How to Make Your Similes Sparkle

A simile, as our fourth-grade English teachers intoned, is a comparison of two, usually dissimilar, objects, with the use of “like” or “as.” To enliven our writing, similes can evoke the particular sense we want to transmit. Many of our most now-trite similes were fresh when first used—Burns’ “my love is like a red, red rose,” Shakespeare’s “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” But repetition and endless assignment in freshman English classes has made them as shopworn as the bargain table after a sale.

Make More Art: Interview with Seth Godin

Today, I’m thrilled to be talking to Seth Godin, bestselling author of Permission Marketing, Tribes, and many others. Forbes calls Seth a “demigod on the web,” and when I’m feeling uninspired and creatively drained, I often read through Seth’s blog and come away feeling refreshed and ready to create.

Seth Godin’s most recent book, The Icarus Project, is a dare to make art and share it with the world. I personally found The Icarus Project a challenge to finish because I got so many new ideas for how to approach my writing that I had trouble sitting still to read.

Enjoy the interview!

Writing to Change the World Just Because We Can

It’s said that when Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the White House to meet President Lincoln, he looked at her and said, “So, you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this Great War.”

All writers want their work to have influence. I wanted my writing to move people, evoke emotions in them, and, most of all, call them to action, but I didn’t believe it was possible. Before I could believe, I needed to find the answers to a couple questions.

Stowe’s writing can start a war to end slavery, but what can my writing start? How do I write to start a change?

3 Reasons Writers Read Books

Every once in a while, I hear a writer say something like, “I don’t need to read. I’m too busy writing to read.” Stephen King would have something to say to this, but I keep quiet. Writing is hard enough. I don’t want to make it harder.

For me, though, reading inspires, instructs, and helps me connect with other authors more than any other habit.