“Shrink Down, Abstract Up”: Tools for Evoking Metaphorical Thought
“Metaphor is the raw uranium of writing.”
– Alvin Knox
Tools:
Willingness to exercise a fluid mindset.
Willingness to send your critic to tea.
Twenty minutes (ideally)
Choose a primary element to approach: Anything!
1. Describe it concretely:
Use intricate detail. Shrink down inside each detail and describe it, shrinking deeper down in further detail.
Use all your senses. If you do not know what the primary element smells like, make it up.
Be inventive!
2. Record your first physical encounter with the primary element.
Observe the encounter omnisciently.
Enter slow motion and engage all your physical senses.
Do not write about your emotional state or response.
Consider: Where, When, the Season, the Weather, the Event, your Company, What preceded the encounter with your primary object.
How did you physically feel in the moment?
3. Recall a recent encounter with the primary object.
Describe it physically.
But allow an element of personal thought: How do you deal with the object? How do you respond?
4. Give the primary element a form capable of sentient thought, a form you can address and expect it to understand.