Sick of similes? Annoyed by alliteration? Working out techniques and terminology in English can be tricky, so we’ve put together a guide to help you out.
Here you’ll find the top English literary techniques that composers of all kinds of texts use to create and communicate meaning in their work.
In each entry you’ll find:
- a definition and guide to spotting the literary technique
- some examples, and
- a demonstration of how to write about the literary technique.
You can go alphabetically if you’re feeling organised, choose your favourite letter if you’ve got one or play English literary technique roulette - just click any letter at random and see what comes up!
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q
R S T U V W X Y Z
Anecdoche
Definition
A situation where everyone is talking at once and no one is listening to anyone else. In print it can look like two monologues happening at the same time where the words of each character have no causal relationship to, or recognition of, each other, as if the author took two speeches and then let each character say one line at a time, alternating between them.
It can also look like a lot of short dialogue with ellipses and exclamations to convey how the characters are all cutting each other off. Sometimes it includes ellipses at each end of the dialogue to indicate how each character hasn’t stopped speaking just because the author had to turn our attention to the words of another character. It usually ends with one character calling for order.
You can say something is anecdochic or that someone used anecdoche, but make sure you check your own spelling as it will often be auto-corrected to ‘anecdote’ or ‘anecdotic’.
Examples
-Very easy to see in films or TV but can come up in novels and plays.
-Also comes up a lot in real life - for example when your whole family or a group of friends are trying to read a physical map to determine the best path to take.
-Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Deadopening scene
-Question time at the end of press conferences where all the journalists try to get their question to the speaker over each other.
-The Good Place Season 1, Episode 13
How to write about it
Michael Shur uses anecdoche to build tension and confusion in the scene leading up to Eleanor’s revelation about the Good Place. Because all the characters speak over one another without listening for several seconds, Eleanor’s moment of enlightenment comes as a big relief for the audience, both intellectually and audibly.
This anecdochic scene is pivotal to the creation of meaning throughout Season 1.
Allegory
Definition
When a story is trying to simplify a bigger, more complex concept so that we can understand it more easily and from new perspectives, this is called allegory.
This can be used for politics, social issues, religion, ethics and really anything that is too big to fit in a normal story (be it a movie, novel or TV show).
Sometimes the story follows the idea the author is trying to explore really closely with a few details changed (like using animals instead of people in a farmyard instead of a nation) or it can get quite creative and fantastic (like Hunger Games where current reality is extended into dystopia).
Often, in content aimed at teenagers and adults, allegory is used illustrate how ridiculous or dangerous an idea or problem is and prompt a new way of thinking.
In most children’s content, allegory is used to make an idea more relevant and accessible to this younger audience.You can say something is anecdochic or that someone used anecdoche, but make sure you check your own spelling as it will often be auto-corrected to ‘anecdote’ or ‘anecdotic’.
Examples
- George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian revolution
- C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is an allegory for Christianity
- The Hunger Games (books and films) is an allegory of capitalism
- The Handmaid’s Tale (book and TV series)
- Squid Game
- Most of Dr Seuss’s work
How to write about it
Suzanne Collins uses allegory in The Hunger Games to reveal the dangerous inequalities that capitalism perpetuates.
Lewis’s allegorical tale invigorates the Christian story with fantasy, magical creatures and fairytale tropes, making it more vivid and accessible for younger readers.
Orwell’s allegory of the Russian revolution has featured in school curricula around the world for decades.
Alliteration
Definition
Any time the same sound appears at the start of two words that are near each other, that is alliteration. It’s only alliteration if the repetition is at the start of the word.
The impact of alliteration is that it makes things memorable. Think of any clichéd saying and odds are you’ll find an alliteration. It also adds emphasis to the alliterated words which increases the impact of the sound on our bodies. For example, repeating ‘s’ feels sinister, repeating a hard ‘c’ or ‘k’ sound can be comedic and repeating ‘b’ or ‘p’ can be very active.
Alliteration has some technique relatives to watch out for – sibilance (repeated ‘s’ sounds, anywhere in the word), consonance (repeated consonant sounds anywhere in the word) and assonance (repeated vowel sounds anywhere in the word).
Examples
- ‘Curiosity killed the cat’
- ‘She sells sea shells by the sea shore’
- Most tongue twisters in any language
- Often used in poetry
- Often fundamental to fictional spells, curses and riddles - Most of Dr Seuss’s work
How to write about it
Keats alliterates the letter ‘f’ in his poetry which forces the reader to take deeper, longer breaths, to lift their voice higher and speak (or read) gently, thereby reinforcing the words of his poems.
