Creative writing is much like performing an act on stage. You’re making things up. The difference lies in the fact that in the former all you have is words weaved on a contrasting backdrop. You create a world of illusion for your reader through a tapestry of words, making an appeal to their five senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing.
While the process of creative writing, is not defined; it varies from writer to writer, there are a few techniques to give your writings a boost in terms of reader engagement.
One of them is Figure of Speech –
When we use words in a form other than their literal sense, just to create a rhythm in poetry or stylize our written work, we are trying to make it more interesting. Writers are often told to avoid commonplace phrases as they break the important illusionary world of the reader that the writing aims at creating.
For this reason, we many times deviate from stating the phrases literally and sprinkle some icing of literary devices on the dollops of our expression.
Today, we’ ll discuss two lesser used figures of speech –
Anaphora and Oxymorons.
Anaphora –
In grammar, it is the use of a word (Example, ‘He’ in the sentence – Ranvir ate Cadbury. He likes sweets.) which refers back to the word used earlier in the text, to avoid repetition.
In rhetoric – Anaphora is a technique where several phrases or verses begin with the same word or words. It has been used in popular literature as a figure of speech for its artistic effect.
Here are a few examples of Anaphora from popular literature –
- It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. – A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
- With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right. – Abraham Lincoln
- We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end… we shall never surrender. – Winston Churchill
The following are the benefits of Anaphora when used as a rhetorical device –
Anaphora works great for adding emphasis. For example, the above quote 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.”
suggests the intense opposite atmosphere prevailing in the two cities of London and Paris during the French Revolution. It is from an opening paragraph of his novel – A Tale of two Cities. By creating a steady rhythm while also beautifully expressing the dichotomy of situations through Anaphora (and paradox), this phrase still holds a great significance in study of literature and history.
Another amazing technique of figurative language (that does not translate literally) to clarify the description of the world around is – Oxymorons.
When two contradictory words are used together at one place, it forms an Oxymoron.
Derived from its Greek origin – ‘oxy’ meaning sharp and ‘moron’ meaning dull, it is used to clarify contrasting ideas. Unlike a paradox or irony, here the usage of specific words, opposite in meaning, do the trick of tickling the intellect of the reader as he searches for deeper layers in the message; something that he truly enjoys!
For example,
- Silent scream
- Awfully Pretty
Instead of using cliched words or phrases, oxymorons make the piece entertaining. It’s a quickie for grabbing attention.
However, it takes figurative skills and imagination to put two opposite words together to generate a desired emotionally contrast effect. Also, there are certain common oxymorons that we must strive to avoid as writers, like ‘Bittersweet relations’ or ‘act naturally’.
Take for example the oxymoron – ‘wise fool’. It is a common literary device (almost a trope) used in popular or classic narration (Shakespeare’s use of the term for clownish wise men) . What does it signify? How can a fool be wise? When a character in a narrative discovers wisdom by following a blind faith or a hopeless romance, something which even the illustrious intellects could not, through reason or logic, he can be paradoxically and dramatically termed as a ‘wise fool’.
A single word can also act as an oxymoron, like – “sleepwalk”, “cowboy” or even “oxymoron”!
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