40 Helpful Literary Devices to Flavor Your Writing (with examples)

Every writer wants to write an amazing book and one of the best ways to do this is by engaging your reader with literary devices that capture and retain your reader’s interest.

What Are Literary Devices?

While literary devices are very common in novels, they can also be employed effectively in nonfiction writing to clarify ideas, emphasize key points, entertain, create tension to sustain interest, and convey the emotion that inspires your readers to believe in your message and take action.

Words are very powerful when used the right way, and literary devices are the levers you can use to move your readers in the direction you want so you achieve the outcomes you desire.

Many great speeches have stirred nations to take action, inspiring belief through the words that were heard. By the way, this last sentence uses assonance, a device that repeats vowel sounds, often employed in poetry; The words “stirred”, “words”, and “heard” all have the same vowel sound, and whether or not the reader is aware of this pattern, a subconscious effect is felt.

Let’s dig in!

40 Important Literary Devices Every Writer Should Know

1. Allegory

An allegory is a way of telling a narrative story through characters and a plot that conveys abstract ideas and themes. Children’s fables are an excellent example, teaching morality and wisdom through easy-to-understand stories. For example, Aesop’s story, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, warns about the results of telling lies.

2. Alliteration

Alliteration describes a series of words that start with the same letter or same sound, creating a pleasing cadence. An example is “Sally sells sea shells at the seashore.” Alliteration can also be effective in a book’s title, such as The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer or Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Blog post titles can also benefit from alliteration, as with These Top 10 Best Business Beliefs Bring Better Bonanzas.

3. Anaphora

This is a rhetorical device that repeats a word or phrase throughout successive clauses. It’s a great way to focus importance on a key idea. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech is an excellent example: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up … and I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia … I have a dream that little children will one day live in a nation … ” This device is also evident in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness … “

4. Anachronism

An anachronism is the juxtaposition of people or things from different time periods. The popular movie A Night at the Museum is a perfect example of multiple anachronisms In which the Pharaoh, Ivan the Terrible, Roman soldiers, and American cowboys, among others, all interact in this zany movie. Many people who go to movies often look for anachronisms, such as an actor in a Victorian-period movie wearing a wristwatch, or an actor in a movie about ancient Rome with a visible vaccination mark on the arm.

5. Anastrophe

This curious figure of speech reverses traditional sentence structures to capture the ear of the reader or movie audience. Yoda popularized anastrophes by regularly reversing the grammar in such sentences as “Ready, are you?” Because it creates an abrupt shift in the expectations of the reader or listener, it stands out.

6. Anthropomorphism

A fairly popular device, it’s often used in science fiction. A non-human object is given human traits or qualities, such as Scooby Doo, the talking dog of cartoon fame, or the smiling sun in the Teletubbies movies and books. Remember the candlestick, clock, and teapot in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast? Anthropomorphism may be more common in your own life than you think, especially when you refer to your computer as acting crazy, or telling your friends that your cell phone likes you.

7. Aphorism

This is an accepted truth that’s witty and time-tested such as this quote by Alexander Pope: “To err is human, to forgive divine.” Aphorisms are short, to the point, simple, and immediately understood, When you say “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”, you used an aphorism.

8. Archetype

An archetype is a universal symbol that carries familiarity and a set of expectations. The “damsel in distress” immediately conveys a concept to our minds; so does the idea of a “villain”, a “hero”, a “hermit”, and a Hollywood star. When you refer to someone as Superman, everybody has a good idea about what you mean.

9. Assonance

We discussed the meaning of this literary device at the beginning of this post. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in close proximity to each other. “I heard the third bird.”

10. Chiasmus

This is an effective device that inverts parallel clauses. A famous chiasmus that struck a chord with Americans was when President John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” By reversing a common concept, a reverse expectation or outcome is emphasized.

11. Colloquialism

A colloquialism is a word or phrase that’s casual and informal, not literary or high class. A colloquial expression is provincial or ordinary and may include slang. Saying something like “What are you up to?” instead of “What are you doing?” is colloquial. Many writers use colloquialisms to sound more authentic, and more natural.

