Writing
A Brief Guide to Figurative Language
Key ingredients to help spice up your creative writing
Introduction
Creative writers are not simply writers. The way they describe their worlds with words differs vastly from the way, say, a journalist would describe an event. And even though one could be an excellent writer per se, being an outstanding creative writer requires mastering not only literal language, but also the craft of figurative writing.
Figurative (from the Latin figura) means “to form or fashion” and is a term used to describe language that is non-literal. It encompasses an important set of literary devices creative writers use to make their narratives come to life.
In what follows, I arrange some of the most potent figurative devices in four categories and provide a brief review, accompanied by literary examples.
Emphasis & Understatement
1. Hyperbole
Hyperbole (from the Latin hyperbole) means “to throw above” and we use it when we want to deliberately exaggerate. Now, why would we want to do that? Well, it’s a way to draw the reader’s attention to aspects of the story we’d like to highlight. While satire is a common genre that effectively uses hyperbole to make fun of certain story elements, poetry and literature, in general, are no strangers to it either.
“It’s a slow burg-I spent a couple of weeks there one day.” — Carl Sandburg, The People, Yes
2. Meiosis and Litotis
Those two devices are the opposite of the hyperbole, as they deliberately understate, often ironically.
Meiosis (from the Greek meioo) means “to make smaller” and is used to downplay something significant, which is most often unpleasant. Take, for example, Mercutio’s fatal wound in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet which he refers to as just “a scratch, a scratch.”
Litotes differ from meiosis in that they use double negation to downplay something. They are formulated as X is not un-Y, where one simply means Y. A clear example of that formula in everyday speech is when we say “it’s not uncommon”, rather than “it’s common.”
“Not improbably, it was to this latter class of men that Mr. Dimmesdale, by many of his traits of character, naturally belonged.” — Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
3. Accumulation and Amplification
Accumulation involves bubbling up words, or phrases, to intensify the value of what is being described:
Prince Henry: A tun of man is thy companion. Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humors, that bolting-hunch of beastliness, that swallen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloakbag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with a pudding in his belly, that reverend Vice, that grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years? — William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1
Amplification draws the reader’s attention to a certain word, by repetition:
“Mr. and Mrs. Veneering were bran-new people in a bran-new house in a bran-new quarter of London. Everything about the Veneerings was spick and span new.” — Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend
4. Anaphora and Epiphora
Both devices use repetition of the same phrase or word to create emphasis.
Anaphora does that at the beginning of the sentences:
“The street-lamp sputtered,
The street-lamp muttered,
The street-lamp said...” — T. S. Eliot, Rhapsody on a Windy Night
Epiphora does so at the end of it.
5. Oxymoron
The impossible oxymoron contains two words that contradict each other. Funny enough the word itself is an oxymoron, as it’s a fusion of two Greek antonyms — oxus (sharp) and moros (dull). This device is a wonderful way to emphasize a contradiction, a conflict, or an emotional flux.
“Parting is such sweet sorrow.” — William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Relationship and Resemblance
1. Anthropomorphism and Personification
Both devices are used to attribute human characteristic to non-human things, but personification does so only to enhance part of a description, as John Donne does in his The Sun Rising to create an image of the sun as man: “Busy old fool, unruly sun.”
2. Zoomorphism
It’s the opposite of personification and attributes animalistic traits to humans. Zoomorphism is a great way to capture character and ignite the reader’s imagination.
3. Metaphor
This device has a long and rich history. It allows writers to make connections between things, so that their readers can view them with a fresh perspective. Simply put, the metaphor says that one thing is another, even thought that’s not literally the case.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. The have their exits and their entrances.” — William Shakespeare, As You Like It
As Orson Scott Card says, Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.
4. Simile and Analogy
A simile draws comparison between things, most often by using the words “like” or “as if”. Unlike the metaphor which assumes that the transference has already taken place, the simile simply proposes it. Similes and metaphors both draw an analogy.
5. Synecdoche and Metonymy
The synecdoche uses a part of something to refer to a whole: a room full of suits, where ‘suits’ stands for businessmen; or ‘ten summers’ for ten years.
Metonymy, on the other hand, uses a conceptually related object to refer to a certain thing. Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s “The pen is mightier than the sword” is perhaps among the most notable metonymies. Needless to say, the pen stands for written word and the sword for violence.
Verbal Games
1. Adnomination and Paronomasia
Adnomination is the repetition of a morpheme across several words and, much like the anaphora and epiphora, it builds emphasis: somebody, somewhere must know something about him.
Paranomasia, often used for its comedic effect, is when we use a word that sounds like the suitable one, but has a different meaning. An example would be switching ‘tail’ for ‘tale’, as Lewis Carroll does in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
2. Anastrophe
This Yoda-like device inverts word order to draw attention to a key element of the narrative.
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing.” — Edgar Alan Poe, The Raven
3. Paradox
The paradox is a statement that contradicts itself, yet it contain a dose of truth. Oscar Wilde is, one might say, the king of paradoxes:
“I can resist everything except temptation.” — Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan
Sound
1. Cacophony and Euphony
Cacophony (from the Greek kakophonos) mean “harsh sounding” and is a term used to describe deliberate use of sounds to create a discordant piece.
Euphony, on the other hand, is the use of pleasant sounds in order to create a positive tone.
2. Onomatopoeia
This device is used when the written word matches the actual sound of the thing it describes. An example would be puff, puff for a train.
3. Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of the initial or stressed consonant in words. One of the most notable book openings that contains alliteration is that of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita:
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth.
4. Assonance and Consonance
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds:
“His tender heir might bear his memory.” — William Shakespeare, Sonnet 1
Consonance is the repetition of the closing consonant sound of the words.
Conclusion
Though not an exhaustive list, all those figurative language tools are for creative writers to play with. Yet, as with anything else in life, we need to use them with measure and only when appropriate. As Aristotle might jump in and advice us, too much of any virtue becomes a vice.
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