The Best Examples of Engaging Examples of Writing with Metaphors and Similes Prompts

Let’s skip the definitions and go straight to the good stuff: real examples of engaging examples of writing with metaphors and similes prompts that you can drop into a classroom, a workshop, or your own writing routine.

Picture a high school classroom in 2025. Half the students are half-asleep, the other half are scrolling under the desk. You say, “Describe your anxiety before a big test.” You get one-word answers: nervous, worried, stressed. Now try this instead:

Prompt: Describe your anxiety before a big test as if it were a living creature following you around all day. Use at least one metaphor and one simile.

Suddenly you get lines like:

• My anxiety was a stray dog nipping at my heels, never close enough to bite, never far enough to forget.
• The worry clung to me like wet jeans, heavy and impossible to ignore.

Same topic. Completely different energy. That’s the power of well-framed examples of engaging examples of writing with metaphors and similes prompts: they don’t just ask for figurative language, they sneak it in through a vivid scenario.

Examples of Engaging Examples of Writing with Metaphors and Similes Prompts for Everyday Emotions

Emotions are fertile ground for figurative language, especially when writers struggle to say how they “really” feel. Here are examples of engaging examples of writing with metaphors and similes prompts built around everyday feelings.

Prompt: Turn Boredom into a Place

Write about boredom as if it were a town you’re stuck in. Use at least one metaphor and one simile.

This pushes writers to move beyond “I was bored” and turn an emotion into a setting:

• Boredom was a one-stoplight town where the traffic never changed, just circled the same block of nothing.
• The afternoon stretched out like a two-lane highway through the desert, straight and empty and humming with heat.

Prompt: Jealousy as Weather

Describe jealousy as a weather pattern moving through your day. Include a simile and a metaphor.

Writers might come up with:

• Jealousy rolled in like a sudden thunderstorm, darkening every thought before I even saw it coming.
• It was a low, green fog sitting in my chest, thick enough to blur every good thing in front of me.

These are the kinds of real examples that shift students from naming feelings to showing them. Research on expressive writing from places like Harvard’s health publications suggests that putting emotions into concrete language can help people process them more effectively. Metaphors and similes are one of the most accessible ways to do that.

Best Examples of Metaphor and Simile Prompts for Modern Life (2024–2025)

Writers in 2024–2025 don’t live in a fantasy forest; they live in a world of group chats, climate anxiety, and endless notifications. The best examples of engaging examples of writing with metaphors and similes prompts tap into that reality.

Prompt: Social Media as a Physical Space

Imagine social media as a physical place you have to walk through every day. Describe it using at least two metaphors and one simile.

Sample responses:

• Social media was a carnival that never shut down, all lights and noise and cotton-candy compliments that melted the second you touched them.
• My feed was like a hallway of mirrors, each one stretching and warping my reflection until I forgot what I actually looked like.

Prompt: Your Phone as a Character

Write about your phone as if it were a character in your life. Use a metaphor to show its personality, and a simile to show how it affects your mood.

Examples include:

• My phone was a needy friend, buzzing every few minutes to remind me it existed.
• When I lose it, panic hits me like a wave, cold and sudden, as if I’ve misplaced a piece of myself.

These examples of engaging examples of writing with metaphors and similes prompts feel current because they live where we actually live—online, distracted, overstimulated. That relevance makes students and adult writers more willing to play along.

Examples Include Sensory-Rich, Scene-Based Prompts

Some of the best examples of metaphor and simile prompts don’t even mention “metaphor” or “simile” at first. They start with sensory detail and then slide writers toward figurative language.

Prompt: The Noisy Room

Describe the loudest room you’ve ever been in. Halfway down the page, compare the noise to something unexpected using a simile. Then extend that simile into a metaphor.

A writer might produce:

• The cafeteria roared like a hundred jet engines in a metal box. After a while, the noise became an ocean, and we were all just swimmers trying not to drown in each other’s voices.

Here, the simile (like a hundred jet engines) evolves into a metaphor (the noise became an ocean). This is a subtle way to teach layering imagery without lecturing.

Prompt: The Quiet Morning

Write about a very quiet morning. Use a simile to describe the silence, then a metaphor to show how it made you feel.

Possible responses:

• The silence sat on the house like a heavy blanket, muffling every corner.
• It was a pause between heartbeats, a fragile space where anything could still happen.

When you collect these kinds of real examples, you create a reference bank that shows new writers what “good” can look like—without sounding like a worksheet.

Example of a Step-by-Step Metaphor Prompt for Story Writers

Sometimes writers freeze because “write a metaphor” feels abstract. Here’s an example of a guided prompt that walks them through the process.

Prompt: Turn a Problem into a Monster

1. Pick a real problem you have (money, time, health, relationships, school).
2. Imagine it as a monster. Give it a name, a shape, and a voice.
3. Write a scene where you meet this monster for coffee. Use at least two metaphors and one simile.

Sample passage:

My student loan debt walked into the café like it owned the place, a tall figure in a gray suit with numbers instead of eyes. It wasn’t just a problem; it was a shadow that stretched over every decision I made. When it spoke, the words clinked together like loose change in a jar, small sounds that somehow weighed a ton.

