divergence in interpretation there will be, making the writing feel messy. This is also why natural-world based metaphors are so common, as they have more reliably shared understanding, making them feel overused sometimes.
My thoughts are that the best way the reader can account for this is by making the metaphors used character specific: use the metaphor the narrator would use. In this way, whilst the metaphor signifies different levels to the reader, it also indicates to them the character of the narrator (as the third beer metaphor did in this video). This of course applies more to short descriptive metaphors rather thematic metaphors.
In my opinion the best way to use metaphor is to is to obscure it, don't tell the reader what the metaphor is but do it in a way that reader understands the the metaphor exists, so the reader pays attention to the story to find out what the metaphor is.
One of my favourite stories is sadegh hedayet's "the blind owl". That thing is metaphor to the bitter end. But there were so obscur it's impossible to get it the first time, but that was the magic. As soon as the the book ended I read it again... and again... and again. I knew the writer wanted me to find it the entire book was structured like a crime sense and every word and sentence looked like a clue that if pay attention to it will reveal the meaning of the metaphor.
I highly suggest you read it
Coincidentally I’m writing an analysis for school about Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers”
*Tim describing the crow telling the kids to make a facsimile of their mother*
Me: Oh, a Pygmalion plot, I see.
Tim: "and then they cook the crow alive--"
Me: WHAT.
Just have to point out that perhaps they felt the need to say ”cerulean orbs” because in the fanfic- circles ”blue balls” was already in use.
She held his head in her hand, his eyes locked on her lips. He didn't see the flicker of doubt creep into her eyes. She withdrew. "I'm sorry, I can't", she ejaculated softly. As she fled past the skeleton tree out of sight, he felt all life's colour draining from him, leaving him hollow, except for his two cerulean orbs.
I don't know if you will see this, but thank you! Because you made me realize that learning is so much more than just a grade. Sometimes I forget how fun learning actually is, and you make that little writer writer part of me excited to create!
Thank you for this video. I struggle to understand metaphors and how to write them. With this video I understand better how they are utilized to enhance a story in specific ways
I absolutely love metaphors. It’s the one thing that always came rather naturally to me than that I had to think much about it. And I always loved short stories which tell a story/feeling by creating a metaphorical picture, like the vibe of a difficult talk with family as the uneasy waves of the sea, getting bigger and lashing out here and there, until a large wave comes crashing down and drowning the person as what they dreaded to happen becomes reality (read one like that).
I also had a character back when I did textbased online rpg who tried to shield himself from the true reality by translating everything into metaphorical images in their head. I loved writing them but I also always had to go in a kinda special head space where I translated feelings into pictures.
I am waiting for your essay on the 2nd season of "Arcane: League of Legends".
A powerful examination tool I was given for deciding features of characters that you want to explain things about them at a glance was to consider two factors: what the character could change about themselves, and what they could not change about themselves. Wholly, though, it was the things they could consciously modify or repair versus the things they either did not notice, did not want to notice, or could notice and were either unable or unwilling to change about themselves.
A character put on pants every day. They washed the pants once a week, but dark stains marked them that never seemed to come out. The holes on the knees were sewn shut, but the missing button at the waist covered by a belt still hadn't been replaced.
You decide, as the writer, to add these details. You paint the lines on the road, but the readers choose whether or not to stay between them, or whether they were ever supposed to in the first place.
Dark Godiva curls, that’s just amazing and it made me chuckle
10:27 consider that Hope is also a thing with talents and a shap bill.
"Grief is a thing with feathers" brings out my darkest and most terrible fear: the fear of losing my wife forever. She's my everything and I don't think I could go on without her.
Is it worse if she doesn't have the same fear, or knowing that one of you will very possibly be forced by an unforgiving world to face it?
Funny thing about the lottery. I have read it a few years ago. I have a very bad memory and have read it in another language, but I still instantly recognised the story. It manage to instill a sentiment of horror long before the reveal, and the metaphores it use contribute a lot to the unnerving atmosphere.
I love the on writing series so much. I have re-watched pretty much every episode at a minimum of 20 times each.
I don't usually do well with listening to long form content cause ADHD struggles but for some reason, I find your tone and cadence plus your writing style in spoken form to be really engaging. I'm sure I'll be just as drawn in when I read it.
Always a good week when Hello future me uploads
I would say the worm is metaphor jail. It's way over used for body dysmorphia; but as someone who's transitioned, I'm a bit more aware than the average reader. It's new to someone. But still...
This is better than any lecture that has ever been lectured before. Supremely effective. 100/10
“Fane in the Dark Pharaoh’s Name, Palace of the Mad Apes’ Reign, Lands where Chaos unbindeth the Threads of Fates Thane” - Inscription on R’Lyeh, Gate of Madness, Irregular at Isekai Academy 02: Have You Seen the Violent Sign?!
