16 Literary Terms every writer should know

 

1. Epistolary: A piece of writing written in the form of letters.
2. Alliteration: A writing device that involves emphasized repetition of the initial consonant sounds in the words of a sentence or line. Ex: Betty Botter bought a bit of butter.
3. Zeugma: A writing device used to denote a single word/phrase to describe two thoughts or two different contexts. Ex: She lost her necklace and her heart.
4. Palindrome: A word, number, phrase, sentence, writing, or a sequence of characters/symbols, that reads the same backwards as forwards. Ex: Wow, mom, radar, Mr. Owl Ate My Metal Worm
5. Epigram: A short poem, phrase, or witty saying that expresses an idea in a clever, paradoxical, or amusing way. Ex: I can resist everything but temptation.
6. Anthropomorphism: Attributing human traits to non-human objects. Ex: the character of an animal, toy, or object in a story/movie that speaks in the language of humans
7. Anadiplosis: A writing device that involves repetition in which a word of a phrase appears both at the end of one clause, sentence, or stanza, and at the beginning of the next, thus linking the two units. Ex: Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
8. Acronym: A short word composed of the first letters of a group of words. Ex: WHO (World Health Organization)
9. Aphorism: A concise, terse, laconic, witty, clever, pointed, or memorable expression, representing a general truth or observation. Ex: All is fair in love and war.
10. Enthymeme: A writing device that presents an argument that expresses that if A=B and B=C, then A=C without stating that B=C. Ex: All insects have six legs, therefore, all wasps have six legs.
11. Polyptoton: Repetition of the word of the same root used in the same sentence with a variety of differing contexts, inflection, and voice. Ex: I dreamed a dream in times gone by.
12. Synecdoche: A writing device in which a part of something is used to represent the whole. Ex: Johnny got new wheels. (Meaning, Johnny got a new car)
13. Cliffhanger: An exciting situation in a story when you cannot guess what's going to happen next and you have to wait until the next part in order to find out. 
14. Personification: A writing device that involves projection of a human's qualities, emotions, and feelings on a non-human entity. Ex: Flowers danced merrily in joy.
15. Enjambment: The continuation of a sentence or a clause beyond the end of a poetic line, couplet, or stanza. Ex: “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness; but still will keep / A bower quiet for us, and a sleep / Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing”
16. Verisimilitude: A writing device based on the idea that a piece of writing is true to reality. Ex: A description of a city in a story, with all its buildings, streets and names, should ring true to the reader.

Read more posts related to Vocabulary

Book Review: The Kid Who Came From Space by Ross Welford

The Kid Who Came From Space by Ross Welford

Imagine entering a spaceship, getting knocked out, and waking up to find yourself in interstellar space, gazillion miles away from Earth, surrounded by stars. The Kid Who Came From Space is a heartwarming, and slightly creepy, tale of science-fiction in which two boys are thrown into an unplanned adventure far away from their home on Earth. They are accompanied by an alien named Hellyann who calls herself a “Hearter.” On her planet, a Hearter is someone who “has feelings” while most of her fellow creatures, who don’t have feelings, are called “Hunters.”

The central part of the story revolves around a boy Ethan and his friend Iggy, who find themselves rolling in an unplanned journey to an alien planet to save Tammy, Ethan’s twin sister.

 

Just when all the efforts of earthlings to find Tammy were unsuccessful, Ethan and Iggy had come across a hairy creature prowling the beach in their small village. She told them that she could help them bring the girl back. Her planet’s residents had captured Tammy and put her in an exhibit in the “Earth Zoo.”

The story moves forward with tailspins of adrenaline-pumping emotions, which are followed by a tearjerker episode of friendship, love, and attachment. Meanwhile, Ethan realizes the power and privilege of being a human. Nature has endowed humans with a superpower that most of them don’t realize until the end of their lives – feelings. When Ethan walked among aliens, he realized how precious human feelings are, more than any cosmic treasure. Plus, humans have things like luck, attachment, and a variety of emotions that make their life dramatically beautiful.

Along with insights like these, the story is also peppered with little episodes of humor and science concepts. All in all, the novel takes Ethan through a sojourn into an unlikeable scenario at the alien planet and then prompts him to learn what he is truly capable of. In an almost haphazard ending, he returned to Earth with a knowledge based on experience; fears dissipated through action, still reflecting on the sacrifice Hellyann made for the three of them. The story wraps up with the core message, “love triumphs all.”

Read all the review pieces written by me! | Follow on Goodreads!
Subscribe: Neha's Notebook | My Little library | Raindrop Stories