Supporting Your Point

I've often seen topiaries shaped like birds, animals, or cartoon characters. Expert gardeners take a plant or flower and turn it into something whimsical and eye catching.

Plants are trained to grow around wire frames and take on various shapes. As writers, we take words and wrap them onto examples, illustrations, and stories. These tools are the framework upon which our concepts, ideas, and points are made visual.

There is a danger, however, in using these methods. If we put too much emphasis on an analogy, we run the risk of overshadowing our point. I've seen examples and illustrations taken to an extreme by readers, and they lose the real message.

As writers, keep the focus on a specific point instead of running down rabbit trails with the analogy or framework. Let's help our readers to understand the purpose of our examples.

Have you ever read a story, blog post, or devotional and forgotten what point they were trying to make from the illustrations used?