7 useful literary techniques

Some useful literary techniques

(Best used sparingly though!)

Alliteration

Books on writing and other stuff, by Terry Freedman.jpg

Books on writing and other stuff, by Terry Freedman

Where you use words that begin with the same letter, such as: The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club; Sense and Sensibility.

Anaphora

Where you start each sentence with the same words. Example: the poem IF.

Assonance

Similar to alliteration but using the same vowel sounds, such as: Jack ran to the sand.

Epistrophe

Where you end each sentence with the same word. Example: I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Epizeuxis

This is where you repeat a word in the same sense. For example, my advice to you is to write, write, write!

Synaesthesia

This is a condition in which one sense is experienced as another, eg colours experienced as sounds. Examples:

“She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight.” Raymond Chandler.

“David [Bowie] sees the world through abstract but precise details. Before we wrote Let's Dance, he walks in one day with a Little Richard album cover. Little Richard is wearing a red suit, and he's getting into a red Cadillac, and his hair is out to there. And David says, "Nile. That's rock'n'roll. That's what I want my record to sound like."” Nile Rogers. (Quoted on the IMDB website.)

The rule of three

This is where you have three ideas or concepts in a sentence. For example, I would say this article is concise, useful and apposite. I think this adds a nice balance to a sentence.

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