M is for Metaphors

All authors use metaphor, and its twin simile, to enrich the reading experience.   We spanko authors use it, and its partners-in-crime allusion and euphemism to try to describe the same old scene, the same old consequences and the same old reactions in ways that are fresh, and stimulating, to our readers.   Also, if you only use factual - and thereby clinical - descriptions all the time, your readership audience is surely going to dwindle.

So instead of describing in detail each action that tells the reader how he reacted angrily to the news, you might use the metaphor "he flew off the handle.".   But don't.  Most metaphors that have become part of everyday speech are so hackneyed that they should only be used in everyday speech, and not your next masterpiece of spanking docudrama.

The mark of a competent wordsmith is an ability to coin new phrases - particularly when it comes to metaphors, similes and their kin.   If your first thought at the description of her spanked bottom was "her butt was as red as a beet" - well, no, that is the way a word hack would go about it.   You need to come up with something like "as scarlet at a Maiden Aunt's blush" or "as red as sun dried tomatoes sizzling in olive oil in a fry pan."    The choice does not have to be spectacular - just fresh.

You can get away with using well worn phrases if you mix them up in an original manner:  "He plowed into her butt like a rottweiler going at a fresh steak."    OK - not prize winning, but putting two old ones together in this way gives the illusion of crafting something new.   And in writing, as in all other things, perception is 99% of the game.

There is one group of wordsmiths who spend all their lives searching for new ways to say old things.   They are called "poets" and if you have not tried it recently, do read some of their works to pick up inspiration.   If Ronald Reagan could borrow "and touched the face of God" from an aviator's poem to use in an eulogy, then it is fair game for you to be inspired enough by "The fog comes on little cat feet" to pen "she entered his study as light footed as a kitten stealing through a meadow."  I am not suggesting that you plagiarize - but you should see how others do it, and try to copy their techniques (and not their words).

And another technique in your armory is to start off with some old hackneyed cliche and do a rewrite to change it into a factual description.    "He was a bull in a china shop when dealing with her excuses." (Bad)    "When she made any excuse, he would roar with rage and stamp around his desk as he yelled rebuttals, threats and arguments until her eyes filled with tears and her shoulders slumped."  (Better - but needs another rewrite:  an exercise I shall set as your homework for today).

Pithy turns of phrase should be one of your standard targets.   But there is a caveat (there always is with my posts).   Take care you don't overdo it.   You can end up with mixed metaphors that give a hopelessly wrong impression of what is going on:  "He smelt a rat and decided to nip it in the bud" is one famed example.   "He saw it was only a storm in a tea cup so decided to pour oil on troubled waters".   You could get away with those if you were writing a farce, but in serious spankerotica, you should avoid them as much as you can.