Weekly Writing Challenge: Easy As Pie

When we send a post into the blogosphere, we want to make sure our best feet are forward. That means making sure errors like typos or poor grammar don’t detract from what we have to say; it’s one of the reasons The Daily Post highlights common grammar struggles.  Grammar challenges follow up on grammar posts, calling on you to put your new-found understanding to the test.

To participate, tag your posts with “DPchallenge” or leave a link to your post in the comments. (It would also be great if you could link to this post to encourage people to take part – the more the merrier!) Please be sure your post has been specifically written in response to this challenge; obvious attempts to link-bait will be deleted. We’ll keep an eye on the tag and highlight the week’s best posts on Freshly Pressed each Friday.
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Last week, erudite resident grammarian Daryl posted an introduction to metaphor and simile, two tools that can add detail and texture to your communication–we often use them in writing and speech to drive home an impression we’re trying to create.

Of course, whether we’re using these tools as thoughtfully as we might is another issue: consider the gulf between your declaration that “it’s hot as hell out here” and Shakespeare’s evocative description of Romeo’s feelings for Juliet.

Your challenge this week is fairly straightforward as far as rules go: write about whatever you’d like, incorporating metaphor and/or simile  to illustrate and highlight important parts of your story. If you’d like something more advanced, take the bull by the horns and attempt an epic simile, an extended simile that runs for several lines. Homer really liked a good epic simile, so much so that we now call them Homeric Similes; here are a few examples.

One thing to keep in mind: a good metaphor or simile doesn’t have to be flowery or formal–you should use your own frame of reference while crafting them. Similes and metaphors are mirrors of your natural tone, they can be as flowery as your great-aunt’s sofa or as dirty as the sole of a trucker’s boot. (See what I did there? Ba-da-bing!) There’s no need to be someone you’re not; the “write what you know” adage applies here as well.

As always, feel free to ask questions in the comments; if anyone would like Daryl to expand on any piece of his post, we’ll rope him in.  We’re excited to see what you come up with for such a wide-open challenge!