There is a danger when writing a blog that the words can turn into clichés, overused and worn out. Looking at how other authors use words, such as poets, can add energy to a tired looking post.
Poets take the words that we use every day, and when successful, turn them into memorable poetry. They are economical with words, and rely on the careful use of metaphors to express the emotion they are trying to capture. For example, Seamus Heaney uses metaphors to explore the creative process in writing poetry. In The Forge, the blacksmith’s work in the forge becomes a metaphor for poetic creation. Just as the smith shapes metal in heat and darkness, the poet hammers out words into form. The “anvil’s short-pitched ring” stands for the sound and rhythm of poetry. In “Personal Helicon” wells and echoes are metaphors for poetic inspiration. Peering into the depths of wells is like plumbing the depths of language and memory to find poetic voice.
A metaphor is a word or a phrase used to describe something as if it were something else. There are many techniques that can be used to help in developing them. For example, define what you want to describe, list words from other areas, and then look at the shared features. For example, the impact of AI on society could be compared to a river, then a metaphor would be “AI is a river quietly changing the shape of the banks.” Another approach is to take unrelated items and see what connections can be made. Trying to connect democracy to a flock of birds would produce “Democracy works better when its voices flock together, not scatter”. Even Wittgenstein can help. He believed the meaning of a word comes from its use. To form a metaphor in his style you need to show a scene. Instead of saying people are easily influenced, it can be written as “Crowds lean like sunflowers towards the brightest noise”. A quick search on the web will provide many more techniques.
Imagine using metaphors in your next post to explore changes in technology, politics, climate change or anything else that you want to write about. For example, a post written about the influence of AI on politics. Picking up on the river metaphor: “AI behaves like a fast, silent river that divides as it flows. As people step into it, the current gently directs them left or right in a way that they hardly notice. Soon, each side sees only those drifting the same way. By the time they reach a delta, it feels obvious that everyone is with them. Politics becomes a landscape eroded by invisible currents.” Is this metaphor more lively than the many sleep inducing posts in the socials at the moment?
Learning from poets and how they use words and phrases, particularly in metaphors, to express emotions can be adapted to freshen up opinions and arguments written in a post. Maybe one day a post will be written that will be memorable and have an impact on how we live.