Yayyy so glad that catalogue is on audio now!!!
with one of my characters having blue eyes, the cerulean bit was hilarious. never heard of that in my life 🤣
fan fiction sure as heck doesn't have to be well written to be extraordinarily entertaining lmao
wow, this came just as I was writing an article with my supervisor pressing me to write more metaphors. Kinda glad I procrastinated it now!
my favourite way of judging a metaphor is imagining it read in lenval brown's voice (disco elysium's narrator) and seeing if it fits lol
Thank you. Needed this video more than I expected.
The editing and effects in this book is top notch btw.
Holy crap...that worm metaphor is...shockingly good.
Yet again I am reminded that everyone who says The Raven is supposed to be horror but it just doesn't hit the same way because we've been desensitized has never actually read the poem.
It's grief.
"My soul from out that shadow... shall be lifted -- Nevermore!" The only things the speaker does is dwell on the past (from the "many a volume of forgotten lore" they are reading at the start to "borrow... surcease of sorrow -- sorrow for the lost Lenore..." to the pining and reminiscing) and begging the raven to... not be the emblem of their grief, basically. They'd rather be completely isolated and alone than live with this constant reminder of how their life has been torn apart.
"I burn my life to make a sunrise I know I'll never see." -Luthen Rael (from the Andor series)
An old black box in a society that still stones people to death
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One of your best videos. Thank you so much.
0:48 today I learned that if you ever need to draw a front facing beak, to start with a front facing opposum head!
I literally only just started and I just wanna shoutout to the amazing Animations, this video is already my fav just for that
Notes for me :P
Methaphors can draw connections between two entities, and thus connecting the tree with the emotions we get from a skeleton.
^^ This can lead to unintended connections. Be wary of those
Sometimes the right move is instead a more deep and specific description to do the exact same thing.
The new-ness about them make can make what's around the metaphor more memerable.
Good metaphors ought to be more compex than just x is y, but actually ingrain it into the entity
"The ordinary suddenly holds all the weight of your pain." is such a banger line, goddamn
Writing good metaphors is much like taking a shit.
It depends on what the creator takes in -the sights, sounds, touche and other experiences-, how the material is treated inside the person and even then must be put out at a proper place and time.
Hope it helps! ☺️
One of my favorite bands of all time, The Amazing Devil, masterfully uses metaphor in every song. Their song ‘Farewell Wanderlust’ is possibly the best example of this, so here’s two verses from it:
“You don’t know it yet
But I’m the Cupid of things that you just couldn’t get;
that you struggle to say
I’m the saint of the paint that was left in the pot
I’m your angel ellipsis, your devil of dots
Every time that you fumble, I’m the laugh from the back
When you think about him, my wings start to flap
When you make a mistake, my feet lift from the floor
And when you lie there awake every night, love, I SOAR”
Of course, this is on the more poetic, abstract side, but even so these two verses build up imagery that can easily be transposed into prose, in a show-not-tell sort of way, if desired. But The Amazing Devil’s lyrics across their whole discography is a treasure trove of metaphor inspiration for your own writing, I would HIGHLY recommend taking a listen (or a look at their lyrics, if you’re not a fan of contemporary folk music lol)
Tim's metaphor video was the third glass of milk . . . The one you drink because you can't stop, because the first two were cold and refreshing, and because this one demanded imbibation - to become part of you. And just like chain guzzling glasses of milk, some metaphors become upsetting the more deeply one drinks of them.
Good to know. Thank you.
The warning about self harm probably should have come before the actual passage describing self harm.
I was thinking grief was also "never asking a crumb", cause grief lives rent free in your head
Okay but what if you could use Cerulean Orbs to add something to the writing.
Impossible. You're on the brink of Bad Metaphor jail.
Legend has it someone out there has!
~ Tim
“Her eyes were cerulean orbs. That is to say, her eyes indicated the same power that cerulean orbs have. Their subtle glow marked her as a seer of the past, a person who divines the future by using patterns of the past. She was the person he was looking for.”
Admittedly, this is still literal in some sense, but this person is effectively only interested in the power of this person and she has the power of cerulean orbs - to divine the future by studying patterns of the past.
I’m digging the art style of this video
I love this discussion about this representation thank you:)
I write screenplays. I often think I don't use metaphors, since screenplays are designed to efficiently tell the reader what must be seen and heard. While watching I realized that I use metaphors all the time. In one story I introduce two characters by the condition of their name badges, instantly communicating the difference in experience between the two.
In a screenplay, if it can't be seen, heard or acted, leave it out. If a single object, sound or action can communicate more than the words required to describe it, maybe you can use it.
