Like vs that weird thing that no one understands though they know when It happens:

As two literary devices that might seem pretty similar when It comes to making comparisons, It might surprise you how flexible It is to get a grip to both the simile and the metaphor. Recognizing their differences and how they work might help you improve your songwriting skills by being able to associate ideas with more freedom. To get our point across, we'll tack the distinctions between these two figures of speech.

Two approaches to relationships between words:

While the most noticeable right off the bat is the simile, due to the use of words as connectives, being these the use of "like" or "as" to establish a comparison between two subjects that have no apparent relationship between them. One example of this:

• Going back to basics like an old man wearing a diaper.

Sorry for the weird example, though It might help to recognize how Going back to basics and an old man wearing a diaper won't have so obvious a relationship If we don't add the word "like" between them.

In the case of the metaphor, It is more of an abstract comparison between Ideas that have no literal relationship between them, they usually mix senses, emotions or behaviors with objects that don't have those characteristics in their natural state. An example to showcase this:

• The room was painted by her tears.

No, she doesn't cry paint or something like that, It is more of a virtual relationship established to connect the two words and convey how her sad mood affected the whole room.

So, as we have seen between the two, they are pretty distinct with what they try to accomplish. The simile makes a comparison between concepts through the use of connective words, while the metaphor draws more of a non-literal comparison, all for the sake of symbolism or enriching the vocabulary of an statement and saying, in a fashionable way, that one thing is another thing.

It might not be easy to get metaphors and what are the rules that guide their creation, though with practice and understanding the overall idea they try to convey you can surely gain mastery at the use of this grammatical tool. We hope that this information has been of help to you and that It can prove useful when It comes to recognizing in which cases to use each and being able to enrich the way in which you share your ideas.