Literary devices can add interest to a story. Try to include some of the following. These are just a few of the simpler devices you can use.

 

Alliteration: Repeated sounds at the beginning of words or within words. Alliteration creates rhythm and melody, establishes mood, calls attention to important words, and points out similarities and contrasts.

 

Example: --We will watch, wait, and worry.

 

Allusion: a subtle reference in a literary work to something famous: another story, character (fictional or real), place, event, or object. (A subtle way to suggest larger significance and meaning.) If we recognize the allusion, then meaning and significance are enriched and developed without having the author spell everything out for us.

 

Imagery and allusions (as well as plot, structure, character, setting) can function ironically. That is, there is a contrast or discrepancy between one thing and another, especially between what is said and what is meant or between what happens and what is expected to happen. (i.e. images of life and fertility surrounding a character who is dying. The reader’s task is to figure out the significance of the irony.

 

Anadiplosis: ("doubling back") the rhetorical repetition of one or several words; specifically, repeating a word at the end of one clause and the beginning of the next. Human beings always have a need, a need for bigger, a need for better, a need for more expensive.

 

Anaphora: repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or lines.--We like to read. We like to dance. We like to play.

 

Antistrophe: repeating the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses. We went to Hawaii, and got sunburned. We went to Bermuda, and got sunburned. We went to Jamaica, and got sunburned. Then we went to Switzerland, and got frostbite! (Sorry, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a joke.)

 

Assonance:  repetition of vowel sounds in a phrase: The owl swept out of the woods and circled the house.”

 

Epiphany: Often a major character will go through some Transformation or come to some Realization.  This is when a character has an “Ah ha!” moment, that changes their life or their perspective on some aspect of life.

 

Euphemism: An inoffensive expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive ("passed on" instead of died)

 

Example: She's a few bricks short of a load, instead of (She's not too smart).

 

Figurative Language Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something else, you are using figurative language. Any language that goes beyond the literal meaning of words in order to furnish new effects or fresh insights into an idea or a subject. The most common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, and alliteration.

 

Hyperbole: A deliberate exaggeration used to heighten effect and emphasize a point. Example: (scared to death) (skinny as a rail) She’s said so on several million occasions

 

Imagery: The author uses words, patterns, or sounds to create a visual experience for the reader.

 

Images may invoke our other senses—hearing, taste, touch, smell– creating a multi-dimensional experience. Try to use imagery which is vivid enough to invoke all five senses, whenever possible.

 

When images form patterns of related details that convey an idea or feeling beyond what the images literally describe, they are called metaphorical or symbolic. The details suggest one thing in terms of another. For example, images of light often convey knowledge, life, or goodness, while images of darkness sometimes suggest ignorance, death, or evil. 

 

Irony: Irony is the contrast between what is expected or appears to be and what actually is.

 

Not all stories use irony.

 

Situational Irony - An ironic situation is when someone expects one thing to happen, but something completely different happens. For example: a student tattles on a classmate who has done something wrong, expecting the other student to get punished, and instead is punished for tattling.

 

Dramatic irony - the contrast between what a character says and what the reader knows to be true.

 

Verbal irony/Sarcasm - a statement that says one thing but means the opposite Often this comes with sarcasm (a statement that is mocking or condescending).

 

For example saying: That dress really does a lot for your figure.

When what you mean is: It makes you look short, fat, and dumpy.

That dress looks like it was made for you.

(When you were 20 years younger and 50 pounds thinner.)

 

Onomatopoeia: Authors create words that mimic sounds to appeal to our sense of hearing and help bring descriptions to life.

 

Examples: Caarackle! Hisssssss Wheeeeoooo wheeeoooo wheeeoooo-sound of a siren, Rrrraaarrrhhh-a lion's roar

 

Oxymorons:  The use of contradictory terms together. For example: deafening silence, fast food, political intelligence

 

Personification— Personification is a figure of speech in which human qualities are attributed to an animal, object, or idea.

 

Example: the leaves danced, the wind whispered

 

Personification can also be a useful descriptive tool. By giving human characteristics to non-human objects, you can make your writing come alive.

 

For instance:

a) The trees bowed as the wind howled, and driving rain beat the river into a foamy froth.

b) The leaves danced across the driveway as the whistling wind caught them by surprise.

 

Sarcasm: Sarcasm is simply language designed to cause pain, or to convey insults or scorn. Sarcasm can lend an air of reality to your writing. Almost everywhere you go, you will hear someone say something sarcastic. Sarcasm seems to work best when used in humorous writing, but it can work just as well in other writing, if done properly. The thing you must remember is that most sarcastic statements invoke a humorous response, so if you are trying to keep your writing serious, it might be better to avoid sarcasm.

 

Similes/Metaphors: Be careful when using similes and metaphors. A simile is when you compare one thing to another, usually by using the words like, or as.

 

Example A: The sand on the beach was as soft and white as freshly sifted flour.

Example B: Her laugh screeched like fingernails on a chalkboard.

 

A metaphor implies that one thing is something else.

 

Example A: Her eyes were emeralds, floating on a sea of pearly white.

Example B: The new basketball player stood tall and broad among his team members, a redwood tree among a forest of spindly pines.

 

Similes and metaphors can help to add picturesque descriptions to your writing, but too many can be too much. Overusing similes and metaphors can turn them into the one thing writers should avoid, clichés.

 

Understatement: Where the dialogue or action is not a strong enough reaction for the situation: “He was nervous when he learned his wife had hired a hitman to kill him.”