Yes! Thank you!!
10:16 and this is the ONLY poem this metaphor is referencing. No other poems about grief or ravens that refuse to leave. Don’t even consider it.
Amazing content!
By the time it noticed the blue ball becoming larger, the dragon was already knifing through its atmosphere. Wrapped in a heat remote and alien to living worlds, the earth gave way, groaning noisily at the intrusion well after the enormous beast passed beyond its plates; slower, much slower than can reasonably be expected from an impact like this, and complaining the entire time, the ground shifted...
It was different now, not better or worse, but new and exciting. The seas came over for a look, tentatively exploring a gap which wasn't there this morning. A warmth from deep down chided the water and carried it back up until joining the sky, where they argued in high tones at being pushed by too much of themselves in the same place.
The dragon blinked and felt a familiar sensation as far as it could sense. It took a sort of long look around, and then went, exploring its bright molten home.
I like writing the inanimate with a little bit of personality. It feels more real, somehow
Oh im so going to watch that before writing tomorrow
i feel so smart when a guy on youtube refrences a book i like
2:41 got all of them!
Just remember, Hope Is The Thing With Feathers
I do have the world building books but haven't read them yet. If the sale on the novel is still going next week, I'd love to grab it. But I'm too strapped to get anything extra this week.
"As far as im concerned, written word is humanity's greatest achievement " librarian dude, the day after tomorrow
Something that I find fascinating is metaphors on a small scale. We fight illness. We climb out of depression. We run from the past.
Using a separate action to relate to a task. The issue is that the actions carry over. Some people refuse to fight. Some feel like they could never climb. And some are too tired to run. These things don't map very well to the metaphor, because the words may be percieved differently.
Why is 'up' a good thing. Why is 'forward' positive. Language is incredibly frustrating. Our metaphors map both ways, as time passes
As soon as I had finished cleaning my face, I barfed into the sink, which caused it to clog up, and before I could get the damned faucet turned off, the whole thing began to overflow onto the bathroom floor like some kind of perfect metaphor.
-Jack Townsend
That fish story broke me... I had to stop playing for an hour before coming back.
In your worm under the skin metaphor, I thought you were literally describing Morgellon's disease at first. It sounded so similar to the description a woman I know gave me as she was explaining what she was going through. She wasn't speaking metaphorically though, she truly feels that there are bugs under her skin.
And just like that 3rd beer he smashed it
Emotion, not metaphor holds the deeper meaning, metaphor is merely the language which transmits the emotion in a way that people can understand. Yet true art is created by emotion, metaphor is what I use in lieu of proper English words to describe expression.
I use to hate metaphors because they felt like an overly complicated means of saying whats usuallyobvious; "The curtain are blue because she's sad" type stuff.
Fantastic video. Really helpful for myself.
Two examples of writers using metaphors well i feel are.
Slay the princess (game). They use extended metaphors. And only one character ever uses metaphors as they speak.
Bryce o'connors series. Tue wings of war.
This irsh eriter does not use metaphors alot but i do think they they qre used well MOST OF THE TIME. His last book of the series so far may be susceptible to metaphor jail on a few occasions.
All in all a good book series still
I like it when magic is used as a medium to make metaphors more real and tangible to the world. it is one of the main reasons why Elden ring is my favorite world
The only time cerulean was used well was the monologue in The Devil Wears Prada…
I’d be pissed if someone described me as “the third beer”. 😅
Speaking of different tools in different media, one of my favorite metaphors in games is in Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons, simply because it involves the actual controls and can only work or even exist in this medium. Spoilers follow, in case anyone wants to avoid spoilers for a 12 year old videogame.
I forget most of the plot, and the game was a bit gimmicky: two brothers go out on a journey to find medicine for their sick father (I think). The gimmick: you have to control both characters at once, using one of the two analog sticks for each one. We explore, encounter dangers, solve puzzles and problems that can only be solved by the two working together. So far, so expected. Important: the younger one can't swim and/or is afraid of water.
At a certain point nearing the end, the older brother gets killed, and you actually feel this loss because you suddenly only use one half of the controller. But the real punch comes a little bit later: on his journey back home, the surviving brother, the one who's afraid of water, has to swim across a river. You try to do this, and it just doesn't work. Until, that is, you not only use his controls, but also those of the dead big brother, giving him the strength to conquer this obstacle. Whichever way you interpret that, I think it is simple and works very well, and is one of, if not the best example, of a metaphor using the specific tools of the medium.
25:32 talking to my mate Marama who lives in Christchurch as this part played and went WHAT MARAMA NO
I love gazing at this video with my inquisitive sienna orbs.