Reflection · Craft

Defamiliarization

A rain-slicked street shown twice: once in plain description, once defamiliarized

I’ve written before about why I love defamiliarization, a concept rooted in Russian Formalism that seeks to make the ordinary extraordinary.

Habit can cause us to stop truly seeing what is around us. Metaphor is one way writers can interrupt that habit, using an unexpected comparison to make something familiar feel new again.

The goal isn’t simply beautiful language. It’s to help the reader see.