Colloquialism
Definition
A colloquialism is a particular word or phrase that is informal, slang or swearing. This means that what counts as a colloquialism can change over time so it’s important to know the context of your content when you’re writing about it.
The impact of a colloquialism, or an overall colloquial tone, is that it shapes or subverts the reader’s expectations of the text, character, or situation. It also either surprises us or sets us up for surprise when a formality is used instead.
A good way to think of the impact of colloquialism on a situation is to consider the use of nicknames or full names – if you’re always using a nickname, you’ll be worried or surprised when a friend uses your full name. Equally, if you’re talking to a stranger and they use a nickname rather than your full name, the informality can be jarring and annoying.
Colloquialisms can be used to be inclusive and, conversely, exclusive. If the slang used is familiar, it is inclusive but if it is unfamiliar, it reminds the reader that they are not part of the social group depicted.
Examples
- ‘Bloke’ or ‘dude’ instead of ‘man’
- ‘Chick’ instead of ‘woman’
- Most Australian contractions are colloquial or colloquialisms – ‘brolly’ instead of ‘umbrella’, ‘breakkie’ instead of ‘breakfast’, ‘veggies’ instead of ‘vegetables’ etc
How to write about it
Jane Austen uses colloquialisms to reinforce differences between the sexes. In discussions between men she uses ‘oh G-‘ to suggest comfortable swearing and between women she uses ‘La!’ to show the importance of the statement to that character.
In conversations between male and female characters, there are far fewer colloquialisms, except in declarations of love where social guards are lowered to allow emotion through.
Thor’s character development is revealed across the Marvel Universe through his gradual attainment of modern American colloquialisms and his waning use of formal, Asgardian, speech.
Caricature
Definition
Caricature is used to make our perception of a character a bit more extreme or exaggerated than would be necessary or accurate in real life - to use the term to describe someone in real life is usually insulting.
Caricature means that a character has been constructed in a way that makes them a bit ridiculous. This can be funny on purpose or it can be a shorthand for indicating who the villain is and that they’ll be turned from villain to vanquished soon enough.
Caricature is also a visual term which means, essentially, turning someone into a cartoon of themselves. Political cartoons are the classic example where politicians become more nose or ears than anything else. This can be done in literature where a character’s particular obsession starts to make them silly or where a single personality trait or physical feature becomes their only feature.
Examples
- Mrs Bennet in Pride and Prejudice is a caricature of the overbearing mother pushing her daughters into ‘good’ marriages. This is her only personality feature and she is made ridiculous in other ways too.
- Gru in Despicable Me is a caricature of a villain, but here it’s on purpose.
- Most James Bond villains are caricatures of villains (especially in the early films) because being ‘bad’ or obsessed with killing James Bond is their only character trait.
How to write about it
Jane Austen’s caricature of a socially ambitious mother in the form of Mrs Bennet reveals the preoccupations and priorities of Regency England.
Coffin and Renaud’s use of caricature as the foundation for their lead character, Gru, is fundamentally satisfying for an audience accustomed to caricatured supervillains in spy films.
Shakespeare uses caricature to make fun of love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by presenting the Fairy Queen Titania as in love with a ridiculous man made even more silly by his appearance as a donkey.
Dialogue
Definition
Dialogue is a conversation between at least two characters, in speech, face to face. This means that it’s usually depicted in text as the characters’ words, marked with quotation marks and separated by line breaks when the speaker shifts.
Dialogue is much more noticeable in texts than in films because so much of the linguistic action happens in description and the characters’ thoughts. Dialogue is the main chance we get to see how the character represents themselves to others – this can be insightful for us if there’s a misalignment between their thoughts and their words to others, or between how a character sees themselves and how they are seen by others.
In films and TV, dialogue is used to convey the character’s
Examples
- Any conversation between any two characters in any text, ever.
How to write about it
Shakespeare uses dialogue to build his character’s personalities. The banter-based dialogue between Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing reveals both their wit, their class, their self-interest and their boredom, which ultimately shape the action of the play.
The sparing use of dialogue in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight novels, interspersed with extended description of the characters’ thoughts, feelings, speculations and reactions ensures that the reader is gripped by the text for longer than is usual, as we crave the resolution of the conversation.
Euphemism
Definition
A euphemism is a gentle word being used to mean a harsher or less pleasant reality.
If a euphemism is being used to soften the blow for a child hearing that their pet has died, then we feel empathy.
If a euphemism is being used between two crooks to talk about their nefarious plans around an unsuspecting character, we get insight into the conflict that is inevitable.
