I can't decide how this should be punctuated. Should I leave it like this: - A dazzling splinter of light flashed from its pearly teeth, toothpaste advertisement style. Or, should I do this: - A dazzling splinter of light flashed from its pearly teeth, toothpaste-advertisement style. Or should I reword the whole thing? P.S. I hate using the word 'like' unless it's absolutely unavoidable. Call me strange...
I would go ahead and overcome your bias against like in this case. It would be less awkward. In any case, don't use a hyphen to join toothpaste advertisement. I prefer metaphors to similes myself, so I am no great advocate of like. But the simple simile does have a place.
It depends on the style of your writing. If toothpaste advertisment style fits in with your writing, I'd use that. Its more memorable and distinctive than like a toothpast ad...but its the kind of thing that would totally ruin a piece of writing if it didn't really belong.....so its a judgement call, i think
A dazzling splinter of light flashed from its pearly teeth, much like a smile in a toothpaste ad. That would be my way of writing it.
In your specific example, the hyphen is appropriate (but clutters up the image even further with an unwieldy adjective). Personally, I think you should revisit your hatred of similes. "A dazzling splinter of light [reflected] from [a full set of (its is unnecessary, in any case)] pearly teeth flashed like a toothpaste advertisement" is a whole lot less awkward than what you have (IMO). Otherwise, I'd vote for a rewrite."
A dazzling splinter of light flashed from its pearly teeth, reminiscent of a toothpaste advertisement.
Well, (if you are being serious) the possessive must be 'its', kitty. 'it's' isn't possessive, it means 'it is'. I've reworded slightly: A splinter of light flashed from its pearly teeth like a toothpaste advertisement. I wanted to keep the language fairly simple. Thanks again.