12. Consonance

Consonance is similar to assonance in which similar sounds are repeated, except with consonance it is consonant sounds that are repeated instead of vowel sounds. Here’s an example using the letter F: “This Friday’s July 4th traffic can be frightening.”

13. Euphemism

A euphemism is a polite way of expressing something that might be otherwise inappropriate or awkward; it’s clear but reduces the possibility of embarrassment. This is why Americans use the word “restroom” or the British refer to the “water cabinet”. When a person has “passed away”, we all understand the reference.

14. Epistrophe

The repetition of the same words or clauses has an effect that’s impressive, much like a drum beat. The Gettysburg Address has a famous example; when Abraham Lincoln said that government should be ” … of the people, by the people, for the people … “, he made an impression that lasted over 150 years.

15. Flashback

A flashback is an effective device that takes the reader or viewer back in time to reveal something significant that happened in the past. Flashbacks are often employed in fictional works, but they can be usefully applied in nonfiction, such as “My recent success is astonishing, considering how I was worried about being homeless just six months ago.”

16. Figurative Language

When you use figurative language, you are elaborating on an idea with fanciful language. Instead of writing, “Bob had a lot of work to do”, it’s more interesting to read, “Bob had a ton of work to do.”

17. Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is used to warn the reader of an approaching event, creating tension and suspense. In fiction, foreshadowing can suggest something subtly that later comes into play as a major element of the story, such as when Harry Potter wins a vial of liquid luck, essential for understanding how to defeat Voldemort. In nonfiction, foreshadowing can be as simple as writing, “This topic will be examined more thoroughly in the next chapter.”

18. Hyperbole

This device is used to express excess and exaggeration. Writing “It rained cats and dogs” is hyperbole, suggesting in colorful language that there was heavy rain. Hyperbole can be entertaining, and we’ve all heard or said such statements as, “I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse!”

19. Hypophora

Similar to a rhetorical question, a person asks a question they do not want to be answered. For example, a couple is arguing and one person says, “I would never do that! What do you think I am, crazy?” Hypophora was used because the person asked a question … but answered it themselves: “What do you think I am, crazy? Of course, I’m not crazy!”

20. Imagery

Imagery is highly descriptive language that paints a picture in detail. Here is an example from Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White: “In the hard-packed dirt of the midway, after the glaring lights are out and the people have gone to bed, you will find a veritable treasure of popcorn fragments, frozen custard dribblings, candied apples abandoned by tired children, sugar fluff crystals, salted almonds, popsicles, partially gnawed ice cream cones and wooden sticks of lollipops.”

21. Irony

There are three types of irony, as explained here: Dramatic irony is when something has the appearance of being true but is not. Your readers may know more than the character in your book when the character appears for a job interview not realizing that the job is already taken. Verbal irony is when someone says something that’s not true; sarcasm is a good example of this. Situational irony is a turn of events based on incongruous events, like a locksmith who is locked out of his or her own home.

22. Isocolon

This figure of speech often appears in advertisements as a device that emphasizes the message. An isocolon is when two or more phrases are similar in sound, or length, or structure. “Buy one, get one” is a popular isocolon. Julius Caesar is reported to have said, “Veni, vidi, vici” … (“I came, I saw, I conquered”)

23. Juxtaposition

When you place two or more dissimilar ideas next to each other and their differences are clear, your message increases in its literary effect. For example, Charles Dickens wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness…” in his Tale of Two Cities.

24. Litotes

Litotes are used to subtly make the point, the opposite of hyperbole which loudly makes the point. “You’ll be thrilled to death!” is hyperbole, compared with “You won’t be sorry”, a litote. Litotes downplay a fact or situation; if you wrote “He wasn’t the worst professor you’ve ever seen, but he could have made his lectures more interesting”, you’re using a litote.

