Literary devices
Have you ever wondered why some sentences sound better than others? Or why some quotes live rent-free in your head for years yet others you forget before you flick to the next page of your book?
Well, it’s the same reason why we still read and study Shakespeare’s works hundreds of years after their publication – because the writers behind these lines have used language in a way that’s appealed to us as readers.
We often treat great prose as this mysterious concept that only geniuses can create. We as writers can all learn how to create good prose. Have you read Shakespeare’s early works? They’re not that great. But he got better, and it wasn’t through coincidence. You can too.
We can break each memorable line down and figure out exactly what makes them memorable. Yes, Writing is an art and not a formula, but there’s a science behind why the art of writing works, and this science can be narrowed down to specific techniques we call literary devices.
What are literary devices?
Literary devices can help you seer words into your reader’s minds and have them thinking about your book for days and weeks to come. They do this by creating rhythm, rhyme, contrast, imagery, and aesthetics to find meaning that goes deeper than the words on the page. Literary devices can take place at a word, sentence, or structural level so as writers, we can layer these techniques and weave them throughout our stories.
Most of us know the common ones: metaphors, similes, motifs, and analogies. But there are so many more out there, and the impact they can have on our readers can be profound.
In this series we will spend each episode taking a deep dive into various literary devices and how you can use them to create punchy, catchy and memorable lines and novels. We will also put our studies to work and see how we can change average paragraphs into ones that will stand out to your reader using literary devices.
Conclusion
But wait – I hear some of you asking! Will studying literary devices change my voice as a writer?
No! As an editor, I find some writers avoid studying prose because they’re worried it’ll change their unique writing voice. I promise this won’t happen. Literary devices aren’t a formula we use to create prose but are tools we can learn to create our own unique pieces of art.
If gave all of you lovely writers a writing prompt and told you to create a piece, we’d have countless unique works of writing. No two would be the same. Literary devices work in the exactly same way because you’ll apply the techniques in your own style and voice.
In my next blog post, we’ll take a look at our first literary device: polyptoton.