Great Artists Steal — Let me help you
Planting seeds in your word garden
We’ve all heard this enough times to fertilize our word gardens for a lifetime. My question is, how many of us plant seeds in that garden? More specifically, are we actually borrowing and stealing?
Tell me you have a list of personally curated quotes, passages, and turns of phrase. Similies as evocative as young love. Metaphors so poignant they resemble the casual ease of a spring picnic.
I have, for years, been slowly collecting a small fortune of exquisite writing. These are the breadcrumbs I follow. The heirloom seeds planted in neat little rows in my word garden. I’d like to share some of them with you, now. I hope you will use these to begin planting a word garden of your own.
Simile
The use of “like” or “as” to draw a comparison is, arguably, the quickest way to help your audience relate to the narrative.
“That’s always seemed so ridiculous to me, that people want to be around someone because they’re pretty. It’s like picking your breakfast cereal based on color instead of taste.”
John Green
Metaphor
“My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.”
John Green