Examples
- ‘We took your elderly pet to a farm to play through their senior years’ instead of ‘your elderly pet got sick and we had to put them down’
- ‘Don’t be late for the job tonight’ instead of ‘don’t be late for the robbery tonight’
- ‘She’s got a bun in the oven’ instead of ‘she’s pregnant’
- ‘My dog did a number 2 in the lift’ instead of ‘my dog did a poo in the lift’
- Using “he passed away” instead of “he died”.
How to write about it
The poet uses euphemisms for death throughout the piece to gently lead the reader to consider the transience and beauty of life without drawing their attention to the harsh reality of their own demise.
The euphemisms that riddle Pixar and Disney films ensure that parents enjoy watching the films with their children.
This euphemistic treatment of the heist around the innocent, unknowing accomplice creates a sense of dramatic irony and tension for the audience and empathy for the innocent character who will ultimately learn that they’ve been duped.
Ellipsis
Definition
An ellipsis is both a punctuation mark and a literary technique. The three dots ‘…’ indicate that something has been left out and, in non-literary contexts, that means that what was omitted was not necessary to the point being made.
However, in a literary context, the author’s choice about what to leave out, what to imply and where to do it can be very revealing about the character and forces the audience to engage with the text by either filling in the blank or wondering what the blank means.
Ellipses force us to join in with the story, create suspense, enhance a mystery or allow the author to hint that the story continues after the words run out because we expect there to be more after the ellipsis.
Elliptical writing achieves the same goal without the punctuation mark, so it implies and suggests meaning without ever actually saying the meaning.
Examples
- ‘The end…’
- ‘I told you, I …. never mind’
- ‘What happens if you…?’
- ‘We could…?’
How to write about it
Emily Dickinson uses ellipsis – quite literally, the absence of words – to draw her readers’ attention to the gaps in her poems, that is, what she doesn’t say.
Poets use ellipsis deliberately to signal the importance of the unsaid or even the unsayable.
Readers should always take ellipsis seriously, as an indicator to drill below the surface and to insert their own interpretation of the text.
Foreshadowing
Definition
Foreshadowing is an umbrella technique which has the effect of warning the reader or viewer of what will happen in the future.
Foreshadowing is a useful technique to build suspense. Even if the reader is not aware of it as they read the text for the first time, it sets up a more satisfying reading experience by the end of the text, when they recognise the way in which the events were already signalled.
Examples
- Sometimes a literal shadow indicates foreshadowing – such as when a cloud passes over the sun the moment the villain’s name is uttered or the shadows grow longer at the dangerous time between day and night.
- Lighting and weather do a lot of foreshadowing work.
- Prophecies and predictions almost always foreshadow what’s to come in the story.
How to write about it
Thompson foreshadows the danger that Maryanne will soon find herself in by using stormy weather, just at the cusp of breaking into rain. The threatening clouds warn us about the physical and emotional danger she is in by wandering off alone, and from the other character she will encounter – Willoughby. [Sense and Sensibility, 1995]
Rowling foreshadows the power and fearsomeness of Voldemort by having her characters refer to him as ‘He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’. By using his name, Harry and Dumbledore are foreshadowed to be the ones who will overcome Voldemort.
Genre and Genre Bending
Definition
Genre is a broad term that describes the overall category of the content that you’re dealing with: comedy, tragedy, drama, young adult, science fiction, fantasy. There are countless sub-terms as well that create smaller and smaller genre niches. The point is that genre tells you what flavour of story to expect.
It’s a bit like choosing a restaurant based on the nationality of the cuisine. When you go to a Mexican restaurant, you expect certain dishes and flavours. When you open a Romance, you expect certain characters and plot complications.
Genre bending is when authors play with genre to subvert your expectations; the culinary equivalent is being offered sushi in the Mexican restaurant we chose earlier. Genre bending may be used to force the reader to reflect on their expectations of the text, or for comic effect.
Examples
- Fantasy: Harry Potter
- Science Fiction: The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy
- Romance: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
- Comedy: Shakespeare’s As You Like It
- Tragedy: James Cameron’s Titanic
- Drama: Downton Abbey
- Young Adult: Miss Peregrines’ Home for Peculiar Children
How to write about it
Waititi manipulates multiple genres in Thor: Ragnarok to both build and subvert audience expectations. As a super-hero film, there are tropes from which he cannot escape but he surprises and delights his audience with comedic characters such as Korg, and emotional scenes that bring personal development for the otherwise static Thor and Loki including Odin’s death.
