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Category Archives: Literary devices
Comments About Commas
Among literary devices, one of my favorites is polysyndeton. Despite its fancy name this is a plain device and easy to use. Simply repeat “and” after every word in a list. Polysyndeton provides quick and simple emphasis. “While driving through … Continue reading
Posted in Ideas for writing, Literary devices, Literature
Tagged oxford comma, polysyndeton
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Name Dropping
Hamlet is often portrayed as a man dressed in medieval finery with a skull cradled in his hand. Many people assume that Hamlet recited his fateful soliloquy “To be or not to be…” as he stared at the skull. That’s … Continue reading
Posted in allusions, Characters, Drama and movies, Ideas for writing, Literary devices, Nonfiction, Novels, Trends in books
Tagged Bible, Chewbacca, Shakespeare
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Imagery
Imagery is one of the harder concepts to pinpoint in writing. What exactly is the difference between describing something in detail and creating imagery? This is not easy to explain. Imagery is often a figurative or symbolic description that goes beyond … Continue reading
The Superpower of Speaking Other Languages
I found a list helpful for writers wanting to avoid the dreaded Mary Sue/Marty Stu character. If a protagonist had three or more of the traits that character had failed the test. One item that caught my attention was “Speaks … Continue reading
What is Not Lost in Translation
One of the old Star Trek episodes that intrigued me had a simple plot with a complex Idea. Captain Kirk and his landing party were forced to land on a planet only to discovered that their universal language translators didn’t work. … Continue reading
Posted in allusions, languages, Literary devices, mythology, Translations, Writing trends
Tagged dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1885
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What Rules?
It would seem easier to be a writer after gaining some reputation or a devoted group of followers. But, at that point the writer has to make the decision, “Should I keep producing what readers expect of me or allow … Continue reading
Did You Really Mean What You Said?
Dialogue in writing differs from real conversations. Fictional characters rarely ramble on for pages, circumventing what they really want to say with phrases that sound good but have hard to pinpoint meanings. Most of the uh’s, um’s and pauses in … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Literary devices, Style and voice, Writer's resource, Writing trends
Tagged catch phrases, conversation, descriptions in dialog tags, dialog, dialog tags, editing out style, filler words in dialog, quality dialog, removing personality from characters, voice in writing
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Adventures in Forbidden POVs
Currently I am reading a novella by Virginia Woolf called To the Lighthouse. It intrigues me because it broaches the problem of flat female characters found in many early twentieth century novels. Woolf reveals what’s going on in their heads. … Continue reading
Distorted POVs
It amuses me when people ask which point of view is best. But, I probably chuckled more when a new writer asked if it was okay to describe what a character was thinking when writing in the third-person POV. “Can’t … Continue reading
In My Head
As a child I made up stories in my head, mostly about people’s pets. The majority of them were entirely descriptions such as fur color, number of spots, eye color and size. When I bemoaned the fact that these just … Continue reading
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