Edge of the precipice.....

[Rajeev Singh]

The thrill of adventure had led to his plight. His better sense had warned him against going too close to the edge of the precipice but his child-like adventurism had suggested otherwise.

Here he was now - dangling from a rock  jutting out from the cliff-face , the sheer separation between him and the seemingly bottomless chasm.

His hands were straining to get the maximum purchase they could on the surface of the bare rock, his legs flailed like the detached appendage of a reptile and his heart thudded against his chest like an ominous clock chiming away the last remaining moments of life in this world.

A cry for help would have been as fruitless as the prospect of water in a limitless expanse of desert.

He tried not to look down into the gaping void beneath him that seemed so alive now, readying itself like a mythical creature to swallow him whole, mocking at his desperate attempts to pull himself back over the edge.

[Rajeev Singh]

I do like to use metaphors.I simply can't do without them, and you are right , I am also often anxious about using the word 'like'. I don't use 'as' so much.

Stephen King does these things effortlessly as I found out in his novels 'It' and " Gerald's game' but he writes too much dialogue.I still haven't learned how to write good dialogues.

I often write a volume of text without a dialogue but I try to work a lot on the imagery- the 'Alistair MacLean ' kind - that I have loved since childhood.

If you think you and I are cut from the same cloth then may be we could share some literary knowledge.

[Jadie Jones]

Your last sentence is fantastic! You and I are cut from the same cloth - we love to use metaphors. Just be careful not to over use like and as.