Downton Abbey relies on the genre expectations of its audience to build anticipation rather than tension in most plot lines.
Disney films largely do not stray from the expectations of the children’s genre in that there is always a lead with a sidekick, magic and an obstacle to be overcome. However, by changing the casting of this story over time, it has been able to subvert the ‘damsel in distress’ genre quite effectively, in line with changed societal values.
Hyperbole
Definition
Hyperbole is a kind of exaggeration but with hyperbole, the author doesn’t intend for us to take it literally, though the character might.
The impact of hyperbole is normally emphasis or comedy, but it can also give us insight into a character’s worldview.
Hyperbole can also be the overarching flavour of a work, with hyperbolic texts generally exaggerated and over-the-top.
Examples
- ‘I shall die of a broken heart’
- ‘We will all be ruined because of your mistake’
- ‘I’m dying of boredom’
- ‘My feet are killing me’
Hyperbole combined with another genre:
The Hunger Games can be seen to be a hyperbolic allegory of late 20th century capitalism, in the US in particular.
How to write about it
The character’s hyperbolic assertion that she will die of regret increases our empathy towards her by revealing the enormity of the problem her actions have caused in her world.
The comedian used hyperbole in their statements about the government to make their audience think more deeply about the reality, while hiding that critique in the audience’s own laughter.
Intertextuality
Definition
Intertextuality, or intertextual referencing, is when a text refers to or relies on another text to make its meaning.
This can be specific to certain moments, such as where a character might quote a religious text or a classic line of poetry. It can, alternatively, shape the whole text, such as when older classic stories are adapted to new contexts.
Finding intertextuality is a bit of a treasure hunt because the more you read and watch the more you’ll see it. Intertextuality is not the same as plagiarism because there’s normally some creative acknowledgement of the original text, and the referenced text needs to be well known enough for the audience to get the reference.
The effect of intertextuality is to show the reader or viewer how much has changed (or not changed) over time or to create an “in-joke” that rewards the reader with a sense of their knowledge.
Examples
-Any quotation from one work in another
-Any mention of a character reading something
-Clueless as an adaptation of Austen’s Emma
-Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead as an interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet
- the TV series, Once Upon a Time
- the Shrek films rely on the audience’s knowledge of the plots of various fairytales, so they include intertextual references as well as subverting the fairytale genre.
How to write about it
Intertextuality is used in Once Upon a Time to create the atmosphere of adventure and romance in the town of Storybrooke. By combining so many fairy tales in one text, viewers are challenged to think about the genre and its characters.
In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Stoppard relies on the audiences’ understanding of Shakespeare’s Hamlet to drive the dramatic tension of the story. Knowing what happens to the characters means that all their plotless ambling is imbued with meaning. This intertextual referencing drives the meaning of the play.
Imagery
Definition
Imagery is the (ideal) outcome of descriptive writing. This is the name for when words on a page start to build an image in your mind.
The point of imagery is that it draws us in to build the world of the text for ourselves. That engages us in the story and opens us up to whatever the author wants to show us within that world. It allows authors to show us things rather than tell us things.
Imagery can be on a whole-of text scale, or it can be a single line in a poem – the important thing is that it draws you into the text’s meaning via your imagination.
Examples
- ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ Keats’ “To Autumn”
- Any references to the senses in a poem are designed to make the reader engage their own relevant sense and thus make the image more real and personal.
How to write about it
The dark and gloomy imagery of Edgar Allen Poe’s work plunges the reader into the Gothic genre and makes them feel the cold draughts and dark rooms that contain frightening surprises.
The exuberant imagery of the flower garden at midday in spring engages the reader in the bright and joyful emotions of the protagonist as they realise that their love is requited.
Juxtaposition
Definition
Juxtaposition is when different things are compared by putting them right next to one another.
Objects, atmosphere, weather, moods, actions, activities, ages and characters can be juxtaposed. The effect of this juxtaposition can be pleasing, jarring, a relief or a challenge, among other emotions it can ask of readers. The important thing is that the technique of juxtaposition invites the reader to examine both things more closely.
Examples
- The Dashwood sisters in Sense and Sensibility (and any sibling relationship ever depicted)
- Cutting between shots in visual texts can highlight the danger of one scene and the desirability or achievement of safety in another
- In Austen novels, the hero is often juxtaposed with the cad (for example Mr Darcy with Mr Wickham in Pride and Prejudice).
How to write about it
In Austen novels, the hero is often juxtaposed with the cad (for example Mr Darcy with Mr Wickham in Pride and Prejudice) to reinforce Austen’s views about decent social behaviour.