25. Malapropism

A malapropism is the misuse of a similarly-sounding word that usually results in humor. A common example that’s cited is “She enjoys dancing the flamingo” when the “flamenco” is the proper choice.

26. Metaphor

This is a popular literary device, used often because it’s imaginative. A metaphor compares two similar things by claiming that one is very like the other. Shakespeare was the King of Metaphors: “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!” — Romeo and Juliet. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” — As You Like It.

27. Metonymy

This device is used when referring to an object not by its proper name, but by a word that’s closely associated with the object. A businessman might be called “a suit”. Shakespeare used metonymy when he wrote “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears,” in Julius Caesar, asking for the crowd to listen.

28. Motif

A motif is a device that appears frequently in a story or novel. An example is the gentle ringing of a bell occurring at key moments in the story, suggesting clarity; or the appearance of staircases, symbolic of an upward struggle or upward motion by the characters.

29. Onomatopoeia

This is a fun word to work with because it uses the sound of the object it’s describing. Some examples are pop, buzz, snap, moo, boom, gurgle …

30. Oxymoron

This is another fun device to use because it juxtaposes contradictory terms such as smartest fool, dumbest genius, freezer burn, definite maybe, and awful good.

31. Paradox

Derived from the Greek word paradoxon, meaning “beyond belief”, a paradox is something that seems impossible, and yet is true. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” from Animal Farm by George Orwell. Attributed to the NY Yankee’s catcher, Yogi Berra, “Nobody goes to that restaurant anymore because it’s too crowded.”

32. Personification

When you use personification, you are assigning the attributes of a person to a non-human object, such as “The tree wept in the rain”, or “The flower winked at the morning sun”. Here’s a great example from Ernest Hemingway: “Just before it was dark, as they passed a great island of Sargasso weed that heaved and swung in the light sea as though the ocean were making love with something under a yellow blanket, his small line was taken by a dolphin.” — The Old Man and the Sea.

33. Point of view

This is the perspective from which a story is told. Many novels are from the first-person point of view, such as “I reached over the counter to get the glass of water.” The point of view could also be through the eyes of a child, or from the perspective of a fly on the wall.

34. Polysyndeton

If you are using a polysyndeton, you are stringing several statements together for an artistic effect by using the conjunctions but, and, so, and because. Here is an example from The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner: “Luster came away from the flower tree and we went along the fence and they stopped and we stopped and I looked through the fence while Luster was hunting in the grass.” Here’s another example: “I need to hire a clerk who’s fast and skilled and focused and tireless.”

35. Satire

Satire is a common device for poking fun at something, usually through exaggeration, ridicule, or irony. “He’s so bald, an eagle might nest on his head thinking it’s a giant egg.” “He’s as smart as a dump truck.”

36. Simile

A simile uses the words “like” or “as” to compare two objects as being similar, such as “bright as a light bulb”, “stubborn like a mule”, “smart as a whip”, and “crazy like a fox”.

37. Symbolism

Authors often employ symbolism to represent ideas their characters face. Symbols are often non-human, such as the dove representing peace, an angry storm symbolizing conflict in the story, or a rose symbolizing love.

38. Tautology

The repetition of a sound, word, or phrase, when deliberately used for effect, can be very engaging, such as seen here in Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven: “But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door”.

39. Tmesis

This is another fun literary device because it’s an imaginative blend of a word or phrase that’s broken by an interjecting word, as in abso-freaking-lutely. Tmesis is used to draw out and emphasize the idea, often with a humorous slant.

40. Zoomorphism

When vampires turn into bats, you’ve employed zoomorphism because you are assigning animal traits to non-animals. Another example is when a god appears as an animal, or Spiderman takes on the characteristics of his namesake.

Final Thoughts

We hope you found value in this list of 40 literary devices … but this isn’t a complete list. As a reader, you’ll now have the insight of knowing what the author is intending you to think or feel, and as an author yourself, you now have a broad range of literary tools you can use in your writing to create effects in the minds and hearts of your readers.

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