This single example of a prompt packs in character, dialogue, and figurative language. It also connects to real adult concerns, which makes it especially useful for community college classes, writing groups, or personal journaling.

If you’re interested in how metaphor shapes thinking, organizations like the National Institutes of Health host and fund research on how language affects cognition and mental health, and scholars often highlight the role of metaphor in how we frame problems.

Best Examples of Metaphor and Simile Prompts for Different Age Groups

Not every writer needs the same kind of nudge. Here are examples of engaging examples of writing with metaphors and similes prompts tailored to age and experience.

For Elementary or Early Middle School

Prompt: Describe your favorite food as if it were a superhero. Use “like” or “as” at least once.

Example:

• Pizza was a cheesy superhero, its cape of steam billowing as it rescued my hunger like a firefighter pulling someone from a burning building.

This keeps things playful and concrete.

For Teens

Prompt: Describe high school as if it were a TV show set. Use a metaphor for the school itself, and a simile to show how you feel walking in each morning.

Example:

• High school was a long-running reality show, full of dramatic exits and shaky camera angles. Every morning I walked in like a contestant who wasn’t sure if today was elimination day.

For Adults

Prompt: Write about your job as if it were a relationship. Use at least one metaphor and one simile to show its best and worst sides.

Example:

• My job was an arranged marriage that turned into a friendship—comfortable, predictable, and sometimes as dull as beige wallpaper. But on good days, the work fit me like a well-worn jacket, familiar in all the right places.

These examples include humor, honesty, and just enough exaggeration to keep things interesting.

Real Examples of Metaphor and Simile Prompts from Journaling and Therapy

Metaphors and similes aren’t just for English class. They show up in therapy, coaching, and journaling as tools to explore mental health and stress. Journaling programs often encourage people to “write about your pain as an object or place,” which is essentially a metaphor prompt.

For instance, health resources like Mayo Clinic and Harvard Health discuss expressive writing and art as ways to manage stress and trauma. You can adapt that approach:

Prompt: Describe your stress as a room you have to live in. Use a simile for how it feels to enter the room, and a metaphor for what the room does to your body.

Realistic example:

• Walking into my stress felt like stepping into a room where the air was made of rubber bands, each breath stretching them tighter across my chest. The room itself was a filing cabinet jammed with unfinished tasks, every drawer stuck, every handle whispering my name.

Another prompt:

Prompt: Write about your healing as if it were a landscape changing over time. Include at least one extended metaphor and one simile.

Example:

• My healing was a winter field slowly remembering it was spring. At first, progress came like shy sunlight, a thin brightness that barely warmed my skin. But underneath, the soil was already rewriting itself, turning old pain into fertilizer for something I couldn’t quite name yet.

These real examples show how metaphor and simile can make abstract inner experiences more visible—and therefore more manageable.

FAQ: Examples of Metaphors and Similes Prompts Writers Actually Use

What are some simple examples of metaphors and similes prompts for beginners?

A simple example of a beginner-friendly prompt is: “Describe your favorite season using one simile and one metaphor.” A writer might say, “Summer is a lazy cat sleeping on the windowsill, and the heat wraps around me like a heavy blanket.” Another easy prompt: “Write about your best friend as if they were a kind of weather.” These kinds of examples of engaging examples of writing with metaphors and similes prompts keep the task focused and fun.

How many metaphors or similes should a prompt ask for?

For most writers, especially students, asking for one metaphor and one simile per prompt is plenty. The goal is not to overload the paragraph with comparisons, but to encourage a few strong, specific images. The best examples of prompts are clear: they say exactly what to try (for instance, “use one metaphor and one simile”) and trust the writer to build from there.

Can these prompts help with writer’s block?

Yes. When you’re stuck, abstract ideas like “write about your day” can feel impossible. But examples of engaging examples of writing with metaphors and similes prompts give you a concrete doorway. “Describe your day as a roller coaster,” or “Write about your week as if it were a playlist” narrows the task and wakes up your imagination. The structure of a metaphor often gives you a built-in storyline.

Are there examples of metaphor and simile prompts that work for nonfiction?

Absolutely. Nonfiction writers can use prompts like: “Describe your research process as if it were a road trip,” or “Write about your career as a garden you’ve been tending.” These examples include both reflection and figurative language, which can make essays and memoir more vivid without sacrificing accuracy. Universities such as Harvard often encourage vivid, concrete language in academic writing; metaphors and similes, used carefully, are part of that toolkit.

How can teachers collect and reuse the best examples from student work?

One practical approach is to keep an anonymous “metaphor wall” or digital document where you gather standout lines from student responses. Over time, you’ll have your own local archive of real examples—the best examples of metaphors and similes that came from your actual learners. Those can then become models the next time you introduce examples of engaging examples of writing with metaphors and similes prompts in your classroom or workshop.

Metaphors and similes are how we smuggle feeling into language. The right prompts don’t just ask for comparisons; they hand writers a vivid situation and say, “Try this.” Use these examples of engaging examples of writing with metaphors and similes prompts as a starting point, then twist them to fit your world, your students, and your stories. That’s where the real magic starts.