The juxtaposition of the coach’s watching face against the game play through clear cut shots with no transitions enhances the tension of the match because the stillness of the coach is so jarringly contrasted against the desperate movement of the players. Viewers are thrown between these juxtaposed situations like the ball in the game.
Keywords
Definition
A keyword in literature isn’t that different from a keyword in research – certain words recur again and again because they are particularly meaningful in the context of that text.
The word becomes a key that unlocks or allows access to certain meanings in the story.
Keywords work on the audience to keep us paying attention, to keep us solving problems subconsciously and to help us predict what might be coming.
Examples
- Disney movies are a good example of using keywords to warn viewers of the core of the story – Frozen has dozens of references to ‘ice’, ‘icy’, ‘frozen’, and ‘heart’ in the first few lines warning us that we’ll be going on a journey to unfreeze a frozen heart.
- Any word that keeps repeating through a story that, if replaced by a word with the same meaning, would still lose something. For example, if Frozen started talking about a ‘guarded’ or ‘wounded’ heart, we’d still get it, but it wouldn’t be ‘frozen’.
How to write about it
Doctor Who builds an entire mythology around the keywords ‘Bad Wolf’. This puts viewers on their guard for the phrase in every episode and warns them that there is always another story occurring below the focus of the episode.
Keywords build and support the atmosphere of Disney and Pixar films, and reveal the key themes of the stories. In Frozen the keywords all relate to freezing and ice, in The Lion King there are many keywords relating to ruling benevolently and in Toy Story, there are many recurring words about friendship and growing up.
Listing
Definition
Listing is pretty easy to spot in texts – anytime a character or narrator starts identifying or describing a large number of things together without any sort of break or commentary, that’s listing.
The impact of listing can be very interesting though – it can create a snowball effect or it can excite or dishearten us as readers. If it’s descriptive, it can overwhelm us or calm us, if it’s persuasive it can persuade us or challenge us.
Examples
- Actual, bullet pointed lists
- Long descriptions without breaks or commentary
- Characters brainstorming alone or in dialogue can become a list in which the audience becomes emotionally involved
- Often, sentences with a lot of commas or ‘and’s in them
How to write about it
By repeatedly listing the obstacles the characters will face on their quest in the magical realm, the author ensures that the reader cannot relax until the story is through, engaging us intellectually and emotionally.
Sheldon’s listing of his reasoning behind defending his spot on The Big Bang Theory’s couch illuminates his obsessive and organised character, leading us to empathise with the recipient of his speech and question his priorities.
How can you do well in HSC English?
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles ..” - The Art of War by Sun Tzu.
One of the best-kept secrets of high achievers is that they all work ahead (this is something to keep in mind at uni as well).
We have observed that successful Senior English students do things like read the prescribed texts ahead of time; not just once but multiple times. This will take a considerable time-investment and requires discipline - one reason why having a tutor can help ensure you stay on track to achieving the best ATAR possible!
We’ve helped many Year 12 students with getting the best English results possible. This is why we offer the following topics and concepts in our Senior English programs:
- Essay writing
- Imaginative writing
- Text types
- Analysis and evaluation of texts
- Representation of ideas and authorial choice
- Exam preparation
- Refining responses
Metonymy
Definition
When the name of one thing is used to refer to another, closely related thing. The word used needs to be recognisably connected to the thing you mean so that it can work as a shorthand across audiences.
This comes up a lot in talking about politics, sports and creative artists. You can say that a composer has used metonymy, or that they have used a word metonymically to represent another thing.
Examples
- Canberra (meaning the Prime Minister)
- The Palace (meaning the Queen)
- The White House (meaning the President of the United States)
- The Kremlin (meaning the President of Russia)
- Australia thrashed England at the SCG yesterday (meaning the Australian cricket team won a game of cricket against the English cricket team at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday.)
- We’ve got Shakespeare this term. (Meaning we’ve got to study one of Shakespeare’s plays this term).
How to write about it
The news reporter has metonymically reduced the teams to their nationalities in the headline above.
This conveys the urgency and excitement of the victory and creates shared feelings among the audience based on their nationality (regardless of whether they follow the sport) while still communicating the core information about the game.
Motif
Definition
Like a keyword but more inclusive, a motif is a fragment of a story that recurs throughout a text and brings extra meaning with it wherever it appears.
A motif can be a word, a phrase, an image, an animal, a song, a very specific colour, a few musical notes – anything big enough to be recognisable as not capable of occurring randomly.
Motifs help us to keep track of the essential parts of the story, can be a part of foreshadowing and help us to remember important elements of the story.
