Literary devices, with examples

Comparison, exaggeration and image: the ways a line says more than its literal words.

• Figurative languageWords used beyond their literal meaning to create an image, a feeling or an idea: metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, irony and the other figures of speech. "It's raining cats and dogs" is figurative; "it's raining hard" is literal.
• MetaphorA figure of speech that describes one thing as if it were another, without "like" or "as": "time is a thief." The comparison carries a feeling or an idea the literal words could not, and a reader understands it in an instant.
• SimileA figure of speech that compares two unlike things using "like" or "as": "brave as a lion," "a smile like a switched-on light." The comparison is stated openly, which is what separates a simile from a metaphor.
• AnalogyA comparison that explains or argues something by showing it works like something more familiar: the heart as a pump, electricity as water in pipes. Where a simile describes a likeness, an analogy carries a whole structure across.
• PersonificationGiving human qualities, actions or feelings to something that is not human: an animal, an object, a place or an idea. "The wind howled" and "the city never sleeps" make the nonhuman feel alive and give it a mood.
• HyperboleDeliberate exaggeration that no one is meant to take literally: "I've told you a million times," "this bag weighs a ton." Writers use it for emphasis and comedy, and to show how strongly a character feels.
• OxymoronA figure of speech that puts two contradictory words together, such as "deafening silence," "jumbo shrimp" or "sweet sorrow." The clash makes the reader stop, and the pair says something neither word could say alone.
• ImageryDescriptive language that appeals to the senses, so the reader sees, hears, smells, tastes or feels a scene instead of being told about it. "Rain ticking on a tin roof" is imagery; "it was raining" is not.
• AllusionA brief, indirect reference to a person, place, story or event the reader is expected to recognize, such as calling an underdog fight "David and Goliath" or a romantic "a Romeo." The reference brings its meaning along without being explained.
• AllegoryA story whose characters, places and events stand for something beyond themselves, so the whole work carries a second meaning, usually moral or political. Animal Farm retells the Russian Revolution as a revolt on a farm.
• MotifA recurring image, object, line, or situation that gathers meaning each time it returns — texture that becomes argument, not wallpaper you forgot to vary.
• SymbolismUsing a concrete thing, such as an object, color or place, to stand for an idea larger than itself. The green light in The Great Gatsby is a real light that also stands for everything Gatsby longs for and cannot reach.
• MetonymyA figure of speech that names something by a thing closely associated with it: "the White House" for the president, "Hollywood" for the film industry, "the suits" for executives. Its close relative, synecdoche, uses a part for the whole.
• LeitmotifA recurring tune, phrase or image tied to one character, place or idea, so that it calls that thing to mind each time it returns. The shark's two notes in Jaws and Darth Vader's Imperial March are famous examples.

Repeated sounds and words, and how they change the way a line reads aloud.

• AlliterationThe repetition of the same starting sound in words close together: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers," "busy as a bee." It makes names, titles, slogans and lines of dialogue stick.
• AssonanceThe repetition of a vowel sound in words close together, whatever the consonants around it: "the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain." It shapes a line's mood and makes near rhymes.
• ConsonanceThe repetition of a consonant sound in words close together, usually inside or at the end of the words: "pitter-patter," "odds and ends," "struts and frets." It gives a line texture and rhythm.
• OnomatopoeiaA word that imitates the sound it names: buzz, hiss, crash, sizzle, meow. Writers use it to put a sound straight into the reader's ear, and screenwriters use it in action lines to cue the sounds a scene depends on.
• AnaphoraThe repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive sentences or clauses, used to build rhythm and emphasis in speeches, poems and dialogue.
• PolysyndetonRepeating a conjunction between every item in a series ("and this and this and this") to slow the rhythm and give each item weight. Its opposite, asyndeton, drops the conjunctions: "I came, I saw, I conquered."

Saying one thing and meaning another, and the appeals that make an audience agree.

