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Home » Archives » April 2006 » The Missing-Squid Formation
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04/28/2006: The Missing-Squid Formation
Well, everyone, first of all I should tell you that Tobago was swell. The water was warm, the fish were spectacular, the food was starchy and delicious. Go there at once, have a wonderful time!
The best moment came as I was snorkeling along, peering though my beloved prescription swim mask, when something came into view through the murky water in front of me. It was getting clearer as I drew closer. Soon, I made out a collection of dark objects, hovering there in close formation. Twenty of them, each about four inches long. They looked more like a squadron of one-man space fighters than you can possibly imagine. They moved off – backwards -- in perfect unison, still in their formation, as I approached. And I saw that they were squids. Caribbean Reef Squids, actually. As they hovered off, I could almost hear the hum of their tiny impulse engines. Simply perfect.
I cannot imagine describing these guys to anyone without employing the analogy of the little space squadron. It's how I saw them in that moment, and it's the only way I can convey what they looked like. This made me think. I was already aware that I used analogy in writing all the time, so I did a little search work with my old Buffy files to see how I used it. Interesting...
Sometimes it's the basis for a joke. Here's a line from the Doublemeat Palace episode of Buffy, in which Buffy struggles to come with a positive spin on the orientation film she just watched about the fast food joint's signature beef-and-chicken burger.
BUFFY
The cow and chicken coming together even though they never met... It was like Sleepless in
Seattle if Tom and Meg were, like, minced.
There's almost always humor in someone making a link between things that have one small point of similarity. Here's Willow, describing the Sunnydale High marching band. They march, she observes…
WILLOW
(not listening to
herself)
Like an army. With music instead of bullets and usually no one dies.
Here's an exchange between two characters in "End of Days" as they improvised medical supplies to treat injured comrades:
ANDREW
I liked the real bandages better. This bed sheet is awfully festive.
ANYA
I know. They're all gonna look like mortally wounded Easter baskets.
There's something I love about the unexpected point of comparison. The incongruity of an apt-but-unlikely comparison is often naturally quite funny. Of course, it doesn't have to be. It can be character-y, like this line from "After Life," that compares time to physical space.
TARA
I like sunrise better when I'm getting up early than when I'm staying up late, you know? It's like I'm seeing it from the wrong side.
It can even be sad, like this line from the same episode when a Demon taunts Buffy:
DEMON
You're the one who's barely here. Set on this earth like a bubble. You won't even disturb the air when you go.
I want to point out that I located each of these examples by opening my old Buffy files and simply searching for the word "like." I was surprised to discover at least one example in every script I tried. I use this structure all the time and I find it quite powerful. Comparisons, like pictures, are worth a thousand words. They're part of how we understand the world, by conceptualizing things in terms of other things. Why do so many of us pepper our speech with "like"? I think it's because we're actually struggling in that moment to find the next word, the one that really will literally tell our listeners what something is "like."
Think about how your characters are understanding their world, and you'll find analogies. When you show those analogies to the readers, you're letting them into the characters' heads. Knowing that I saw the squids as tiny space fighters may tell you as much about me as it does about the squids, right? Powerful stuff.
Lunch: Asian noodle soup made with something I've just discovered recently: noodle-shaped tofu. It's good!
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