Examples
-The particular drumbeat pattern in season three of Doctor Who
- The Mockingjay and the whistle in The Hunger Games
- The all-seeing eye in National Treasure
- The thumb up/thumb down managerial pin in The Good Place
- ‘As you wish’ in The Princess Bride
How to write about it
Ross and Lawrence use the motifs of the Mockingjay’s whistle and image throughout The Hunger Games films as a symbol of resistance. By using either motif, the audience is reminded of the menace of the Panem regime, the importance of the character’s quests and the hope of their ultimate success.
Metaphor
Definition
A metaphor is a direct comparison between two unalike things, without using “like” or “as”. Metaphors work like analogies in that they describe something in a way that is literally untrue but essentially accurate. They’re often comparative in a way that highlights the similarities between the words that are said and the meaning that is intended.
They make difficult or deep concepts more accessible for the audience and, depending on how obvious or subtle, can add depth to stories that make us feel more connected to the story, possibly without knowing why.
Examples
- ‘Juliet is the sun’ [Romeo and Juliet]. Romeo doesn’t believe that he’s dealing with an actual celestial being, or a cosmic nuclear reactor. He is saying how important, radiant and wonderful she is.
-‘Rapunzel’s hair is a golden river’. She’s not got liquid gold glowing and flowing from her scalp, her hair is just long, yellow and silky. But it’s more pleasing to say ‘golden river’.
- The film Inside Out is one big metaphor for what it feels like to be a human. There aren’t literally colourful emotions controlling a keyboard or an actual train of thought in our minds, but it’s insightful to consider our minds that way.
How to write about it
In order to convey the depth and intensity of Romeo’s feelings for Juliet, Shakespeare uses a grand metaphor: ‘Juliet is the sun’. These four words convey the reorientation of his entire existence towards her along with the eternal, inescapable nature of his feelings.
Inside Out is built on the premise that the various functions of the human mind and heart can be depicted metaphorically through independent characters performing roles in the various jurisdictions of the body. By drawing this metaphor, Docter creates an accessible and educational story that resonates with all audiences.
Narration
Definition
When we talk about narration or narrative style, we are talking about something fundamental to the way in which the story is told.
First person narrator is when the story is told entirely from one characters’ point of view.That means everything is phrased as ‘I saw’, ‘I thought’ etc. This type shows us one person’s true thoughts and feelings and we empathise with them, get annoyed with them or grow with them.
Second person narrator is very rare outside of poetry because it’s phrased as ‘you do this, you see this, you feel this’. The effect of second person narration is to draw the reader into the text and make them feel directly involved in the action.
Examples
- First person narration: The Twilight Saga, Stephanie Meyer
- Second person narration: Rupi Kaur’s poetry
- Third person narration: Harry Potter, JK Rowling
- Unreliable narrator: An Artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro
- Omniscient Narrator: Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
- Multiple first person narrators: Game of Thrones, GRR Martin
- Interesting texts for exploring narration:
- The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
- Stranger Than Fiction, Marc Forster
How to write about it
Because this sequence is narrated by the heroine instead of the hero, we are invited to judge the progress he has made in his journey through the change she perceives in his being.
Second person narration is particularly powerful for Rupi Kaur’s readers because it recognises and validates the numerous emotional traumas that are more ubiquitous than we realise.
The unreliability of the first-person narrator deepens the experience of engaging with this text because the audience is both empathising and learning with the character on their journey.
Onomatopoeia
Definition
Onomatopoeia is when a word sounds like the thing that it’s describing.
It can also be used as an adjective, ‘onomatopoeic’, for when authors write a new or non-standard word to create a sound, usually in italics with a lot of extra vowels.
The impact is that it draws our bodies into the action of the story because, whether we mean to or not, by reading onomatopoeic words, we make the sound (inside or outside our minds), making the story real.
It can also create atmosphere very effectively – if you use a lot of ‘s’ sounds, your work will sound sinister, a lot of ‘m’ words and you’ll start to feel warm and cosy.
Examples
- Zooming (in the pre-pandemic way of going fast)
- Sizzling
- Hissing
- Booming
- Zipping
- Buzzing
- Traditional comic book style words like ‘bam’, ‘whomph’, ‘crunk’
How to write about it
Onomatopoeia is used to enhance the sense of menace on the way to the serpent’s lair, with water ‘hissing’ through the pipes, ‘sliding’ down the walls and ‘seeping’ through the floor.