• IronyA contrast between what is said and what is meant, or between what is expected and what happens. Its three main types are verbal irony, situational irony and dramatic irony.
• Dramatic ironyWhen the audience knows something a character does not. Every line the character speaks takes on a second meaning, and the tension comes from waiting for them to find out.
• JuxtapositionPlacing two contrasting things side by side so each sharpens the other: characters, images, scenes or ideas. Joy beside grief or luxury beside poverty makes the difference impossible to miss, and the audience draws the conclusion themselves.
• SatireHumor that exposes and criticizes foolishness, vice or abuse of power, usually through exaggeration, irony or ridicule. Its target is real people, institutions or customs, and its aim is to make the audience see them clearly.
• ClichéA phrase, image, character or plot turn used so often that it has lost its force, such as "cold as ice" or the bomb defused with one second left. The cure is usually a specific detail, not deletion.
• EuphemismA mild or indirect word or phrase used in place of one that seems too harsh, blunt or embarrassing. In dialogue, what a character softens often reveals what they are avoiding.
• AntithesisA rhetorical device that sets contrasting ideas against each other, often in parallel phrases or clauses. The balanced wording makes the opposition easy to hear: ‘We protect the building; we abandon the people.’
• Rhetorical questionA question asked to make a point or create an effect rather than obtain an answer. In dialogue, it can challenge, persuade or reveal what a character assumes everyone already knows.
• UnderstatementDeliberately presenting something as smaller or milder than it is, like calling a lost arm "just a scratch". The gap between the words and the truth creates humor, irony or restraint. Litotes ("not bad" for good) is one kind.
• AphorismA short, memorable statement of a general truth, such as "Knowledge is power" or "Life is short, art is long." In fiction, a character's favorite aphorism compresses their worldview, and the story often tests it.
• Ethos, pathos and logosAristotle's three ways to persuade. Ethos appeals to the speaker's credibility and character, pathos to the audience's emotions, and logos to logic and evidence. Strong arguments, speeches and pitches use all three.

Who tells the story, how much they know, and the feeling it leaves.

• Point of viewThe perspective a story is told from: who narrates and how much they know. First person says "I," second person says "you," and third person says "she" or "they," either limited to one character or omniscient.
• NarratorThe voice that tells a story: a character speaking as "I," or a voice outside the story. The narrator is not the author, and who narrates, and how much they know, shapes everything the reader learns.
• Unreliable narratorA narrator whose account the audience cannot fully trust, because they lie, misremember, misunderstand or hide something. On screen that usually means a voice-over or a flashback that shows the story the way one character tells it.
• SoliloquyA speech in which a character alone, or unheard by others, speaks their thoughts aloud, letting the audience hear what they would never tell anyone. Hamlet's speech weighing life against death is the best-known example.
• DictionA writer's choice of words, and the attitude those words carry. "Passed away" and "croaked" report the same death; the diction tells you who is speaking and how they feel.
• ToneThe writer's or narrator's attitude toward the subject and the audience, shown through word choice, detail and rhythm: wry, somber, playful, bitter, warm. The same events told in a different tone become a different story.
• MoodThe feeling a story creates in its audience: dread, longing, calm, unease, delight. Writers build mood from setting, sound, light, pacing and word choice rather than by naming it.
• SubtextWhat a moment means beneath the spoken words — the real negotiation happening while characters talk about dinner, the case, or the weather.
• Show, don't tellA craft rule: dramatize meaning through action, image, and behavior instead of labeling emotions or themes in dialogue or description. Telling has a place — just not as a shortcut past drama.
• Iceberg theoryErnest Hemingway's principle of writing by omission: leave the most important material unstated, know it fully yourself, and let the visible details carry it so the reader feels what lies beneath.
• Stream of consciousnessA technique that puts a character's thoughts on the page as they flow, jumping by association between sensations, memories and worries, often without ordinary punctuation. Joyce's Ulysses and Woolf's Mrs Dalloway are classic examples.
• Frame storyA story that contains another: an outer narrative in which a character tells, reads or remembers the main tale. The Princess Bride's grandfather reading to his grandson, and old Rose recalling the voyage in Titanic, are frames.
• VignetteA short scene or sketch that captures one moment, mood, character or place without a full plot. It shows what something is like rather than what happens next. The House on Mango Street is built from vignettes.
• VerisimilitudeThe quality of seeming true or real. A story has verisimilitude when its world, characters and events feel believable on their own terms, through specific detail, consistent rules and motives readers recognize.

Setups, payoffs and turns that move a story and keep the audience guessing.

