What Are Literary Devices And How Can You Use Effectively

In the most basic sense, a literary device is any technique that will enable a writer to create the story. However, this term might be broad term, so consider literary devices to be the “pretty” parts of writing.

In other words, they are what make your stories stand out.

Consider the difference between:

• John ate because he felt hungry.

Versus:

• John shoved fists of food into his mouth while his stomach roared like a ravenous lion.

Both tell you that John is eating because he is hungry, however, the first simply tells you directly, while the second uses simile (comparing two different things) so that you can get an idea of just how hungry he is.

What if instead I said:

• John shoved fists of food into his mouth despite the demands of his stomach, yowling like a cat being dunked into water.

What can you infer from the second description?

That John is overeating, isn’t listening to his body’s needs, and thus, he is likely going to pay for it later. 

The techniques you use are not only meant to engage your audience’s level of interest, but to give additional information to your reader. The description above with simile gives so much more information in one sentence than the factual sentence above.

This does not mean that you should only use literary devices in every sentence, but more so you should include them to make your sentences and stories more dynamic.   

You may have heard of the term figurative language, which veers away from conventional meaning to create color and exaggeration. It is what makes communicating with others so engaging and lively. 

We know that John’s stomach is not actually a lion, nor is it a cat.

However, we understand what the exaggeration means in the context of the story.

Some literary devices or tools underline specific ideas, themes, or meanings in writing within a figurative language. For instance, you might exclaim that someone was as quiet as a mouse (simile) or that they had a crocodile grin (metaphor). 

Overall, the purpose of these tools is to elevate your writing.

To understand how to use a literary device correctly, let’s focus on a common one – imagery.

Imagery is by far one of my favorite literary devices to employ in my work. Perhaps it is because I am a visual person, or am also an artist, but I think there is something distinctly magical about turning words into pictures inside someone’s mind. In fact, mapping out the images in your scene is one of the ways you can start to plan out your novel.

However, employing the use of imagery in your writing can also be challenging. Here are the most effective ways to use imagery in both poetry and fiction.

WHAT ARE SENSORY DETAILS?

To understand imagery, you must first understand sensory details.

This refers to the five senses (sight, touch, sound, taste, and smell) that you use in everyday life. Effective imagery helps the reader understand what the characters are sensing in the story, or what senses are supposed to be on alert in poetry.

For example, which sense might I try to engage if I were to write:

Clove, cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg hung in the air like the bright yellow and orange crepe paper decorating the outside of her local coffee shop. Her nose twitched at the smell, and she smiled. Pumpkin spice season, in all its cinnamon and clove glory, came like clockwork, but it always delighted her in surprise when summer shimmied out to let autumn sashay in.

Of course, there are visual depictions of the decorations, but the paragraph above is more concerned with setting the scene by focusing on the sense of smell. I’m sure many of us know the distinct fragrance of pumpkin spice.

Imagery can be pleasant or unpleasant.

For instance, in Mary Oliver’s “A Poetry Handbook” the author notes that images can be, “as intimate as honey – or ashes – in the mouth.” Since senses are tied so closely to our emotions, imagery is an important part of telling a story.

Here is an example of smell in literature:

“She breathed deeply of the scent of decaying fiction, disintegrating history, and forgotten verse, and she observed for the first time that a room full of books smelled like dessert: a sweet snack made of figs, vanilla, glue, and cleverness.”

— NOS4A2, JOE HILL

This is by far one of my favorite written descriptions of the smell of old books. As you can see, it is not an unpleasant scent, but it is still stinging all the same.

The character “breathes in deeply” showing that the smell is something she enjoys. It also ties heavily to the act of reading, especially when using words like “decaying fiction,” “disintegrating history,” and “forgotten verse.”

You have the sense of age and wear with the first word in each, but the second word is specifically a type of genre or type of writing.

Again, it ties together the distinct smell that is only associated with old books.

The author then homes in on the smells that are unique to this individual. If I were to smell old books I may not think of figs, or think of the word cleverness, but I might surely think of glue. Perhaps my sentence would be “books smelled like the forest: trees after a heavy rainstorm, honeysuckle, glue, and secrets whispered between old friends.”

What does the smell remind you of? Take a few minutes to write your own unique sentence.

Here is a passage dealing with taste:

“The hour was approaching at which the continental breakfast begins, or rather ceases, to tell, and the ladies bought some hot chestnut paste out of a little shop, because it looked so typical. It tasted partly of the paper in which it was wrapped, partly of hair oil, partly of the great unknown.”

— A ROOM WITH A VIEW, E.M. FORSTER

This chestnut paste does not sound appealing, does it?

The author could have simply said it tasted bad, but by putting in the additional elements you understand what kind of foul taste it has (of paper and of an oily substance), but also it gives the reader a nod of the apprehension of traveling.

The candy tastes like the unknown.

Like the idea of making literature edible (in terms of exaggeration) in the first example, the reader can make a subconscious connection. The description evokes a feeling uncertainty, of apprehension, but these emotions are not so negative the user pulls away completely.

Instead, that unsure feeling is also closely tied to an innate need to know what happens next. 

Let’s try imagery that does focus on visual cues:

“The sun had become a light-yellow yolk and was walking with red legs across the sky.”

— SERAPH ON THE SUWANEE, ZORE NEALE HURSTON

This is a beautiful, poetic sentence but it does more than just sound good.

The author could have simply said what time of day the action took place in, but instead she chose to personify the sun with a metaphor.

The words “yellow yolk” and “red legs” give a clear visual description of what colors the narrator sees but notice how the author also mentions that the sun walked with red legs.

This helps the reader understand that there was a slow transition taking place.

The sun seems to take its time and the narrator can witness the change, noticing small details and being completely in the moment. 

This works to control the pacing within the story. 

Here’s another description that only uses one sentence to set the stage:

“The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.”

— UGLIES, SCOTT WESTERFIELD

Anyone that owns a cat would immediately know what this atrocious color is (a greenish yellow color, and yes, I hate that I know that). However, if you are not familiar with the color of cat vomit, that’s okay. The thought alone evokes an unpleasant, sickly feeling.

The author does not need you to know the specific color in this case, because by the description alone you are able to get the sense that the sky is ugly and sickly which sets the tone for the rest of the piece.

It is important to remember that imagery is not just what a character sees, but good imagery uses other senses to entice the viewer so that they can get the full picture.

That is because we take in more than just our sight in our waking life. For example, as I am typing on this computer, I am not just looking at the screen, but also listening to birdsong outside, the clacking of keys, and my dog snoring peacefully.

I can also feel the hardness of a chair (I should really get something more comfortable) and the nice feeling of my favorite warm fuzzy socks.

See how these secondary elements helped you visualize the scene more so than me simply telling you I could see words on a page?

Thus, a literary device is a mechanism that gives your writing a colorful flair. If you are a car person, then it would be the entertainment system or the car’s exterior - that which makes the cost go up. If you are into home design, then consider it to be the artwork that you add to make the room stand out even more.

Or you can think of a fight that takes place between two characters. Would this fight scene be effective if you merely wrote “Tom punched Jim. Jim punched Tom. Tom lost.”

When you become to use literary devices, you will find that your work begins to take on a life of its own. Each scene in your novel can become a whole symphony of action, or an intense dip into a character’s subconscious.

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