Literary Devices

As novelists, we have countless tools and literary devices at our disposal to enhance the complexity and intrigue of our written work–sometimes so many tools that we forget about all of them!

Here is a non exhaustive list of various literary devices and examples of how they have been used in prior pieces of literature. It is our hope that seeing a detailed explanation of each, along with real-life examples from classic pieces of literature, that you will get inspiration on how to incorporate such devices in your own work.

Adage

Allegory

Alliteration

Allusion

Anadiplosis

Anticlimax

Antihero

Aphorism

Assonance

Ballad

Cacophony

Cadence

Catharsis

Cliffhanger

Climax

Comedy

Connotation

Couplet

Denotation

Denouement

Dichotomy

Diction

Elision

Epiphany

Epistrophe

Exaggeration

Exposition

Fable

Falling Action

Figure of Speech

Flashback

Flash Forward

Foreshadowing

Genre

Haiku

Half Rhyme

Hero

Hyperbole

Imagery

Internal Rhyme

Metaphor

Motif

Narrative

Oxymoron

Paradox

Parody

Personification

Poetic Justice

Prose

Red Herring

Resolution

Simile

Situational Irony

Soliloquy

Sonnet

Subplot

Theme

Thesis

Tragedy

Vernacular