This week as promised, I’m bringing you the first blog post about my book Coming Out of Egypt. My protagonist, Cicely, is an attractive Christian young woman who has a lot of skeletons in her closet, which she has managed to keep hidden. Cicely thinks her life is well ordered, but when she meets the handsome detective, David, she instinctively knows that the carefully-woven threads of her life are about to become undone. Which they do, despite Cicely’s best efforts to keep them intact.

In the story, I make use of the extended metaphor, meaning that the metaphor appears throughout the story. In fact, the title Coming Out of Egypt is itself a metaphor for the tortuous journey of the major characters out of their separate places of bondage. However, Egypt is more than that. It is an actual place in the story where Cicely first meets one of her pupils whose life is similar to what Cicely once experienced. And even though Cicely literally leaves Egypt, her path and the girl’s converge once more in a startling and unexpected way that disrupts the harmony of Cicely’s life. She is still stuck in Egypt.

But why use metaphors? I believe metaphors are an excellent way to:

1. Enrich the language by providing imagery which may not be as vivid without them . For example, in my book I refer to Cicely’s Egypt closet, which is not a real closet, but a storehouse of memories relating to her troubled past. The title Coming Out of Egypt is based on the story of the Exodus of the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt. It is a story I have loved ever since I was a child, and being a Christian, I’m still blown away by the way God delivered His people from the heavy hand of Pharaoh, the emperor of Egypt. This is the main theme that runs throughout the book.
2. Leave room for interpretation. Readers can explore which of the characters made a transition out of Egypt, i.e. which character(s) showed the most improvement by the end of the story, and which ones did not make it.
3. Express thoughts, feelings, experiences etc. When Cicely finally lets go of her inhibitions and allows herself to fall in love with David, she sees God parting the Red Sea so she can walk to freedom. Later, when her fears become a reality, she thinks that Pharaoh and his armies have won.
4. Prepare the reader for what is to come. In some parts of the story, I use metaphors as a foreshadowing. When Cicely suspects that David may find out about her past, she hears the pounding of Pharaoh’s armies drawing closer.

Metaphors, when correctly used, can add depth and meaning to your story, but according to the experts, writers should be careful not to use metaphors too extensively so that your work sounds like a huge cliché. Neither should you use metaphors employed by other writers, but use your own imagination to create metaphors that will flow seamlessly throughout your work. If you have used metaphors, or have an interest in them, please leave a comment and tell us about it.