• ForeshadowingA hint early in a story of something that will happen later: an image, a line, a rule or a mood that prepares the audience, so the event feels inevitable when it comes rather than convenient.
• FlashbackA scene or sequence set in earlier story time. Scripts mark the shift with FLASHBACK (or similar) and return with BACK TO SCENE or a clear present-day slugline.
• In medias resOpening a story in the middle of the action and filling in how we got there later. Latin for "into the middle of things". On screen it often looks like a cold open in a crisis, followed by a title such as TWO DAYS EARLIER.
• Chekhov's gunThe principle that a detail the story makes prominent has to pay off: if a loaded gun hangs on the wall in act one, it should go off before the end. Named for Anton Chekhov, who gave the advice in letters to other writers.
• Plant and payoffA setup early in the story (the plant) that returns later with new meaning or consequence (the payoff). The audience feels clever — and the turn feels earned — when both halves connect.
• Red herringA clue or detail planted to point the audience toward a wrong conclusion, so the real answer lands as a surprise that still plays fair. In an argument it is a distraction from the real issue; in a mystery it is misdirection on purpose.
• MacGuffinAn object or goal that characters urgently pursue — secret plans, a gem, a case — whose specific nature matters less than the desire, conflict, and chase it organizes.
• Plot twistAn unexpected turn that changes what the audience thought the story was about, usually by revealing that something they believed was false. A good twist is fair: the clues were on screen, so the earlier scenes read differently once the truth is known.
• CliffhangerAn ending that stops a scene, episode or story at a moment of unresolved danger or revelation, so the audience has to come back to find out what happens. Cliffhangers are a staple of television act breaks and season finales.
• Deus ex machinaAn ending or rescue that arrives from outside the story instead of growing out of it: a sudden power, a lucky arrival, a coincidence that solves the problem the characters could not. Latin for "god from the machine", after the crane that lowered gods onto the stage in Greek theatre.
• Rising actionThe series of events between the inciting incident and the climax, where obstacles and complications build tension and raise the stakes. It is usually the longest part of a story.
• Falling actionThe part of a story after the climax and before the resolution, where the consequences of the climax play out, loose threads are tied and the tension eases toward the ending.
• SuspenseThe anxious uncertainty an audience feels about what will happen next to a character it cares about. It grows when the audience knows the danger and must wait, as with Hitchcock's bomb under the table.
• AnachronismSomething placed in a time where it does not belong: a clock striking in ancient Rome, modern slang in a period drama. It is a research mistake when accidental and a device when deliberate.
• Plot holeA gap or contradiction in a story's logic: an event that cannot happen given what came before, or a character acting against what they know. "Why didn't they just call for help?" is the classic one.

The types, traits and roles writers use to build a cast.

• Character typesThe ways writers and teachers classify characters: round or flat by how complex they are, dynamic or static by whether they change, stock characters by familiar type, and protagonist, antagonist or foil by their role in the story.
• Character archetypesRecurring roles that characters play in stories across cultures, such as the hero, the mentor, the trickster and the shadow. An archetype describes what a character does for the story, not who they are, so the same role can be filled by very different people.
• Character traitsThe qualities of personality, values and behavior that define a character, such as honest, reckless, loyal or vain. Traits tell the audience what to expect, and a story tests them under pressure.
• FoilA character whose contrast with another, usually the protagonist, makes that character's qualities easier to see. A foil often shares the hero's situation and answers it differently, so each choice the hero makes reads against the one the foil makes.
• TropeA familiar pattern that audiences recognize across many stories: a type of character, situation or plot turn, such as the chosen one, enemies to lovers or one last job. Writers play tropes straight, subvert them or comment on them.
• Mary SueAn idealized character who is effortlessly skilled, admired by everyone and never seriously tested, so the story loses its tension. The name comes from a 1973 Star Trek fan fiction parody.
• HubrisExcessive pride or self-confidence that leads a character to defy limits, warnings or the gods, and that usually brings about their downfall. In Greek tragedy it is the classic flaw of the tragic hero.
• DeuteragonistThe second most important character in a story, after the protagonist, with goals and often an arc of their own. In Greek theater the word meant the second actor.
• Manic pixie dream girlA quirky, free-spirited female character who exists mainly to teach a gloomy male hero to enjoy life, with no goals or inner life of her own. Critic Nathan Rabin coined the term in 2007, reviewing Elizabethtown.