The onomatopoeic word ‘buzzing’ is used very effectively throughout this children’s book to engage young readers in making challenging sounds together and in forging the connection between written words and experienced reality.
Personification
Definition
Personification is when something that isn’t human is described as having human characteristics.
This can be literal, where inanimate objects get to come alive and talk, or it can be more subtle and figurative such as when cars or homes are described as having friendly faces.
Animal characters are harder to draw the line with on personification, because they’re alive, intelligent, emotive, social and expressive. If they’re doing or thinking something that only a human can do, like share wisdom about the next step forward or speculate about the nature of the universe, it’s personification.
Examples
- Disney’s Beauty and the Beast films
- Paddington Bear
- Mary Poppin’s umbrella
- A light described as winking at someone
- A bird that smiles
- A mist embracing the character
How to write about it
By personifying Paddington Bear, Michael Bond transfers the voice of the immigrant experience in the UK to a non-threatening, child friendly being who is more readily beloved of local UK citizens.
This personification of the house as ‘winking in the night’ deepens the importance of the protagonist’s return home, emphasising the triumph in their quest.
The personified objects that surround Belle can be interpreted as expressions of her combined fear, disappointment, hope and natural optimism. If these objects are personified only by her imagination, and not magic, that reveals the depth of her resilience and her ability to create comfort in loneliness and isolation.
Quatrain
Definition
A quatrain is a series of four poetic lines that stand alone as a stanza or a complete poem. Often, there is an internal rhyme which creates a sense of completion at the end.
Examples
- Riddles, spells, curses, prophecies, predictions and clues are often in the form of quatrains
- ‘By night one way, by day another/ this shall be the norm/ until you find true love’s first kiss/ then take love’s true form’ [Shrek]
How to write about it
My using quatrains, the poet creates the sing-song lilt of nursery rhymes and contrasts the tone of the poem with its sinister subject.
The repetitive nature of the narrator’s thoughts drive the audience to share her anxiety, with the repeated phrase ‘I don’t know what to do’ becoming the feeling of the reader too.
The repetition of Fiona’s quatrain throughout the film with different voices and motivations forces the audience to remember the verse and to consider it from several perspectives before the truth of it is revealed.
Repetition
Definition
Repetition, as the name suggests, is when a composer uses the same word or phrase twice or more. Usually, repetition is used for emphasis.
Anything can really be repeated in a text - structures, problems, thoughts, habits.
This can create consistency in a text in several ways:
- It can help to create a believable character if they use the same phrase repeatedly
- It can bookend an adventure to let the reader know that everything has now been resolved
- It can emphasise a particular moment, theme, emotion or idea
- It can give insight into a character’s feelings or thoughts
- Repetition is a signal to the reader to give greater weight to certain words or images.
Examples
- Dolly Parton’s Jolene
- The clues in National Treasure
- Odin’s spell on Thor’s hammer in the Marvel Universe
How to write about it
The repetitive nature of the narrator’s thoughts drive the audience to share her anxiety, with the repeated phrase ‘I don’t know what to do’ becoming the feeling of the reader too.
The repetition of Fiona’s quatrain throughout the film with different voices and motivations forces the audience to remember the verse and to consider it from several perspectives before the truth of it is revealed.
Soliloquy
Definition
A soliloquy is a term used in the theatre when a character speaks aloud their inner thoughts, as if they are alone. It is a way to externalise an internal process, without the benefit of voice over or written narration.
The convention of the soliloquy is that the speaker always speaks the truth – thus giving the audience insight into their motivation and feelings. This creates dramatic tension and dramatic irony because the audience knows something about the character that the other characters do not.
Soliloquies can be confused with monologues. Monologues are when one character is speaking, usually for an extended time, but the speaker is addressing the audience explicitly or other characters
Examples
- Iago does it a lot in Othello, and it’s common to most of Shakespeare’s plays and the film adaptations of them
- Any situation where the audience gets to share the unguarded thoughts of others – when Professor X, Sookie Stackhouse or Edward Cullen listen to people’s minds, they’re hearing soliloquies.
How to write about it
Iago’s soliloquies create a unique relationship between himself and the audience. His unguarded evil plotting makes him even more repellent to the audience than to the other oblivious characters in the play.
By performing the soliloquy in the front corner of the stage while the other characters go about their business in the darkened background, the audience is tantalised with the desire to warn the heroes of Iago’s plans and nature.
Synecdoche
Definition
When a tiny part of something is used to represent the whole of the thing, or the other way around. It comes up in poetry, speeches and names. You can say that a name or phrase is synecdochic or synecdochically reduced, or that a composer has used synecdoche.
