Let us resume our discussion of where figurative devices, as opposed to everyday figurative senses, can best be used.The basic purpose of similes, metaphors, and other figurative devices is to bring something home to the reader vividly and immediately. Hence, instead of writingTrying to stop money being wasted in this organization is a frustrating and ultimately futile task. we might write,Trying to stop money being wasted in this organization is like trying to hold water in a sieve. Instead ofIt was not a constructive criticism; it was a direct personal insult. we might choose to say,It was not a constructive criticism; it was a slap in the face. In both instances, the images used are appropriate to the idea that is being expressed and are more graphic and forceful than the literal statements. Neither image is particularly original, but neither is among the most overused clichés. On the whole, this is the safest kind of image to use. If you choose more original or out-of-the-way images, you run two risks. The first is that the reader may not know what you are talking about. If you wrote, for example,Trying to stop money being wasted in this organization is like trying to repair a leaking faucet with a paper washer. you would undoubtedly have produced a more original simile, but it might take those of your readers who were not plumbers or do-it-yourselfers a while to understand what you were implying. The second is that the image may claim more than its fair share of the reader's attention. If you wrote,It was not a constructive criticism; it was a bucket of spit poured over the man's best suit. you would have produced a more arresting metaphor than the customary slap in the face, but you might find the reader savoring the details of the image rather than attending to the essential point. You need to bear these considerations in mind when choosing or coining a figurative expression. You may also need to think carefully about how you will follow up on your image.Figurative expressions tend to be showstoppers. They are by nature more vivid and arresting than factual statements, and they tend also to be complete in themselves, inasmuch as they are easy to grasp and, thus, self-explanatory or else they have failed in their basic purposes. If you say,It was not a constructive criticism; it was a bucket of spit poured over the man's best suit. you cannot really go on to develop the idea and explain what you mean by it, because that would defeat the basic purpose of using an image and be tantamount to confessing that the image was there primarily for effect and not to aid the reader's understanding.If you say,Trying to stop money being wasted in this organization is a frustrating and ultimately futile task. you can cue in your next sentence from any of the words or phrases contained in it:Trying to stop money being wasted in this organization is a frustrating and ultimately futile task. None of its members seems to realize that a dollar saved is a dollar earned…. Trying to stop money being wasted in this organization is a frustrating and ultimately futile task. I have striven in vain to inculcate habits of economy in the staff, but … Trying to stop money being wasted in this organization is a frustrating and ultimately futile task. It is frustrating because it is so obvious where savings could be made, and it is futile because … However if you say,Trying to stop money being wasted in this organization is like trying to hold water in a sieve. perhaps only the second of the three options suggested above makes a satisfactory continuation. You would probably not wish to follow a homely image with a homely saying in the next sentence, as in option one, and option three is individually tailored to the factual sentence. You might be tempted to try and continue the simile, but it is usually difficult to stretch an image without its starting to seem contrived:Trying to stop money being wasted in this organization is like trying to hold water in a sieve. The whole setup is full of holes through which cash is continually leaking…. On the whole, it is usually best to reserve an image for a point in your argument or story where it can act as a kind of clincher, expressing something or summing up something decisively. Treat it as something that temporarily stops the show. Be prepared to make a fresh start in the next sentence.
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