How can fictional models be explanatory?

Fictional scientific models include falsehoods that are not captured under the categories of simplification, approximation, or idealization. Recent commentators have found it puzzling that these literally false models are still capable, in some cases of furnishing scientific explanations. In this paper, I spell out a paradox that arises from accepting the explanatory capacity of fictional scientific models and provide a way of understanding these models that resolves the paradox. My proposed solution is that we should understand fictional scientific models as a type of paraphrasable metaphor. I apply my solution to three case studies and conclude on the basis of its successful application that my proposal provides a better way of understanding these models than the competing accounts I consider.Master of Art