Welcome to my final post on crafting an extended metaphor that runs the length of your creative writing. These lessons apply for fiction as well as nonfiction, but for the purposes of this series I've focused on examples from my recently published memoir, Committed: A Memoir of the Artist's Road. In Part One of this series …
Continue reading Using Extended Metaphors in Your Writing — Part Three
Extended metaphors in prose resonate with the reader, even if she isn't sure what it is the author has done to trigger that resonance. In Part One of this series I explained that making use of a recurring metaphor advances both plot and character development. We looked at how to identify a key theme that needs …
Continue reading Using Extended Metaphors in Your Writing — Part Two
One element of creative writing that I struggled with in my MFA program was the use of metaphor, particularly ones extended across long passages. I bemoaned my struggle from one of my Vermont College of Fine Arts residencies. But as I progressed in my studies I came to realize I was too hard on myself, …
Continue reading Using Extended Metaphors in Your Writing – Part One
Oh metaphor, how you elude me. I hear you mentioned in the same breath as praise for the great essayists, storytellers, and poets here at my MFA residency with the Vermont College of Fine Arts, but you are shifting smoke to me, impossible to grasp wisps rising out of the creative sparks of others' literary …
Continue reading MFA Nugget: Extending Metaphor in Your Creative Writing
The Artist's Road 