Examples
- Lend me your ears (meaning listen to me)
- Bums on seats (meaning an audience)
- Jabs in arms (meaning vaccinations)
- Many hands make light work (meaning having lots of labourers makes the work easier and faster)
- Check out my new threads (meaning look at my new clothes)
- They’ve got new wheels (meaning they’ve got a new car)
Name examples:
- Fang (Hagrid’s Dog in the Harry Potter Universe)
- Blackbeard (the pirate)
- Spot (a Dalmatian dog)
- Ginger (an orange cat)
How to write about it
Rowling’s synecdochic choice of name for Hagrid’s dog, Fang, suggests that the dog is fearsome and strong. When Fang is brave, strong and defensive, the synecdoche is accurate. Rowling also uses this synecdoche comedically when Fang behaves in a soft, lazy and humorous manner.
The Premier used synecdoche in their press conference, urging the State’s doctors to ‘get jabs in arms’. This shortening of the vaccination program to ‘jabs in arms’ reveals the urgency the Premier wishes to communicate to the public and the simplicity of the policy’s application to the citizens of the State.
Tense
Definition
Tense describes what temporal position, or position in time, the story is being told from. There are two main options – past or present, and authors can switch between the two.
Past tense is the default way that most people write since they’re usually telling a story that has, notionally, already happened.
By switching to the present tense, authors can create a sense of urgency in the situation they’re describing and can really grip their reader. We want to know how things get resolved so by using the present tense, the audience doesn’t get the calming knowledge of past tense writing that the action will be resolved, we just have to hold on for the ride.
There is also future tense but this isn’t as sustainable because by being in the future, it’s got to be speculative. It’s used for prophecies and predictions but rarely for more than that.
Examples
- Past tense: ‘He was a perfectly ordinary boy, on a perfectly ordinary errand, in a perfectly ordinary suburb.’
- Present tense: ‘Her fingers find the light switch in the dark. She fumbles with the broken switch, her shoulders tense and muscles brace.’
- Future tense: ‘You will go to find the dragon and you will find a way to end the reign of terror.’
How to write about it
Stephanie Meyer’s choice to write in the present tense for the entirety of the Twilight Saga ensures that her readers are gripped by the action at all times, braced for surprises and invested in the thoughts and feelings prompted by the action. It does, however, mean that they can tire of this heightened awareness so she is careful to ensure that slower, more mundane scenes punctuate the action- or emotion-packed scenes that characterise the series.
By switching from past to present tense as the character enters the haunted house, the audience feels that all the previous action had led to this moment and we share the character’s fears and anticipation. The audience is then as relieved as the protagonist when the author reverts back to past tense, indicating that the danger is over.
Vignette
Definition
A vignette is a small, almost independent shot of imagery and descriptive information. It creates a quick but complete picture of a person, place, moment or time, or all together.
The point of a vignette is to suspend the action of the story for a moment, requiring the reader to pause and consider the mood that the writer has created.
Examples
- The first description of most characters in a novel will be a vignette, after any opening action
- The carefully scripted interviews in the opening episode of the American version of The Office give a vignette of the main characters
- The establishing shots at the start of a film or of a new location
- Jane Austen’s descriptions of great houses
How to write about it
WandaVision uses the interview style vignette to pause the action as it escalates, and to encourage the audience to empathise with Wanda as she comes to term with her situation.
Jane Austen’s vignettes upon arrival at various houses throughout her novel give the audience to catch up with the characters who have often just been transplanted from another part of the country without description of their travel. They also give us insight into the nature of the homeowner.
Zoomorphism
Definition
Zoomorphism means that a person, place or moment has been given the qualities of an animal.
The impact is usually to create distance through fear or revulsion in the audience, or merely to work as a point of comparison.
Examples
- ‘He was eating like a pig’
- The character Bottom in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights’ Dream
- ‘Grandmother’s elephantine memory never failed her’
- ‘Officials herded the fans out of the stadium’
How to write about it
Rowling uses zoomorphism so consistently in the case of Dudley Dursley that her readership is quite relieved when the zoomorphic language is realised and Dudley is magically cursed with a pig’s tail. The zoomorphic likening of Dudley to a pig highlights all the worst characteristics of the Dursley clan and signals to readers from the very beginning that the character is to be reviled.
Rowling begins gently by describing Dudley and Vernon’s ‘beady’, ‘piggy’ eyes, then slowly shows us their pigheadedness. Dudley’s greed and body is often likened to those of pigs and this zoomorphism ensures that the reader never feels any sympathy for the character.
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