Today we will be describing a ‘handshake’ using the linking quality technique. But this time it is up to you to come up with your own linking quality! So:
Step 1: What qualities does a handshake have (our linking qualities)
Step 2: What else has one of these qualities (our source domain)
Step 3: Write about a handshake (our target domain) using the language of the source domain from step 2.
Good luck!
Handshake - shake - earthquake (I know, I took an obvious one)
Two fleshy tectonic plates shift, converging on one another. The crusts move along the mantle of stale, fluorescent-filled atmosphere, encroaching closer and closer. The continental lithosphere, dense with dapper dress and calloused by years of corporate climbing is holding her position. The submissive oceanic lithosphere, younger and more malleable, knows his place is deep within the subduction zone underneath her. He moves forward, knowing he will be the slab soon shoved back through the heated asthenosphere to be recycled in a process that keeps the company alive. A trench forms between the plates as the rumble begins, those nearby did not have enough warning to avoid the quivering, the IT department’s geologist failed. They feel the slip in their souls. She, gripping firm and eagerly, excessively moving up-and-down, wants to ensure that he and all inhabitants here feel her power, the needles on the seismometers wiggle uncontrollably, making marks that miss the paper completely. Then it’s over, as quickly as it began, she a little taller, and he a little deeper within the magma’s mess.
Handshake - Firm - Unripe Peach
Unprepared, but still initiated into the fruit bowl with the rest of the crowd. The Unripe peach agree’s to join the conglomerate of fruit. soft, subtle fresh skin met with the rough, leathery hands. The peach’s firmness shows it’s juvenile tendencies, but the old, ever patient hands know that sweet things are to come. If thrown into the teeth of the corporate world to early it will provide a bitter indulgent until it’s had time to come into its own.
I feel completely like a novice. You really captured two completely dissimilar objects with beauty and ease. The first word really draws you in. The promise of a handshake leading to a ripening of sorts, releasing sweetness is unreal. Great job.
I was inspired by the corporate theme of yours though! Yours is good to, but i have no idea about all those sphere words so I was lost throughout. I like it though that this women shaking is showing the others her power but maybe it could be condensed down to really find those diamonds within? That being said though I do enjoy reading your trains of thoughts your mind must just go like a greyhound out of the gate!
Yeah, I went about six minutes on this one. I knew it would be a little too long. My mind is weird, I kind of see the world in words and syllables and stories. With these linking exercises, I have a lot of trouble condensing because my instinct is to just free write and not worry about conciseness or coherence. Ha. It is just a mind dump picturing the handshake (including the build up and resolve) and the story it would tell if it caused an apocalyptic earthquake. My mind works a lot like a small kid, it just incessantly asks “why?” and “then what?” and “oooh! me next!”. Ha ha.
Handshake Warm Latte
His grip was liquid smooth and filled the container of my fingers perfectly. It whisked the center of my belly into a froth, warm and bubbly, like cozying up to a hearth on a brisk clear night. The connection between his hand and mine invigorated me, the world now saturated with new color and possibility.
This is super cool! I love the comparison of the soft firm peach to old leathery hands. Really nice writing you were able to make a really solid metaphor work here!
I mean it definitely doesn’t seem obvious the way you were able to write about it! Maybe you should take on scientific poetic writing you seem to have him a niche haha I feel like i learned a lot about earthquakes and an enjoyable narrative lol
Alright here’s a challenge in conciseness, In one sentence link handshake - shake - earthquake. Like for mine I think a good one line would be “With promises of a sweet and highly sought after future, the handshake confirms the peach is bitter until experience is gained.” or something like that. Thats one of the exercises in the songwriting without boundaries book.
Very nice! the connection of a handshake leading into being invigorated links them perfectly! plus latte’s are my go to so I liked this
This is utterly wonderful! So sincere. The warmth, the butterflies in the belly, the promise. Filled with frothy overtones of yearning. It’s like an espresso shot to the heart!
Here is my attempt: the tectonic plates of fingers shifted into place, crescendoing into a violent rumble that sent half of California drowning in the ocean.
Handshake - Connects - Electricity
After so many years of solitarily grafting away, my batteries were thoroughly depleted leaving me in a hopeless blackout of confusion. At last, after one last jolt I manage to generate a spark of insight. My work is at last marked by an acknowledging handshake that connects it to the worldwide grid of achievement. I feel a surge of pride pass through my body, deeply shocked by the unlikely success. I have to keep my feet firmly grounded, safely insulated from the overload of disbelief. The circuit is finally complete and my energy is transformed into the brightest light.
Not obvious at all - some great description! It paints a simple handshake with such geological magnitude - very effective indeed.
Very nice mapping of all those coffee-related words! The last few days I have started this exercise by writing out a list of words associated with the source domain to refer to as I write about the target. I don’t know if that is something anyone else is doing as well? but seems to be a nice way to dive into the language.
Very creative metaphor indeed! It feels like something you wouldn’t have come up with were it not for this linking step appraoch?
The first thought I had when I read your choice is that it works on many levels because sometimes you get that static shock when you shake hands! Really good words like “jolt”, “spark”, “grid”, “surge”, “grounded”, and “insulated” that all carry dual meanings here. Really good sensory language too, the surge passing through your body, and the transforming into a bright light.
@jamie To answer your question here, for me, I go with my initial reaction. When you gave us the a word and a linking, I kind of disregarded the the word and only paid attention to the linking word. For this one, I kind of did the same. The first quality of a handshake that came to mind was the shaking motion. The first thing that came to mind for a shaking motion was an earthquake (that is why I thought my choice was obvious). When you gave us a word and three choices of linking, I did the same. I looked at the word given and if one of the linking words was the first one, I took it. Then I thought only of the linking word and just took the first that came to mind. That is all kind of my stream-of-consciousness style of free writing.
Handshake-Constricting-Corset
His fingers wrapped around mine with unnatural force, like a corset. My bones crushed atop one another under the tightening rope of his knotty fingers. I nervously pull away, begging for a breath, but his rough hand only tightens further. The sweat from his palms makes my stomach churn, and I’m unable to escape what feels like eternity, constricted by his unyielding grip.