Writing Exercise: Crafting Metaphors

This week I'm skipping Etymology Expeditions in favour of trying this exercise from Rebecca McClanahan's Word Painting.

The idea is to take about thirty words, a nice mix of sensory adjectives, strong verbs, and abstractions, mix them up, and then draw three at random. Then you have to attempt to make up a metaphor using those words. This is supposed to help your mind make unexpected connections during your writing.

Here's my list:

tangy                     whisper            abyss
gossamer               ruin                  spectre
brittle                     reflect              talon
frozen                    knit                  gold
murky                    wander            dragon
gaudy                     squeak            shade
secret                     blush               sky
swift                      command        persimmon
ossified                  rot                   scale
obsidian                 yawn              wilderness


I didn't want to actually put these on paper, so I used a random number generator to pick my words.

Here's what I got:

brittle-wander-abyss -> All must wandered the brittle abyss.

frozen-squeak-talon -> Fear the frozen squeak of its talons.

secret-ruin-scale -> Like the whisper of ruined scales on obsidian.

Hey, that almost works!

Quite fun, this.

Go ahead, give it a try. You can make up your own list or use mine. Did you come up with a really good one? Do share with the rest of the class in the comments.